TORONTO – City council began Thursday much like it did Wednesday with one councillor shouting at another to “shut up.”
Except it wasn’t Mayor Rob Ford but instead Giorgio Mammolliti who sits next to him in council.
“I stand in my place, I ask questions, I ask questions as a councillor should. Councillor Mihevc, shut up,” he said.
He then asked Speaker Frances Nunziata to “do her job” and ask Mihevc to stop heckling him.
Mammolliti was asked to apologize and he quickly obliged.
“Oh I see, councillor Mihevc can go out and heckle all he likes, the speaker doesn’t say anything, and I have to apologize to councillor Mihevc. Well councillor Mihevc, I’m sorry that I said shut up. Maybe I’ll tell you to do it later.”
Mammolliti later admitted that telling Mihevc to shut up wasn’t appropriate but added that it also wasn’t appropriate for other councillors to heckle.
“It’s always the same councillors, every time you speak and want information to come out, they ruin your line of questioning by interrupting continually,” he said. “They do it on purpose because they don’t want the information to come out.”
However, Mihevc placed the blame on Mammolliti suggesting he was the one disrupting council.
“I was trying to support the chair in maintaining order and decorum in the council chambers. This happens all too often; councillor Mammoliti knows exactly what he is doing,” he said. “He disrupts the proceedings on a regular basis for frankly publicity reasons and it is inappropriate and it antagonizes everyone on council and the chair of the proceedings needs to maintain order and control.”
On Wednesday, the mayor shouted at Scarborough Councillor Michael Thompson to “shut up.”
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