The Toronto city council voted to strip Mayor Rob Ford of most of his authority, but the city leader continues to resist the pressure to step down from office, BBC News reported. The council transferred most of Ford's budget to the deputy mayor.
Ford, however, remained defiant, promising to fight the council's decision, labeling the vote as a "coup d'etat." The mayor, who abstained from Monday's vote, likened his situation to the Gulf War.
"What's happening here is not a democratic process, this is a dictatorship. You are absolutely telling everybody that voted in the last municipal election that their vote does not count. I've admitted my mistakes. I'm not going to sit here and go on and on and on," he said.
In recent weeks, the mayor of Toronto has faced increased pressure to resign after admitting to smoking crack cocaine, while also acknowledging he bought illegal drugs.
The Toronto council began stripping his powers last Friday, in which they voted 39 to 3 "to prevent him from being able to dismiss the deputy mayor and taking away his emergency powers," BBC News also reported.
"He's the worst spokesman for the city of Toronto right now," said Councillor Dezil Minnan-Wing, as reported by BBC.
Ford, however said that he and his brother Doug Ford, who serves as a city councilor, are set to launch their own television program, in which they intend to tell his side of the story "unfiltered."
A video on Friday showed Ford moving around the gallery, before knocking over a woman councilor before picking her back up. He apologized for that incident.
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