Admin

November 4, 2012

The audits of Mayor Rob Ford and Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti were conducted over the spring and summer. The audit of Mayor Ford’s campaign is expected to be released in November, while the audit of Councillor Mammoliti’s campaign is expected later in the fall or in early-winter.

Candidate Peter Li Preti lost his appeal of an interlocutory motion earlier in the summer. Throughout the fall, counsel for Li Preti, the Compliance Audit Committee of the City of Toronto and Fair Elections Toronto filed considerable submissions and conducted various depositions in preparation for the November 5, 2012 hearing of Li Preti’s appeal of the Compliance Audit Committee’s decision to order an audit of his campaign. Through a deposition of Li Preti, Fair Elections Toronto exposed significant factual discrepancies in Li Preti’s sworn affidavits and other documents supporting his application for appeal.

The Li Preti appeal will be heard at Old City Hall beginning at 9:30 A.M. on Monday, November 5, 2012.

Statement on Mayor Ford Abandoning His Audit Appeal

Admin

April 5, 2012

Fair Elections Toronto is pleased that Mayor Ford has withdrawn his appeal of the order to audit his election campaign.

While Mayor Ford’s decision to suspend his appeal is commendable, we note that it comes almost a full year after an audit was ordered and on the heels of multiple judgements in other Ontario courts that made it abundantly clear that no court would side with the legal arguments advanced by the mayor to oppose an audit.

We hope that this indicates the beginning of Mayor Ford’s full cooperation with the audit process, including his willingness to provide access to any record deemed necessary by the auditor that is within his personal control, including those of the Rob Ford for Mayor Campaign, Deco Labels and Tags, and Doug Ford Holdings, as well as those related to his duties at the City of Toronto.

As the City of Toronto has already retained an auditor, Fair Elections Toronto expects that an audit will commence within a matter of weeks.

Fair Elections Toronto would also like to express its gratitude to our legal team of Rob Centa, Nini Jones and Jodi Martin at Paliare Roland LLP for their determined effort to zealously guard the procedural loopholes that Mayor Ford attempted to exploit throughout his appeal.

Rob Ford’s bid to delay audit hearing rejected by judge

Admin

March 28, 2012

This morning, a judge denied Mayor Rob Ford’s eleventh-hour request to delay a hearing for eight months that will determine whether Ford will face an audit of his election campaign finances.

Had Ford been granted a delay it would have almost certainly allowed him to avoid an audit until after the next election, and would compromise the ability to prosecute Ford if the audit were to have found he broke election rules due to strict time limits in the Municipal Elections Act.

“We are pleased that a judge saw through Mayor Ford’s transparent attempt to delay a decision on whether he will face an audit,” said Fair Elections Toronto spokesperson Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler. “It’s time the mayor stopped playing costly legal games with taxpayers’ money and opened his books to the auditors.”

Fair Elections Toronto’s opposition to Ford’s delay was supported by the City of Toronto, whose lawyer told the court, “it is not in the public interest” to allow Ford to further delay a decision on whether an audit will be conducted.

But following this morning’s appearance at Old City Hall court, Ford’s lawyer warned that he is still considering other legal avenues to create further delays ahead of the April 16-18 hearing on the audit.

Fair Elections Toronto will continue to fight any unreasonable delay to justice to ensure that any politician who breaks municipal election laws is held accountable for their actions.

Mayor Ford loses in court

Admin

February 24, 2012

A Toronto judge has denied Mayor Rob Ford’s request for a new trial to decide whether he will undergo the forensic audit of his election campaign expenses that was ordered by a City Hall tribunal last year.

In January, Ford sent a team of lawyers to Old City Hall to argue that the City of Toronto’s Compliance Audit Committee decision should be thrown out and the process started from scratch at the Ontario Court of Justice. Citing cases from the Supreme Court of Canada, Mr. Justice Richard D. Schneider rejected all of Ford’s arguments.

“Today’s decision makes it clear that Ford never had a legal leg to stand on,” said Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, spokesperson for Fair Elections Toronto, the group that is seeking the audit of Ford’s campaign. “The more this goes on, the clearer it is that all Ford wants to do is delay, delay, delay.”

On May 26, 2011, Ford told the Toronto Sun, “I have nothing to hide so let them audit all they want.” Nine months later, Ford continues to refuse to open his books to independent auditors.

Fair Elections Toronto urges Ford to live up to his promise and not appeal Justice Schneider’s decision. Should Ford appeal, the process could be delayed by a full year, making it increasingly unlikely that Torontonians will know if their mayor broke the rules to get elected when they next go to the polls in 2014.

Fair Elections Toronto was skillfully represented by Robert Centa, a partner at Paliare Roland LLP who praised the decision as “thoughtful and reasonable.” “This should quickly become the leading case on the proper scope of compliance audit appeals,” Centa added.

Mayor’s legal team files compliance audit court documents

Admin

December 23, 2011

Mayor Rob Ford’s legal team has filed a motion in the Ontario Court of Justice relating to its appeal of the May 2011 decision to order an audit on Ford’s election campaign finances. Ford’s lawyers are seeking to have the decision of the Compliance Audit Committee discounted entirely by the court and the opportunity to introduce new evidence.

