Showing posts with label gary webster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gary webster. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Ford Gets His Way

The blowt king, aided and abetted by his minions, has gotten his way.

Toronto is the poorer for it.

The Arrogant and The Obsequious

For those both fascinated and repelled by the abuse of power happening in Toronto, and the obsequious who make possible that abuse, I highly recommend today's column by Royson James, who speculates on the qualities of pusillanimous appeasement that will be required in Gary Webster's replacement.

Monday, February 20, 2012

The Dark Ford Forces Prepare


Were I given to rhetorical flourishes, which of course I am not, I might refer to the gathering tomorrow of Mayor Ford and his good soldiers as a mini-Wannsee Conference as they prepare their plan to dispatch not just TTC head Gary Webster but up to five TTC executives.

Says good soldier/Ford loyalist/TTC commissioner Frank Di Giorgio:

“We will discuss whether removing some managers — and it may in fact be three, four, five — we may discuss whether that’s the way to go,” ...“We’re trying to eliminate some of the problems that surfaced over the last month that should not have surfaced and need not have surfaced.”

In his quest for a final solution to the vexing problem of bureaucrats thinking independently as they search for the best transit options for Toronto, Di Giorgio said the responsibility of the city’s bureaucracy is to follow the will of the mayor and achieve the objectives set out by his mandate, which TTC managers have failed to do.

Put another way, I suppose that grovelling obeisance has suddenly become the prime qualification for employment in the upper echelons of the TTC under the Ford regime. Next stop? Fealty oaths, anyone?

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Torontonians Rising to the Challenge Presented by Mayor Ford's Fascism

Although I don't live in Toronto, I am riveted to and outraged by stories of those who abuse their power. As discussed in my previous post, that is precisely what is transpiring in 'the big smoke' under the direction of Rob Ford and his acolytes.

Fortunately, however, people are fighting back. Despite the fact that the meeting to unjustly fire Gary Webster will take place behind closed doors, citizens are planning to show up at City Hall:

Community organizer Dave Meslin, who is part of one group calling on people to attend the meeting, said the frustration and anger among transit riders on Facebook and Twitter is “unlike anything I’ve seen before.”

“That’s because this goes beyond a simple debate about policy,” Meslin said. “This is now a debate about procedure, about governance, and about whether the City of Toronto uses evidence or ideology to make decisions.”

Meslin said firing Webster will create “a climate of fear” among the city’s senior staff, which “will effectively silence all our experts across the city.”


For those who live in Toronto and want more information, Meslin has started a Facebook page.

Good luck to all people who believe in the primacy of reason over ideology.

Fascism Spreads To Toronto


Although Canada will likely never see executions for wrong-thinking, the career equivalent of such is very much evident in Toronto, under the benighted 'leadership' of Rob Ford and his cabal of retrogressive 'thinkers' and Ford loyalists (aka TTC Commissioners Norm Kelly, Vince Crisanti, Frank Di Giorgio, Denzil Minnan-Wong and Cesar Palacio).

A special meeting of the commission has been called to discuss one thing: the fate of TTC general manager Gary Webster, expected to result in his termination. His 'crime'? Refusing to surrender his integrity by endorsing Ford's obsession with subway extensions that Toronto neither needs nor can afford. Webster's termination will send a strong message that the job requirement for city staff members has changed from that of offering the best and most impartial advice on the issues to being sycophantic toadies doing the bidding of their political masters.

For a full accounting of the situation, I highly recommend today's editorial in The Star.

How the aforementioned councillors can even pretend to be representing the best interests of their constituents instead of their own venal political ambitions is beyond me, but like another man of integrity, Munir Sheik, I suspect people will remember Gary Webster long after the people acting like fascist thugs are political dust.