Mr. Commissar Hall Behind E-Mail 'Snafu'?

Barbara Hall, former mayor of Toronto and current chief commissar of the Ontario "human rights" racket, is horrified--horrified, she says!--that an e-mail was sent out under her name and from her address soliciting shekels for George Smitherman, who served as her factotum when she helmed Hogtown. A Toronto Star blog has the poop:

 George Smitherman is like a son to Barbara Hall. He was the former Toronto mayor's chief of staff and campaign manager, and is like a "surrogate grandmother" to Michael, the son that Smitherman and his husband Christopher Peloso are in the process of adopting.

No doubt, Hall would love for Smitherman to be Toronto's next mayor, and wishes she could do everything in her power to make that happen. However, she is also the chief commissioner of Ontario's Human Rights Commission, and as a provincial appointee she is not allowed to get involved in election campaigns. Officially, she's neutral in Toronto's civic election.

So eyebrows were raised when the following email was sent late Sunday night from Hall's private email account, soliciting $30,000 for Smitherman's campaign to print a flyer advertising the Star's endorsement of the former Ontario deputy premier. The email, obtained by the Star's Robert Benzie, is signed by Max Beck, Hall's husband, a prominent Liberal and chief executive of Easter Seals. He sent it to himself and numerous others...

And I'm sure Babs had nothing to do with it, since she's, you know, "neutral" and all.