A Scarborough councillor who says he was the target of a robocall attack launched by Mayor Rob Ford plans to complain to the city’s integrity commissioner and to a federal regulator.

Councillor Paul Ainslie said Ford made the automated calls to his Ward 43 constituents on Friday, the day he resigned from the mayor's executive committee and criticized him as “out of ideas.”

The calls, which denounced Ainslie for his Tuesday vote on Scarborough transit, featured a speaker who identified himself as Ford. They showed on recipients’ Caller ID as coming from 416-397-3673 (416-397-FORD), the number for the mayor's office.

“I thought we could have an amicable parting of ways and move on. To be attacked over the telephone to my residents with no opportunity to refute what he’s saying leaves a bad taste in my mouth,” Ainslie said.

He plans to take the issue to the city’s integrity commissioner and also the Canadian Radio-television Telecommunications Commission (CRTC), which has investigated complaints about robocalls in the past.

The Star obtained a recording of a call. Ford's spokesmen did not respond to a request to confirm that the man on the tape, who identifies himself as Ford and sounds like Ford, was indeed the mayor; the recording obtained by the Star plays at faster-than-normal speed at times.

The call begins with a statement lauding the approval of the Scarborough subway extension, then turns to criticizing Ainslie for voting against the plan.

“It was extremely, extremely unfortunate that your councillor, Paul Ainslie, was the only Scarborough councillor who did not listen to his constituents, and voted against the Scarborough subway. In fact, he led the charge against building subways in Scarborough; unfortunately it has led to his resignation from my executive committee. We are moving forward with a team who support the mandate Toronto taxpayers gave me,” said the call.

Ainslie, a Ford loyalist in 2011 and 2012, voted Tuesday against the subway extension Ford promoted, the latest in a series of departures from the administration line in 2013. He criticized Ford as “out of ideas” after resigning from the mayor's executive committee on Friday morning.

Ford reacted with visible anger to Ainslie's unexpected support for light rail on Tuesday, asking incredulously, “You're planning to run in the next election?” But he took the high road at council and on television on Friday, calling Ainslie a “good guy” and saying he had chosen not to get “nasty” over the split. Ford also privately shared friendly words following Ainslie’s resignation, the councillor said.

“Even the mayor said to me, ‘Oh buddy, we're still friends.’ Well, none of my friends, or people I consider friends, would be using robocalls and attacking me over the telephone less than three hours later,” said Ainslie.

Phil Wadsworth, a resident in Ainslie’s Ward 43, said he received the call around 6:30 p.m. Friday. Wadsworth, who supports Ainslie and his position on the Scarborough subway, said he was shocked to hear his councillor being criticized in the robocall.

“It seems kind of peculiar to start with,” said Wadsworth. “It’s not his place to phone me at my supper hour and leave me messages like that.”

Ford employed robocalls in September to invite residents to Ford Fest, his annual barbecue event. The calls are cheap, and they have become increasingly common in election campaigns, but it would be exceptionally rare for a mayor to use them to attempt to wound a sitting member of council over a policy decision — especially outside of an election period.

David Soknacki, a mayoral candidate and former councillor who Ainslie used to work for as an executive assistant, said he received a call at 8:08 p.m. He provided a picture to prove that, as he wrote on Twitter, the number of the caller was identified as the mayor's office number, 416-397-3673.

The city's code of conduct for members of council says city resources must be used for city business alone. Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, a resident who is an expert on council policy who launched challenges of Ford's campaign financial practices and apparent 2012 breach of conflict-of-interest rules, said, “The only rule Ford's robocall broke was being disrespectful to a councillor. Using a political office for non-election politics is OK.”

The code of conduct says “all members of council have a duty to treat members of the public, one another, and staff appropriately and without abuse, bullying or intimidation.”

Ainslie's council colleagues, including Scarborough councillor Michelle Berardinetti, swiftly criticized the calls. “Even though I support Scarborough subway, not appropriate for mayor to robocall Ward 43,” she wrote on Twitter.

Councillor Sarah Doucette, a Ford critic, called the move “despicable,” but said it didn’t come as a surprise.

“You don't expect it, but it doesn't surprise me. It's sad because I thought the mayor was meant to be our leader, to bring us together and build a better city, but all he's done is divide it,” she said.

In an interview Friday afternoon, Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor's brother, dismissed Ainslie's charge that the mayor's staffers used bullying tactics to try to keep councillors in line.

“That's his excuse for the next election, since he was the only councillor in Scarborough that voted against subways,” Doug Ford said. “If there's one thing the mayor's office doesn't do — you know (chief of staff) Earl (Provost), as these guys do, every councillor down there — the last thing Earl does, he may do a few things, but he's not a bully. (Ainslie) has to be held accountable by the people of Scarborough. It's very simple.”

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