Raise the Hammer

De Minimis Non Curat Lex.

I'm sure that Marin is good at his job but I just want to say that he is not so great at twitter. b = be, 2 = to? Its not 2001 anymore, and 140 character limits are not a good reason to write like you are using MSN messanger.

An elected councillor assaulting a journalist is hardly an extremely minor transgression.

Messanger.

Come on.

I don't understand why this isn't a bigger deal.

Councillor assaults man, man is a reporter - credentialed and legit, by all accounts - and is not charged, faces no repercussions, etc. Merulla is right to be after this guy - and should be calling for more than an investigation.

Last I checked, apologizing for an assault didn't grant a legal pardon.

See R. v. Juneja, 2009 ONCJ 572 (CanLII). (By the way, your Latin quote does exactly what you complain of. De minimus a well known legal doctrine and applies to criminal charges of assault.)

Comment edited by CharlesBall on 2015-03-02 11:41:12

Imagine for a moment that you could use "I had a long stressful day" as a rationale for assault? This city cracks me up.

Familiar with it, thrown out because it was at worst a veiled threat of the 'I know where you work' variety. Outrageous to equate it with a physical assault.

The case was a physical assault. Two doctors. One grabbed the others wrist and allegedly yanked it down with force trying to direct him in a certain direction. Sound similar to me.

Well that's not right, there was also a wrist grab. Question is whether Ferguson's grab and shove goes beyond "trifling".

This is all politics, now.

Clearly, Merulla wants Ferguson off the Police Services Board and replaced with his choice - Chad Collins - and is using this incident as a way to accomplish his goal.

No matter your feeling of the incident, this is now only a political machination with a little of Merulla's political theatre thrown in for good measure.

I'm not sure what the main issue here is.

Is it that Councillor Ferguson did something that was foolish, a rash physical reaction to a journalist?

Is it that Councillor Ferguson apologized to the journalist, the apology was accepted, end of story...except that it ain't?

Is it that Mr. Basse has a history of 'questionable' assessments, some of them based on very little investigation?

Is it that (because of illness, because of personal reasons) Mr. Basse's turnround time for each investigation is deplorable?

Is it that Mr. Basse's salary, given what's being supplied by him, is questionable?

Is it that incidents such as what we're seeing unfold by way of Councillor Merula's motion reveal tons about City Hall, not much of which is the stuff of which we can be proud?

Regardless of the answers to the questions I've posed, my belief is that these incidents turbo-charge Hamiltonians' lack of confidence in what goes on at 71 Main Street West. No matter how trivial the interlude. That is, we're living in a pretty toxic environment, even if we've become inured to it.

Sad, really, especially when, as Graham Crawford has suggested, you frame every motion, every vote, every decision according to Hamilton's vision. Clearly, this episode doesn't qualify as holding true to that vision.

Comment edited by ItJustIs on 2015-03-02 12:29:28

It is a very serious matter when a politician assaults a journalist. This has the effect of discouraging journalism and thereby reducing the transparency of our government.

Issues such as the apology can be considered as mitigating circumstances at sentencing.

Suppose that I myself had committed the exact same acts against a prominent politician, for example, Steven Harper. I would probably still be in jail.

Shouldn't the law apply equally to everyone?

Even if Sam is a pain, and his conversion to the NDP in 2003 after he was Di Ianni-ing on the absolute necessity of a through-a-park expressway [not convenient, Sam said, but vital, & in that very location], and even if many including local NDP supporters groaned and rolled eyes at his defection from his Liberals--and me too--still, he's our pain, even with his cleared police investigation, and it's necessary that SOMEBODY take on uncle Lloyd Ferguson, and add Collins too. Sometimes we don't care why so long as somebody calls out the ossified brain bullies on our council.

The central problem here is (1) you don't know the facts of the incident and (2) the doctrine is not applicable from outside to an investigatory context, it's at a minimum for investigators to determine.

I'd afford Basse's comments to the press no weight at all here as (1) they didn't form part of his report, so clearly he doesn't stand behind them (since they would have been relevant) and (2) his deficient report is proof positive of the incompetence of the man's decisionmaking at this juncture.

There has been a substantial public outcry over this matter, once the obviously inadequate report became public.

Never discount political factors, of course, but there are very serious policy issues at stake here.

I have to admit it doesn't sound to me like the confrontation was a big deal. If someone did something similar to you (say, grabbed your arm momentarily and told you to f-off) would you REALLY be calling the police and trying to file assault charges? I don't think any normal person would do that. You'd probably just say to yourself "what an ass-clown" and move on. I suspect this is escalating for political reasons and has now become just an excuse for score-settling.

That said, Ferguson's behaviour was embarrassing and the Basse report was a joke.

I don't disagree with the outcry, but Merulla is playing 100% politics.

He's not calling for Ferguson to be removed from the Governance Review Committee, which is the Committee that selects and manages the Integrity Commissioner position. He's also NOT calling for the immediate resignation/firing of the Integrity Commissioner for poor performance.

