Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, shown in 2011, may remain in office pending appeal of the decision
The mayor of Toronto has been ordered to resign after being found guilty of violating conflict of interest rules.
Rob Ford improperly voted in a city council inquiry into whether he should repay donations he had solicited for his sport charity, a judge in Ontario, Canada, ruled on Monday.
He is the first Toronto mayor removed from office, the Toronto Sun reported.
Mr Ford can appeal against the decision and remains in post during the process. He is not barred from running again.
Ethical rules ‘broken’
The ruling to eject Mr Ford from office stems from a city council inquiry into whether Mr Ford, as a city councillor, improperly used his staff in 2010 to send out appeals for donations for a football charity he had founded, CBC News reported.
Toronto’s integrity commission subsequently ruled Mr Ford had broken ethical rules for councillors and ordered him to repay the donations.
“His actions were not done by reason of inadvertence or a good faith error of judgment,” Ontario Superior Court Justice Charles Hackland said on Monday.
In February, Mr Ford voted on a Toronto council measure to reject the commission findings. The measure passed and the council took no further action.
A Toronto resident then complained Mr Ford should not have been allowed to weigh in on the measure in the council because it pertained to his conduct. That complaint launched the current court case.
In September, Mr Ford testified he had never read conflict of interest rules and said he had done nothing wrong.
Toronto mayor told to step down http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/64392000/jpg/_64392256_130982183.jpg
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