Toronto’s integrity commissioner says Councillor Doug Ford violated council’s code of conduct when he used “intimidating language” toward an activist at City Hall in July.

The integrity commissioner, Janet Leiper, says Ford should formally apologize. In an interview, Ford angrily said he has no plans to do so —asserting, without evidence, that the activist made his complaint on behalf of city unions.

“This is the left-wing union group trying to track us down. They’ll do anything to take us down. It’s all a bunch of crap and nonsense as far as I’m concerned,” Ford said.

Leiper released her report on the confrontation on Wednesday, the same day she released a separate report chiding Mayor Rob Ford, Doug Ford’s brother, for failing to provide proof that he complied with a 2010 council order to repay lobbyists whose charitable donations he improperly solicited.

Leiper’s Doug Ford report validates the account of Adam Chaleff-Freudenthaler, a left-leaning activist and former library board member who challenged the campaign financial statements of both Fords in 2011.

“The preamble of the code of conduct states that ‘the public is entitled to expect the highest standards of conduct from the members it elects to local government.’ In behaving as he did during this incident, Councillor Ford departed from that standard,” Leiper wrote.

The confrontation occurred the week before the city’s compliance audit committee was to consider a request for an audit of Doug Ford’s campaign financial statements that was filed by Chaleff-Freudenthaler’s group Fair Elections Toronto.

In his complaint, Chaleff-Freudenthaler wrote that Doug Ford “accosted” him outside the council chamber. Speaking in an “aggressive tone,” Chaleff-Freudenthaler wrote, Ford told him to be “prepared” for something Ford didn't identify.

Chaleff-Freudenthaler wrote that he sought to “de-escalate the situation” by declining to “engage” with Ford, but that Ford continued to speak threateningly. Eventually, Chaleff-Freudenthaler wrote, Ford told him that he “should be careful because ‘what goes around comes around.’”

Chaleff-Freudenthaler wrote: “Following those words, I asked Councillor Ford if he was threatening me. He then nervously turned around and walked away.”

Chaleff-Freudenthaler told Leiper he was willing to drop his complaint if Ford apologized. But, in November, Ford wrote only: “I believe there was a misunderstanding and apologize if you took anything I said the wrong way." This was unsatisfactory to both Chaleff-Freudenthaler and Leiper.

“This matter could have been resolved informally, with an apology. The apology proffered by Councillor Ford was not accepted because it did not truly apologize for his conduct,” Leiper wrote.

Ford said angrily: “I already did apologize. And they didn’t want it. So they want me to do back flips. I did absolutely nothing, nothing wrong, in my mind ... all I said is, ‘Buddy, you gotta get your facts straight,’ and ‘What comes around goes around.’ If people think that’s bad, well, so be it.”

The compliance audit committee endorsed Chaleff-Freudenthaler’s request for an audit of Rob Ford’s campaign books. It dismissed his group’s request for an audit of Doug Ford’s.

“What I should be doing is going after him, for legal bills,” Doug Ford said.

Leiper can only make recommendations; council will decide what sanction, if any, to impose. Chaleff-Freudenthaler said council should accept her call for an apology.

“I believe that no member of the public should walk into City Hall and wonder if they’re going to be threatened as they go about their business,” he said.

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Ford’s response to Leiper’s judgment, he said, “is consistent with his general demeanor in the interaction that we had.”

“I think the citizens of Toronto who read his comments will judge them appropriately,” he said.

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