{"id":19703,"date":"2013-11-23T08:38:33","date_gmt":"2013-11-23T13:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=19703"},"modified":"2013-11-23T08:38:33","modified_gmt":"2013-11-23T13:38:33","slug":"butt-groping-bachelorette-parties-and-rape-threats-rob-fords-non-crack-scandals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/11\/butt-groping-bachelorette-parties-and-rape-threats-rob-fords-non-crack-scandals\/","title":{"rendered":"Butt-groping, bachelorette parties and rape threats: Rob Ford\u2019s non-crack scandals"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Rob<\/a>
Rob Ford (Credit: Reuters\/Mark Blinch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yes, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s a crack-smoking, vicious, xenophobic, Tea Party hack. But it actually gets even worse<\/span><\/h2>\n

JB STANIFORTH<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford\u2019s admission yesterday that he smoked crack \u201cin one of [his] drunken stupors\u201d brings a long-awaited end to the \u201cdid he or didn\u2019t he\u201d saga. But it hasn\u2019t yet ended his career as mayor, much to the embarrassment and despair of many Torontonians. Nor will this admission, necessarily.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the morning prior to his announcement, polls showed that news of the crack-smoking video\u2019s authenticity caused a 5 percent uptick in Ford\u2019s approval.\u00a0<\/span>Speaking to the CBC<\/span><\/a><\/span>, University of Toronto politics professor Nelson Wiseman said, \u201cI think he could easily get reelected,\u201d noting that Ford\u2019s base of voters were most concerned with the mayor\u2019s pledge to \u201cstop the gravy-train\u201d at Toronto\u2019s City Hall.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ford has staked his image on the illusion that he\u2019s some run-of-the-mill hoser, just like you and me (provided that we\u2019re both white guys who like football and hate the idea that City Hall is burning through our precious tax dollars). In doing so, he\u2019s made himself Canada\u2019s leading exemplar of the Tea Party model of identity politics; he\u2019s a rich white guy who portrays himself as the angry little guy. In doing so he leverages phony right-wing populism to win working-class votes.<\/span><\/p>\n

As various pundits have noticed, Ford has built his career attacking both those he perceives as the coddled poor and the spoiled elite in city government. This strategy has worked in his favor with Toronto\u2019s people who feel their taxes are being poorly spent. But in office Ford has been hit with scandal after scandal related to the improper use of public funds. What Ford rarely says is that his father was a millionaire businessman who sat in the Ontario legislature between 1995 and 1999 as part of the province\u2019s Progressive Conservative Party, during a period of privatization, tax cuts and brutal cuts to social programs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ford has succeeded in Toronto\u2019s working-class neighborhoods by campaigning on issues that appeal to their needs (most notably his plan to extend the city\u2019s subway to the far-flung suburbs). And the rest of Ford Nation, as Ford calls his supporters, is united in the almost fundamentalist belief that he will save them tax money.<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of Ford\u2019s costume as an average guy is a readiness to admit that he likes to party \u2014 a cheery euphemism for<\/span>\u00a0his substance abuse problems<\/span><\/a><\/span>. He likes to party enough that he showed up this summer at Toronto street festival Taste of the Danforth \u201c<\/span>hammered<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u201d \u2013 his word. At the festival he was<\/span>\u00a0caught \u00a0on video<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0shouting, \u201cLet\u2019s party\u201d and apparently \u201cDo you want some blow? I can get you some blow.\u201d (It has also been suggested that he was offering<\/span>\u00a0cologne<\/span><\/a><\/span>.) This was far from the first incident of Ford appearing in public intoxicated. Beginning with his<\/span>\u00a0first DUI<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in 1999, a year before his election to Toronto City Council, he has been \u201chammered\u201d or more in plenty of places.<\/span><\/p>\n

In 2007, he was\u00a0<\/span>ejected<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0from a Toronto Maple Leafs game for drunkenly yelling at a fan who asked him to be quiet, \u201cWho the fuck do you think you are? Are you a fucking teacher? Do you want your little wife to go over to Iran and get raped and shot?\u201d On St. Patrick\u2019s Day last year, he was seen stumbling down the street \u201c<\/span>inebriated and sweaty but in a jovial way<\/span><\/a><\/span>,\u201d before being ejected from a private party later that night for, according to the Toronto Star, \u00a0\u201cfighting and carrying on \u2018like an idiot,\u2019 [\u2026 and] \u2018storming the dance floor.\u2019\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s been photographed seemingly drunk with a<\/span>\u00a0bachelorette party<\/span><\/a><\/span>, and spotted at Wal-Mart late at night wearing pajama pants and a hoodie. In February, he arrived late to the ball honoring Canadian soldiers, where he was described as \u201c<\/span>rambling\u201d and \u201cincoherent<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u201d \u2014 he was once again asked to leave. At a party for the Canadian Jewish Political Action Committee in March, former mayoral rival Sarah Thomson<\/span>\u00a0alleged that he groped her buttocks<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0while the two posed for a picture together and told her, she \u201cshould have been [on his recent vacation] in Florida with him because his wife wasn\u2019t there\u201d; she said at the time that his behavior<\/span>\u00a0was consistent with someone on cocaine<\/span><\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Much of this has been<\/span>\u00a0dismissed<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0by his<\/span>\u00a0supporters<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0as the behavior of a guy who likes to have a few drinks. It says nothing of the<\/span>\u00a0charges of assault and uttering death threats<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0laid against him by his wife, Renata, in 2008 (the charges were dropped), or the call<\/span>\u00a0she made to police<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0on Christmas Eve of 2011 following a domestic dispute\u00a0or\u00a0<\/em>the<\/span>\u00a0911 call his mother-in-law<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0made the next day claiming that Ford was drunk and attempting to take his children to Florida against Renata\u2019s wishes (no charges were laid; Doug Ford, the mayor\u2019s brother, later claimed it was a \u201cmisunderstanding\u201d that was \u201cblown out of proportion\u201d).<\/span><\/p>\n

