Mayor John Tory's Toronto

[Towered]

Councillor Bravo has what seems like a pretty reasonable proposal to set up spaces for those that need shelter by not increasing the police budget as significantly and doing a pretty good job dealing with these shocked pikachu councillors.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626018490233589766

This podcast is going to be a bit of a headache for arguments for maximal police resources.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626020007665606657

Brad Bradford pretending that a somewhat less significant budget increase is "defunding the police" is particularly dishonest. Surely he knows that it's not defunding, but I guess he's decided he's playing for those anti-woke votes now!

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626020756625686528

So this councillor wants to reduce washroom winterization. Great. I guess she picked that as a thing because only downtown socialists etc. need to go to the washroom and they don't deserve to be able to.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626023911841202177

https://twitter.com/x/status/1626024258529886209

Crawford teetering on the brink of an epiphany that the police don't necessarily make good choices with their resources and have no accountability...

Nice to have some councillors who challenge things, don't take the nonsense, and who push forward meaningful proposals to help.

So I have questions...

1) Why does the TPS have a podcast? What purpose does it serve?

2) How is it possible that 2 podcasts can cost close to 900K (as per Bravo's statement)? What is the breakdown of that?

3) Does the TPS seriously have an official TikTok account???

 

[Towered]

Once in a while he can really hit it out of the park on the council floor, but he’s also a vindictive smart ass, and yes, horrible on things like Parkside Drive/High Park or intensification of his ward.

His rant yesterday was spot on, and he had some fantastic ones during the Rob Ford era, but in the decade between, what's he really done? He just seems like another smarmy, entrenched councilor who's many years past his due date. Parkdale deserves fresh local leadership.

 

[picard102]

1) Why does the TPS have a podcast? What purpose does it serve?

Outreach and recruitment, same as any other podcast really.

2) How is it possible that 2 podcasts can cost close to 900K (as per Bravo's statement)? What is the breakdown of that?

The podcast was $90k. Which isn't an insane amount to have a team that works on your podcast for you.
They are paying $83k a year now for the next 3 years. $900k is a fabrication.

3) Does the TPS seriously have an official TikTok account???

Yes, any organization looking to engage with an under 30 audience has a tiktok presence.

 

[Fresco]

Its official

 

[Northern Light]

They are paying $83k a year now for the next 3 years. $900k is a fabrication.

We need to be clear here, at no point did Bravo say that the podcasts cost 900k.

In response to a question over whether the reallocation of 900k from the police budget would impact response times, she gave that as an example, discussing Corporate Communications overall, and likewise mentioning TikTok as one among many places room could be found in the budget to absorb such a reallocation without adversely impacting front-line service.

She could just as have easily talked about the travel budget, the number of administrative, civilian employees, or the amount budgeted for overtime, a great deal of which comes from poor scheduling practices by TPS.

Further, this is not 900k from the existing budget, it would have been a 900k reduction in a significant increase.

900k, when factoring in wages, benefits, equipment and misc. costs is roughly 6 officers.

The proposed hiring as a result of the increase this year (both net new positions and vacancies filled) was 200. So this would have potentially reduced that, had no money been found in the categories I outlined above, to 194.

 

[W. K. Lis]

Its official

John Tory is a lawyer and Queen's King's Counsel. Does not need the services of an Employment Lawyer. He would have checked with other lawyers for their suggestions on what his has to do and not do. Should likely be getting a good severance and lifetime retiree benefits (IF he has least nine years of “credited pension service”). Will he still be "technically" mayor until the new mayor is sworn in? See link.

 

[PinkLucy]

John Tory is a lawyer and Queen's King's Counsel. Does not need the services of an Employment Lawyer. He would have checked what his has to do and not do. Should likely be getting a good severance and lifetime retiree benefits.

He wasn't an employment lawyer and hasn't worked as a lawyer for years. Different areas of law require different skills and knowledge. Many lawyers hire other lawyers for specific needs.

 

[evandyk]

In any event, he uses Faskens, which has some of the country's premiere defamation *and* employment lawyers.

 

[Fresco]

John Tory is a lawyer and Queen's King's Counsel. Does not need the services of an Employment Lawyer. He would have checked with other lawyers for their suggestions on what his has to do and not do. Should likely be getting a good severance and lifetime retiree benefits (IF he has least nine years of “credited pension service”). Will he still be "technically" mayor until the new mayor is sworn in? See link.

Tory has a net worth of $50 million if this website is correct: https://www.celebritynetworth.com/richest-businessmen/lawyers/john-tory-net-worth/

A pension would be nice, but I think he can survive without one

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Care to list these meaningful changes? I'm very curious because I'm coming up empty handed.

EDIT: Nevermind. I see that others have already rightfully exposed your paper-thin argument.

One of the few that he did spent political capital on was for the King Street Transit Pilot. Miller wasn't able to get it done (but then again I suspect the locals were more hostile towards it at the time).

AoD

 

[lenaitch]

John Tory is a lawyer and Queen's King's Counsel. Does not need the services of an Employment Lawyer. He would have checked with other lawyers for their suggestions on what his has to do and not do. Should likely be getting a good severance and lifetime retiree benefits (IF he has least nine years of “credited pension service”). Will he still be "technically" mayor until the new mayor is sworn in? See link.

I'm missing where that post refers to the need for an employment lawyer. Typically, ne only needs the assistance of a lawyer if the termination needs negotiation or if there is some dispute of the terms.

Regardless, there is an old saying the anyone who represents themselves has a fool for a client. Lawyers hire other lawyers all the time in order to obtain independent legal advice. Tory is a member of the LSO but he is listed as 'non practicing' which means, among other things, he lacks mandatory liability insurance.

 

[W. K. Lis]

I'm missing where that post refers to the need for an employment lawyer. Typically, ne only needs the assistance of a lawyer if the termination needs negotiation or if there is some dispute of the terms.

Regardless, there is an old saying the anyone who represents themselves has a fool for a client. Lawyers hire other lawyers all the time in order to obtain independent legal advice. Tory is a member of the LSO but he is listed as 'non practicing' which means, among other things, he lacks mandatory liability insurance.

Can't sue himself.

 

[Towered]

Another innocent TTC rider got randomly stabbed in the face with a broken bottle by some nutcase yesterday.

 

[evandyk]

I have noticed a lot more fare inspectors riding streetcars but not really checking fares. I guess it's their plan for a visible presence.

 

[EagleEye]

Will Tory's staff lose their jobs now that he's gone?