Globe public editor: What five questions about Rob Ford do you want answered?

By Sylvia Stead, public editor of The Globe and Mail

A week from today, assuming no appeals or setbacks, readers will be able to see almost all of the 500-page document police have pulled together in their investigation into Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

By Sylvia Stead, public editor of The Globe and Mail

A week from today, assuming no appeals or setbacks, readers will be able to see almost all of the 500-page document police have pulled together in their investigation into Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

It’s worth noting that many of the key allegations have come to light so far because national and Toronto media (including The Globe and Mail) hired lawyers to argue that the search warrant documents should be public.

The police investigation is ongoing and the allegations have not been tested in court.

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Those allegations include the mayor’s public intoxication, drinking and driving, lewd, sexual comments to former staff members, domestic assault, and allegations of illegal drug use. You can read what has been released so far here. I spoke to a high school law class earlier this week about the responsibility of the media, recognized in law, to act in the public interest and try to get answers.

Ontario Superior Court Justice Ian Nordheimer made the point in hisdecision to release more of the Ford allegations: “We are dealing with the actions of the duly elected mayor of the country’s largest city and the extensive investigation undertaken by the police into those actions,” Justice Nordheimer wrote in his decision. “In terms of legal proceedings, it is hard to conceive of a matter that would be of more importance to the public interest, at this particular point in time, than the one that is presented by this case in the context in which it has unfolded.”

I asked the students to be journalists for a day and to consider what five questions they want answered about the mayor. I would be interested to hear what questions you would like answered. I will collect your questions and pass them on to the Toronto and national editors and also reprint some of the best next week.

To continue reading this column, please visit theglobeandmail.com, where it was originally published.

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