Ford is also a big football fan, enough of one that he invited his high-school football coach David Price to join his team at City Hall, inventing<\/span>\u00a0an estimated $130,000 per year position<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in his office (\u201cdirector of operations and logistics\u201d) that he would not describe to the media \u2014 Price later repaid Ford by making a series of supportive calls to Ford\u2019s radio show claiming to be different people. Though he<\/span>\u00a0was dismissed<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0as head coach of Etobicoke\u2019s Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School\u2019s football team following the initial rush of crack accusations in May, Ford had by that time already hired a former drug enforcer with a history of violent crimes to coach the team.<\/span><\/p>\n

Perhaps most famously, Ford used official City Council letterhead to\u00a0<\/span>solicit donations<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0to his football charity from lobbyists registered with the city. Despite<\/span>\u00a0having been warned<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0by the speaker that he was in a potential conflict of interest, he then<\/span>\u00a0voted against<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0a city council<\/span>\u00a0motion<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0to force him to pay back the money he received. In the court case that followed, Ford claimed he did not understand the meaning of \u201cconflict of interest,\u201d maintaining that he had never read the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act or the City of Toronto councillor orientation handbook, which described potential conflict-of-interest situations, and had never attended the City Council training sessions in which conflicts of interest were discussed.<\/span><\/p>\n

But Ford\u2019s antics, spectacular though they are, tend to distract from his fundamental political orientation, which has always been defined by vicious, xenophobic conservatism bred by entitlement. He strongly opposes immigration to Toronto (a city of more than 49 percent visible minorities): In 2003 he suggested the city declare itself a \u201c<\/span>refugee-free zone<\/span><\/a><\/span>,\u201d was<\/span>\u00a0quoted<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0in 2008 as saying \u201cThose Oriental people work like dogs. [\u2026] I\u2019m telling you, the Oriental people, they\u2019re slowly taking over,\u201d and in 2010 argued for an immigration cap. He successfully fought a 2002 attempt to widen the city\u2019s network of homeless shelters outside of downtown, saying, \u201cThis is an insult to my constituents to even think about having a homeless shelter in their ward. And you want me to have a public meeting to discuss this? Why don\u2019t we have a public lynching?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

He has fought a long campaign against Toronto cyclists, whom he has<\/span>\u00a0described<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0as \u201ca pain in the ass,\u201d arguing that cyclists are to blame whenever one of them gets killed, and spending $300,000 to remove bicycle lanes from one city thoroughfare. Though he has achieved suburban support for his subway plan, it comes at the expense of plans for a light rail system that the city of Toronto had already finalized. Canceling the plan cost the city $65 million in penalties.<\/span><\/p>\n

On gay and lesbian issues Ford has been particularly consistent, from his 2001 and 2005 attacks on government grants for causes benefiting gay and transgender people to his 2006 argument against an AIDS prevention program, which culminated in his<\/span>\u00a0saying<\/span><\/a><\/span>, \u201cIf you are not doing needles and you are not gay, you wouldn\u2019t get AIDS probably. That\u2019s the bottom line [\u2026] How are women getting it? Maybe they are sleeping with bisexual men.\u201d Not surprisingly, every year since his election, Ford has avoided participating in Toronto\u2019s Gay Pride parade (the first mayor of the amalgamated Toronto to miss the event), and has even gone so far as to skip the ceremony for the raising of a Gay Pride flag immediately outside of his office.<\/span><\/p>\n

But the city is, as Ford has said, \u201copen for business,\u201d meaning that lobbying has exploded at City Hall according to the Toronto Star, tripling between 2010 and 2012 \u2014 alongside allegations of misconduct, which also tripled. Contact between lobbyists and Toronto politicians also<\/span>\u00a0increased by a factor of 10<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0following Ford\u2019s election.<\/span><\/p>\n

But it\u2019s the crack smoking that brings Ford\u2019s politics full-circle. Conservative that he is, in 2005 he attacked a Toronto Public Health report recommending such harm-reduction approaches as safer-use crack kits to prevent the spread of illness among drug addicts, calling the efforts \u201cenabling\u201d and saying that only \u201ctough love\u201d can help drug addiction.<\/span><\/p>\n

Naturally, Ford critics will fall upon these comments as evidence of his hypocrisy and corruption, but it\u2019s not Ford\u2019s substance-abuse problems that highlight his inability to govern properly. Rather, from the beginning of his time in office as a city councillor, he has ruled with a combination of ignorance and self-interest, dismissing numerous scandals and allegations of corruption out of hand, attempting always to draw the public\u2019s attention back to the supposed \u201cgravy train.\u201d For some reason, it still seems to be working for members of Ford Nation. Following his admission yesterday, 60 percent of Torontonians polled said they felt he should resign, but 30 percent of Toronto residents remained steadfast in their support for him. Their position might be summed up in the words of one<\/span>\u00a0suburban shopper<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0interviewed by the CBC at a strip mall in Ford\u2019s home neighborhood of Etobicoke, \u201cIf he smokes and saves me money, I\u2019ll vote for him, even if he\u2019s a bum.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yes, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s a crack-smoking, vicious, xenophobic, Tea Party hack. But it actually gets even worse JB STANIFORTH Toronto Mayor Rob Ford\u2019s admission..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37737,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,37,43,84],"tags":[313,345],"class_list":["post-19703","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international","category-lgbtqia","category-media-culture","category-statements","tag-canada","tag-reactionary-watch"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/rob_ford-620x412-1.jpg?fit=620%2C412&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19703","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19703"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19703\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19703"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19703"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19703"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}