Opposing Ford’s motion are Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Max Reed, the two citizens who brought the successful application for an audit of Ford to the Compliance Audit Committee. While these citizens will present their full response to Ford’s motion in January, Chaleff-Freudenthaler offered the following comments:

“In May, the Compliance Audit Committee made a lawful decision based on the overwhelming evidence that was presented to it showing reasonable grounds for an audit of Rob Ford’s election campaign. At that time, Ford had a chance to present all the evidence he desired to rebut our allegations but chose not to. In our view, there is no reason for a court to undermine the Compliance Audit Committee.”

A December 21 Ontario Court of Justice decision (Dickerson v. City of Pickering) found that no new evidence should be allowed in an appeal of a Compliance Audit Committee decision. The Supreme Court of Canada has found similarly in more than one dozen cases that pertain to a wide range of tribunals that are similar to the Compliance Audit Committee.

Court date set for Rob Ford

Admin

September 23, 2011

A judge is set to decide next April whether Mayor Rob Ford will face an audit of his election expenses.

After a City Hall tribunal determined that Ford should face an audit of his 2010 election expenses Ford appealed the decision to court. The audit was originally ordered on May 13, 2011 when citizens Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Max Reed identified a series of irregularities in Ford’s financial statements, including what appears to be an improper loan to Ford’s campaign from Ford’s family company, Doug Ford Holdings Inc, as well as the campaign spending more than its legal spending limit.

A court date is now set for April 16-18, 2012. A series of motions with regard to the scope of the appeal will be heard later this fall on a date to be determined by the court. The case will be heard by the Ontario Court of Justice at Old City Hall.

“Rob Ford has said repeatedly that he has nothing to hide but his actions speak louder than his words,” said Chaleff-Freudenthaler. “If Ford really has nothing to hide, he will drop this appeal and save taxpayers the money it will cost the City to defend it.”

“Saddling taxpayers with unnecessary legal bills while threatening massive service cuts is nothing short of cruel.”

If found guilty, Ford could be removed from office.

Citizens file eight new audit requests, four councillors

Admin

June 23, 2011

A group calling itself Fair Elections Toronto has filed eight compliance audit requests on candidates who ran in the 2010 municipal election, four of whom are sitting councillors. Alleging a variety of offenses related to bending fund-raising rules and accepting corporate or union donations, the citizen group is seeking to hold politicians to account for their actions, raise awareness of the culture of non-compliance with municipal election finance laws, and improve the system by reforming those laws.

The candidates who are alleged to have broken election laws are: Jon Burnside (Ward 26, Don Valley West), Councillor Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), Abdi Hashised (Ward 11, York South-Weston), Peter Li Preti (Ward 8, York West), Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti (Ward 7, York West), Councillor James Pasternak (Ward 10), Councillor Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) and Peter Youngren (Ward 34, Don Valley East).

“Holding politicians accountable to election laws is a responsibility that has unfortunately been downloaded to the citizenry,” said Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, Fair Elections Toronto spokesperson, and one of five people who filed the eight applications. “With the limited resources we have, we targeted all of the councillors we believe broke the law to gain a material advantage over their opponents. We also requested audits of all candidates we allege accepted corporate or union donations.”

“Election finance laws are a vital part of our democracy. We want to give them some real teeth.”

Among the most serious allegations in the eight audit applications:

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti exceeded his spending limit by more than 50% by improperly deeming an unnamed and undated event with a cost of more than $17,000 a fund-raising function, as defined in law.
Based on information from his own filings, it is alleged that former councillor Peter Li Preti accepted 32 corporate donations cumulatively worth more than $14,000.
Councillor Michael Thompson exceeded his spending limit by more than 33% as a result of claiming a $15,000 phone solicitation campaign was a fund-raising function, as defined in law, and improperly stated that it occurred on one specific date when in fact it was a six-month campaign.

Applications were filed by: Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler (Burnside, Hashised, Li Preti and Youngren), Robert Janiga (Ford), Justin Stasyshyn (Thompson), Rami Tabello (Pasternak) and Jayme Turney (Mammoliti).

Rob Ford violated municipal campaign finance laws, alleges audit request

Admin

May 4, 2011

An audit request that will be filed today with the City of Toronto’s Compliance Audit Committee alleges that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford violated municipal campaign finance laws. If found in violation of these laws, Mayor Ford could face fines of up to $ 25,000 and removal from office.

In their 17-page audit request, Toronto residents Max Reed and Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler allege that Mayor Ford committed the following violations:

Improperly paid for campaign expenses;
Wrongly borrowed money from his family’s holding company;
Exceeded the expenditure limit;
Accepted corporate contributions.

“Our audit request raises serious allegations of violations of the Municipal Elections Act. An audit is necessary to ensure that all the rules were followed,” said Max Reed, a recent graduate of McGill University’s law school.

“Free and fair elections require all candidates, especially the Mayor, to fully comply with all campaign finance regulations,” added Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, a lifelong Toronto resident and observer of municipal politics. “If these violations prove to be true, the Mayor will have been elected on an uneven playing field.”
The audit request has been endorsed by Robert Macdermid, professor of political science at York University. He is Canada’s leading expert on Ontario’s municipal campaign finance laws.

“Mr. Reed and Mr. Chaleff-Freudenthaler raise well-supported questions that Mayor Ford may not have strictly adhered to the Municipal Elections Act. I believe that the Compliance Audit Committee should treat their request seriously and order an audit,” said Professor Macdermid.

The Compliance Audit Committee will consider the audit request at its meeting on Friday. Any single violation of the Municipal Elections Act may be punishable by a fine of up to $ 25,000 and/or removal from office.