At least 100 Toronto residents have filed a complaint to the city over this year's Ford Fest, the Ford family's annual barbecue, saying they are concerned the bash will involve some campaigning.
This year's event will take place on Friday in Thomson Memorial Park in Scarborough. Unlike previous years, Friday’s barbecue will be booze free after the province turned down the organizers' application for a liquor licence. Rob Ford will also not be allowed to campaign during the event.
Three city park staff and three by-law enforcement officers will be in attendance to ensure Ford’s campaign entourage -- which includes the mayor’s brother Coun. Doug Ford -- adhere to those rules.
Ford has previously said that the barbecue is not about politics. He says the event is a tradition, and that it’s his family’s way of "giving back" to the residents of Toronto.
"My dad instilled that (value) in us and we've been doing it since 1995 and we’re going to continue to do it," Ford told CTV Toronto on Thursday.
But despite Ford's promise that he will not be campaigning on Friday, some Toronto residents are not convinced that barbecue will be politics free.
Jeffrey Hull recently wrote a letter to the city to voice his concern about the bash.
"Simply because a political candidate writes down on their application that their event is not political does not make it so," Hull said in his letter dated July 22.
He said he would have made the same complaint about Ford's rivals Olivia Chow or John Tory if they had decided to hold a similar type of event on city-owned property.
"I feel that a campaign that is as blatantly political as Rob Ford's, one that has divided the city and polarized everyone has no place on public land," Hull said on Thursday.
Previous Ford Fests, including those that have taken place during municipal election years, were held at the Ford family’s home in Etobicoke.
According to the city’s election rules, "no permits, licenses, leases, or any other agreement for the use of City of Toronto facilities, including civic squares and parks, will be issued for the use or promotion of a particular candidate, political party, registrant or a supporter of question on a ballot during an election."
On Tuesday, some Toronto residents said they received robocolls about the event. An invitation to Ford Fest was also found on the mayor’s campaign website earlier this week.
The city has said that the rules for Ford Fest regarding campaigning only apply to the event itself, and not leading up to it.
The city also said that any overtime cost associated with having parks and by-law staff at Ford Fest will be billed back to the mayor.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Natalie Johnson
