Rob Ford ejected from council chambers

Mayor John Tory's efforts to impose a new level of decorum at city council continue to be tested by the former mayor.

Rob Ford, now an Etobicoke councillor, was ejected from the council chamber on Wednesday after he refused to take back comments directed at city staff. The incident, which temporarily shut down a meeting while Mr. Tory and others spoke to Mr. Ford, provided a glimpse of the kinds of challenges the new mayor can expect from the former mayor. It came on the same day Mr. Tory declared the process at city hall "badly broken," and told councillors changes are needed to make it better.

Wednesday's clash involved a staff proposal for Toronto to participate in Expo 2015 that did not include the $20,000 price or the fact that it would involve sending staff and a councillor to Milan.

Mr. Ford, accused staff of trying to "slip a free trip" by in the report, which did not include the usual financial-impact section.

Mr. Ford was incredulous when the city's general manager of economic development, Mike Williams, said "being silent" on the trip and the cost "was not intentional." Mr. Ford said he found that "very hard to believe," and refused to retract the statement or apologize when asked by Speaker Frances Nunziata to do so or to leave.

After the recess and a vote by council to support the speaker's request, Mr. Ford packed his papers and left.

Outside his office, Mr. Ford said he was not going to apologize for "sticking up for the taxpayers."

"I don't believe for one second that that was an oversight," he said, holding up the staff report that did not contain a dollar amount. "The taxpayers elected me to come down here and hold people accountable. That's what I'm doing and I get thrown out of council. There is something wrong with how city hall works. ... All the shenanigans come back when I'm not mayor."

Deputy mayor Denzil Minnan-Wong, one of three to vote against the Expo request, which passed after Mr. Ford's ejection, said the Etobicoke councillor had a point, but expressed it the wrong way.

"I think in order to get along, it would have been in Councillor Ford's best interest to make the apology and we all could have moved on," Mr. Minnan-Wong said.

That said, he predicted Mr. Ford is unlikely to change his behaviour. "I don't think a leopard is going to change its spots. Rob is who he is and he's going to do what he does."

A few hours later, Mr. Tory stood at the end of his second full council meeting to say more needs to be done to change the way city hall works.

"I do think the process in this place is badly broken," he told councillors. Spending hours debating items that have been discussed by committee or an hour setting the agenda "damages productivity and our reputation," he said.

"It's not working. Anybody watching this will say, what are they doing?" he told councillors. "I think we have some work to do to make this place work better."