Kristyn Wong-Tam's open letter to Rob Ford via Twitter
There was some serious drama at City Hall last night when councillor Giorgio Mammoliti refused to allow councillors Janet Davis and Kristyn Wong-Tam to attend a meeting of the Childcare Task Force. Although it's not completely clear what the motivation for this move was, Wong-Tam notes that the mayor's staff said the order to exclude the councillors came from Rob Ford himself. Frustrated with the situation, the Ward 27 councillor decided to write an open letter to the mayor about what went down.
It's not the first time she's adopted this strategy to make a point, but this time she did so on Twitter, which may ultimately prove quite savvy in getting her message out there. As of midnight, I had already spotted a number of Storify threads of the "letter" in addition to the one that's embedded below.
I won't rehash the narrative (you can read it below), but it should be noted that despite how undemocratic the closed-door meeting may or may not have been, it's doubtful that it violated any laws related to proper conduct at city hall. Although Wong-Tam points out that the City of Toronto Act stipulates that all board and committee meetings should be open, without seeing the names of those involved, I suspect that the Childcare Task Force isn't composed of the 50 per cent of council or city board members required for it to fall under this rule.
Nevertheless, as Wong-Tam points out below, kicking councillors out of meetings is anything but an example of the open and transparent government Rob Ford has repeatedly said he supports. Check out the play-by-play below and let us know what you think in the comments.
Join the conversation Load comments