Wouldn't it make sense to have motion to have him removed from that Committee and end the retention of a lame duck IC?

imagine if Joey Coleman had done this to one of the politicians?
The double standard over there is wild. I appreciate that Joey accepted his apology, but that doesn't give the city the right to pretend nothing happened.

Comment edited by jason on 2015-03-02 20:50:32

K, here is the story. Coleman accepted the apology which to me says he doesn't want to press charges, and no physical harm was done here. This is a summary assault at best carrying up to a $5,000 fine and 6 months of jail time that no Judge is going to lay down on a well known, public figure who is active in the community and does countless charity events. More then likely result in a absolute discharge, so the entire criminal charges angle is nothing but a media exercise. Frankly, this kind of thing doesn't belong in the courts. It's the kind of crap, that's on par with weed possession that clogs our court system and lets real criminals get away because of a lack of speedy trial.

Now, I'm not saying Merulla is wholly in the wrong here, as if council won't act on this like it should, he's using the only other tool at his disposal to see Ferguson pay somewhat for his actions. It's just he's using an auger to dig out a weed on the lawn of our city. Do I think Ferguson should be punished in some form? Yes. Does the rest of the city agree? I'd like to think so, yes. Why council doesn't? Well that's what happens when you have career councillors, they start up their own old boys club. Frankly city council should have codified punishments for violating said code of conduct with mandatory minimum fines for violations, not just "punish at council's discretion" so Merulla doesn't have to use the nuclear option here. It doesn't, that's a problem, but that's another can of worms.

The real story here is the Integrity Commissioner's abject failure in his position and complete lack of objectivity. The purpose of the Integrity Commissioner is to advise memebers of council and the city bureaucracy the specifics of the code of conduct and to investigate at the direction of council or citizens of the city both members of council and the city bureaucracy for violations of their codes of conduct in an objective manner. It is also their job report their findings to council & the pubic, and recommend punishments for violations of the code of conduct to council. So from the get go, the position is toothless. The most it can do is say "This guy was wrong, council, you should punish him" and leave it to council to decide, which is a joke. Council should not be allowed to dictate punishments or lack thereof on their own, but moving on that the position is toothless to being with.

So given the Integrity Commissioner's role, toothless by design, what's the point of keeping Basse on the payroll? He has proven by his joke of a report that 1) He's incapable of investigating incidents, as much of his report relies on media accounts over ACTUAL accounts of witnesses from both sides. 2) Is incapable of being independent, as his report fails to even interview the victim in this case and indeed has a tone of blame towards to victim, citing emails after the fact in an attempt to discredit the victim who is making a fair request for the videos in question. 3) Is incapable of making any kind of recommendations for punishment on what is a clear violation of the code of conduct that even his poorly constructed report HAS to acknowledge occurred. 4) Seems incapable of advising council of city policy as he seems to lack the integrity himself to be objective in his own investigations, or lacks the basic understanding on how to do his job. IE: He's a waste of space and taxpayer dollars.

Comment edited by -Hammer- on 2015-03-03 00:38:55

Its shorter if u rite 'messnger'.

The problem is he isn't just an ass-clown, he is a city councillor and he did this to a journalist in council chambers. The city can't pretend that they are open to democratic engagement when elected officials can get away with this kind thing.

... and if it was rob ford who did it, the outcry would have pushed this onto the daily show. classic hamiltonian move to just shrug and say "who cares".

it's a town full of people who have given up on life and don't want anyone else to have any power to make their own lives better.

u mn msngr

"in council chambers" - I think this is the key message. It's one thing for two pals (or strangers) to get shove-y in a bar. But how will citizens feel about becoming engaged in the process of improving our city if it's OK for councillors to just shove them out of the way? If Ferguson can't handle the scrutiny of being a public official, he's welcome to give up the job to someone who has some integrity (and drive to make Hamilton better). What a coward.

Correction to someone's post re Sam: It happens that Sam M converted to the NDP in 2004, not 2003. He got real mad at the Liberals at the time of Liberal nomination for candidate to run in the Hamilton East Spring 2004 provncl by-election to replace Dom Agostino, who'd died. Dom's brother Ralph was annointed as Lib candidate. He was deep under water right away and got whomped. Life long Liberals voted en masse for Andrea H., NDP--landslide. The voter turnout for that by-election was better than for some ridings in general elections. Sam came out in support of Andrea--but he may have had a variety of axes to grind with the local Liberals. Let's check old Spec stories/columns; or let's just ask Sam! At best, he was at least publicly making a show of an ostensible break with the then-mayor Di Ianni--who is a flexible Liberal, about whom many long-time Libs in town said, in Fall 2003, in astonishment, "Larry who?!? running for what?!?" No, really, they did. And then he was charged & convicted on money stuff, breaking Ont Municipal Elections Act, and he wrote an essay instead of going to jail--sort of like Beaver Cleaver. And now Sam is Ward 4 for life.

rob ford has pushed lots of reporters. and he's had other people push reporters for him. google it.