Toronto Coun. Rob Ford is refusing to apologize for comments he made during Wednesday’s council meeting that eventually got him kicked out of the chamber.
Ford made the comments during a debate about whether the city should send a delegation to the upcoming Expo 2015 in Milan. The Ward 2 councillor accused the head of Toronto’s Economic Development Department Michael Williams of deliberately excluding the $20,000 price tag it would cost attend the event.
"This is a really, really touchy issue, and I respect you but to say this wasn’t intentional, that’s very hard to believe," Ford told council Wednesday afternoon.
Ford was asked to retract his statement and apologize three times by Speaker Frances Nunziata.
Ford refused to apologize, saying, "That's my personal opinion."
Council then voted 29-4 to uphold Nunziata’s ruling to have Ford removed. Only Councillors Maria Augimeri, John Campbell, Giorgio Mammaliti and Ford voted against the ruling.
"Councillor Ford addressed the staff as lying and you don’t treat staff that way," Nunziata said following the vote.
Coun. Giorgio Mammoliti, who had challenged Nunziata's ruling, came to Ford's defence, before walking out of the chamber himself.
"I'm standing up in defence of our voice as individuals in this place," Mammoliti told council. "I believe he’s being kicked for an opinion and I’ll be walking out."
But according to Deputy Mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, while Ford may have been correct in highlighting the $20,000 expense, his comments only created a sideshow that distracted from the real issue.
"It wasn't really that transparent about money being spent. I raised the issue, and Coun. Ford got quite upset about it. I think because he got upset about it, he may have chosen some fairly uncomplimentary language in the view of the chair," Minnan-Wong said after the vote.
Council voted in the end to send a delegation to Italy for Expo 2015.
Meanwhile, Ford says he plans on filing a letter to the city's clerk office over Wednesday’s incident.
With a report from CTV Toronto's Heather Wright
