TORONTO, Ont. – A shocker at Toronto City Hall as two councillors appeared ready to drop the gloves and throw fists Wednesday over a perceived insult to the City Ombudsman and to council.

Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti stirred anger by suggesting that politics were behind the ombudsman’s report because it criticized the actions of the mayor’s staff.
   
“In my opinion a very politically driven report,” Mammoliti told council.
    
Speaker Frances Nunziata asked Mammoliti to apologize, but he didn’t and left the council floor.
   
Later, as Mammoliti was speaking to reporters, Councillor Gord Perks got within inches of his face.
   
“Shame on you, get out of this chamber…you’re a bully,” Perks said waving his arms.

Mammoliti repeatedly asked Perks to get out of his “personal space” and to stop touching him.
   
“I will defend myself if you keep touching me,” Mammoliti said.
   
When things cooled down, Mammoliti told council if his comments were misinterpreted, he apologizes.
    
Perks also stood and apologized to council for his actions.
    
“Today of all days, I should have remembered to treat this chamber with more respect and to treat by fellow councillors with more respect,” Perks said, referring to retiring Toronto CFO Cam Weldon who told council, “you need to be nicer to each other,”.
    
Toronto City Council will debate the findings of the Ombudsman’s report Thursday.      

Meanwhile, Mayor Rob Ford has failed in his attempt to reopen the plastic bag debate.

Councillors heard from city solicitor Anna Kinastowski Wednesday afternoon about the potential for legal action against the city after council voted to prohibit retailers from handing out the bags in the new year.

However, council voted 27 to 18 against Mayor Ford’s request. He required 30 votes required to reopen the debate.

This means the surprise motion to ban retailers from offering all single-use plastic bags to customers passed by council in the summer, will stand, and come into effect on January 1, 2013, a move which environmentalists have applauded.

“It’s not the public that’s outraged about this. The Mayor said ‘call your councillors’,” said Councillor David Shiner, who has been in favour of the ban since the beginning. “I have 65,000 people in my ward alone. There’s two and a half million in the city. I got eight phone calls!”

Shiner said the majority of Torontonians share his view, and not Ford’s.  

“Overwhelmingly people say ‘yes, it’s a small discomfort,’ but they understand the need to not have these bags in circulation anymore,” he said. “They understand the need to get rid of something which really isn’t reusable.”

Earlier Wednesday, Mayor Ford told reporters he is against banning plastic bags, as he believes they are useful, and added that council decided on the ban without public consultation, meaning the bylaw could be struck down in court.

Furthermore, he said he was never a fan of the five-cent fee.

The Ontario Convenience Stores Association has already said it’s willing to challenge the ban in court, as is the Canadian Plastics Industry Association. The Canadian Federation of Independent Grocers called the decision ‘reckless.’

Coun. Peter Milczyn also had a motion on the table calling for council to revisit the bag ban decision, which states “it would be prudent for City Council to give further consideration to this decision.”

Shiner said there will be public consultation before the ban goes into effect, but Milczyn told reporters he does not believe that is enough.

“Having some round of consultation to try and safeguard us from lawsuits likely will be too little-too late,” he said.

But Shiner wants to make sure the public does have their say before it is too late.

“We do want to make sure we hear from people, and make sure any bylaw we put in place tries to address issues in regards to how we implement this,” he said.

A draft bylaw is scheduled to go before the November meeting of the Public Works Committee.

On Tuesday, council voted in favour of removing the bike lanes on Jarvis Street as soon as the lanes on Sherbourne are completed down to King Street. Council also voted Tuesday to sell off its stake in the energy company Enwave.