A newly released integrity report says former Toronto mayor John Tory failed to disclose his romantic relationship with an underling to the required players at City Hall and did not arrange his private affairs in a manner that ensured “public confidence” in him as the city’s leader.
The 120-page report from integrity commissioner Jonathan Batty, which took eight months to produce, also determined that Tory used his influence (improperly) when he voted on Toronto’s Bid for the FIFA World Cup while his paramour worked at the MLSE – the outfit which would be providing “exclusive services” at the World Cup.
Batty’s report says Tory’s gal pal was given a permanent position with MLSE shortly after the vote.
While Tory claimed he had no conflict of interest, Batty concludes that “Mr. Tory, as a special friend and mentor of Ms. A, had to have known that voting on these matters would be of direct benefit to Ms. A’s future at MLSE.”
But then Tory forever denied conflicts over the years, most especially continuing to sit on the Rogers board while serving as mayor.
That is the upshot of the three-year on-again, off-again relationship between Tory and a staffer in his office, 38 years his junior. While her name was released months ago, Batty goes out of his way to protect her privacy by calling her Ms. A.
In my view, the integrity commissioner is far too easy on Tory, considering there was power imbalance between the two players in this City Hall soap opera, that the on-again, off-again relationship was kept secret for nearly three years, that there were conflicts all over the place and that it occurred during the pandemic when Tory’s eye needed to be on the ball.
The report speaks to Tory’s lack of judgment, his sense of entitlement, his perpetual conflicts of interest and the extreme incestuousness between Tory and the political class in Toronto.
Batty claims that Ms. A experienced “trauma” from the media attention and that he conducted his investigation in a “trauma-informed” manner (whatever that means).
Still I can’t feel sorry for Tory’s paramour.
She was a grown woman who made an informed decision to pursue a married man 38 years her senior. She got herself a prize job as a result.
According to the report, Ms. A. began working for the mayor in January of 2018 and left in April 2021 to work with the Scarborough Health Foundation, a job that gave her a foot in the door to MLSE.
In January 2020, when Tory learned Ms. A. had broken up with her boyfriend, he invited her to dinner because “he felt sorry” that she was alone on her birthday.
Tory indicated it was not unusual to extend such an invitation because he was “alone a lot of time in the winter” and looking for people to be with instead of just going home.
I don’t know about anyone else but I never agreed to have dinner alone with a male boss during my nearly 40-year career. But this speaks to Tory’s narcissism.
Ms. A joined Tory on two official trips prior to the pandemic – one in March of 2020.
I wrote about that trip, indicating he snuck off to London when COVID lockdowns were already starting to occur.
In the story I mentioned Ms. A’s name as part of the tour.
I experienced tremendous pushback from the mayor’s office for exposing his trip. Tory even did an interview on a friendly radio station claiming I was inaccurate and lacked integrity.
That notwithstanding, the integrity report indicates that Ms. A was not only on the trip but invited Tory to join her for dinner on March 9, while there, and they met in a restaurant outside their hotel.
She claimed it was “entirely professional.”
Again I ask who eats dinner alone with a married boss 38 years one’s senior without a motive in mind.
When the lockdowns came about, Ms. A contended that she believed Tory spent time holed up in Toronto and his wife at their family cottage because they were “estranged and lived separate lives.”
Tory denied this.
Nevertheless, as the demands on Tory increased, Batty’s report indicates that he came to “welcome emotional support” from Ms. A and to express “romantic affection” towards her.
The report says that Tory became “her best friend” and a “close mentor” while she became a “calming presence” in his life.
“When they spent personal time together, they went on walks and watched sports on TV…they talked politics… they exchanged gifts. Mr. Tory would buy Ms. A flowers…Ms. A. would often cook or order dinner online,” the report says.
Tory even met members of her family and visited her in her hometown after the 2022 municipal election.
They confirmed that while Tory was romantically interested in Ms. A., they shared “limited physical contact” and their relationship was “not exclusive.” Ms A also went out on dates arranged through dating apps.
Although Ms. A. was spun as Tory’s “work daughter,” his wife Barbara Hackett began to see signs in early August 2020 of a personal relationship. Tory told his wife he would end it and wrote Ms. A had an email to that effect, the report says.
But it quickly reignited – and continued to ebb and flow over three years.
When it originally reignited, Navigator consultant and former staffer to Tory Amanda Galbraith was called in to deal with “communications issues” between Tory and his wife.
According to the report, Galbraith counselled Tory to continue “business as usual” (in other words hide the affair) and help Ms. A. with future career possibilities. She also offered Tory’s paramour “woman-to-woman” assurance.
I guess this is what we call a John Tory version of a three-way.
It shows how bizarrely incestuous the people involved in this soap opera are. Galbraith was a curious choice given that she had protected Tory for many years and only perpetuated the secrecy. She helped facilitate a job for Ms. A. outside the mayor’s office – getting rid of one problem, it seems.
The report also says Tory was questioned at length about why he ran for another term in 2022, given the spectre of his relationship with Ms. A becoming public.
He said he continued on because he believed “there was unfinished business coming out of the pandemic” and was the best choice to get those things done because of his experience and political connections.
Yet again this speaks to his narcissism and complete lack of judgment.
The rest is well-documented.
Tory resigned in February of this year leaving the city in a deteriorated state, $1.6-billion in the hole and costing Toronto taxpayers a $13-million by-election.
He also gave us socialist Olivia Chow as our current mayor, someone who is financially illiterate and totally unable to handle the tremendous issues facing Toronto.
The city may take years to recover.
His romantic entanglement and his attempts to hide his indiscretions had to have distracted him from the business of running a city. How could he keep his eye on the business at hand? For that he should be resoundingly condemned.
Never mind that he completely betrayed the public trust.
Let us never forget that while he was ordering others to isolate, he was running around chasing a young woman 38 years his junior.
It was hubris at its finest.
