ROB FORD: The stupidest mayor in all of North America. (Part 3)        

The saga of the mayor of Toronto never seems to end. When you think he is down, he raises himself up like a boil on one’s backside. The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest newspaper has probably written more about this political freak than any other newspaper so it is for this reason that I am still writing articles about this man in my blog because other newspapers aren’t covering the entire story. As I have done in previous articles with respect to his current saga, I am still going to refer to Mayor Rob Ford as Dumbo.   

This man had the temerity to say to a CNN interviewer, “I just look at myself as a normal, regular guy.” unquote                                                           

I dread to think that normal and regular guys in Canada and elsewhere are as strange as this political weirdo is. We all make mistakes and on occasion we even lie a bit but when a politician does it, he or she is courting the seven deadly sins. They are;  wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy, and gluttony.       

It is too bad that stupidity isn’t a sin. This man is so stupid, every time he opens his mouth and speaks, what comes out is not unlike the ravings of an angry, disturbed mentally retarded child.                                  

The Toronto Star has recently created a Compendium of his conduct which is well worth looking at.  What I will do is use as a guide statements made by Dumbo and then refer to what is believed the facts relating to his statements.

"I'm not an alcoholic.”                         

Early signs of alcoholism include frequent intoxication, an established pattern of heavy drinking and drinking in dangerous situations, such as when driving. Other signs of alcoholism are a drastic change in demeanor while drinking, such as consistently becoming angry or violent.

On March 26, 2013, the Toronto Star revealed that numerous members of Dumbo’s staff believed that the mayor had a drinking problem. The Toronto Police Service has built a huge file of allegations on the mayor’s improper activities in which new court documents revealed. Much of the information came from Dumbo staffers.  Here are some of the observations of Dumbo’s staff.

Mark Towhey stated that the mayor had a drinking problem. Towhey also said that he made it mandatory that a staff member drive if with the mayor. He also said that he told his staff that as soon as he sees Dumbo walk into a liquor store, he is to be informed of this fact. He said that Dumbo’s staff actually buy alcohol for him because he doesn’t want to be seen doing it because as soon as he walks into a liquor store, it will be seen on Twitter.  

Former staffer Chris Fickel said that staff would purchase alcohol 10 times a month. He always wanted Iceberg vodka. He further alleged to police, as recorded in a police document, that Dumbo guzzled an 11 or 12 ounce bottle of vodka in less than two minutes while behind the wheel of his Escalade, parked near a high school, which prompted Fickel to exit the back seat. Fickel also told police he had seen Dumbo “intoxicated numerous times including at the office, football practices and events,” and that young staff members regularly purchased bottles of Iceberg vodka for the mayor. Fickel said other staffers including Nico Fidani, Kia Nejatian, Michael Prempeh, Amin Massoudi and Isaac Shirokoff also purchased vodka for Dumbo when the mayor asked.

Fickel said on one occasion, in the fall of 2012, he was a passenger in Dumbo’s Escalade and the mayor was driving and talking football. On hand was Payman Aboodowleh, a friend and assistant football coach on Dumbo’s team. Aboodowleh has a criminal record for theft and assaulting a police officer. According to Fickel, “the mayor pulled his car over (likely at a high school, was Fickel’s recollection) and grabbed an LCBO paper bag from in front of the passenger seat which contained a fresh bottle of vodka and drank the 11 or 12 oz. mickey in one-two minutes going back and forth with a Gatorade.” Fickel said he got out of the Escalade soon after and Dumbo kept driving. Fickel told the detectives that Dumbo quickly became “rambling and incoherent” after drinking. There is no indication that any of these staffers contacted police with concerns about Dumbo drinking and driving.

Staffer, Kia Nejatian had arrived in the spring of 2012 to collect Dumbo from his house and take him to an event. “Dumbo appeared to be under the influence and impaired. He looked red faced, sweating and was talking quickly,” Nejatian told police. Dumbo told Dwyer, a young woman, to hop in his Escalade and they drove off.

Toronto Councilor Paul Ainslie wrote an email to fellow members of the organizing committee of the Garrison Ball which the Star first reported that Ford was asked to leave from saying that at least eight attendees of the military charity event approached him with concerns that Ford was intoxicated at the February 23^rd, 2013 event. Ainslie says in the email that he approached the mayor and found him “somewhat incoherent” and he told Ford’s chief of staff that it would be a good idea for Ford to leave.

It’s an open secret at city hall that Dumbo has battled alcohol abuse. Those closest to him are concerned for his health and the impact it has on his job as mayor of Canada’s largest city. Current and former staff members have told the Toronto Star of repeated attempts to persuade Dumbo to get help for more than two years and as recently as November, 2013. All attempts have been rebuffed.

There were many other instances in which people spoke to the police about Dumbo’s drinking and impairment in public places but I don’t feel that I need to add them to this article as I have given my readers enough examples of his alcoholism to surely convince anyone reading this article that Dumbo has a real drinking problem.

I'm not a drug addict."     

Drug addiction is a chronic brain disease, where the substance use and behaviors are manifestations of the problem in the brain. According to Dr. Constance Scharff, addicts often believe their own lies. “Certainly addicts believe their own minimizations of their actions: ‘It didn’t hurt anyone.’ ‘I’m o.k.’ ‘I don’t need any help.’ Those types of falsehoods are ingrained in the addict’s mind so that she or he can continue using.”

Depending on the substances being abused and in what amounts, users can become hostile and secretive. Eventually addicts cannot continue to function and work falls to the wayside like all other activities as the disorder progresses.

Add a position of power to the mixture and it’s a further recipe for disaster. There is something in the experience of power that makes drug addicts believe that the rules do not apply to them.

Dumbo admitted to Toronto City Councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong that he has purchased illegal drugs within the past two years. He has also admitted that he has smoked crack cocaine in the past.

Some of the drug dealers arrested even claimed that they had sold cocaine to Dumbo. If these allegations are correct, then Dumbo is really hooked on cocaine to risk public exposure by the very criminals he was dealing with.

Police raided the house of one of the three men pictured in the now-infamous photograph of Dumbo with the coke-pipe in his hand—the video he claimed didn’t exist. The police chief said that there was no doubt in his mind that Mayor Rob Ford is clearly seen in that picture of him holding the glass coke-pipe while waving a lit lighter under it.

The police used tracking devices, a plane, a camera attached to a pole close to Dumbo’s home and many hours of police officers following Dumbo and Alexander Lisi. Dumbo met his criminal friend, Lisi in parking lots at night, in city parks, in his favourite Tim Horton’s donut shop, in a washroom at an Esso gas station near his home and in school parking lots at night. On two occasions, the police saw Lisi place packages in Dumbo’s car. Small packages appeared to be passed hand-to-hand from Lisi to Dumbo. Why were these clandestine meetings being held between these two men and what was in those packages? Police search-warrant documents released to the public outline hundreds of phone calls and package exchanges between the mayor and Lisi.

In an affidavit, Detective Constable Nader Khoshbooi concludes: “I believe that Alexander Lisi is a drug dealer. Lisi was arrested on multiple drug charges in early October, 2013.

Dr. Mark Ujjainwalla, an Ottawa addiction-medicine physician, said Ford’s extreme behavior; including the obscenity-laden death threat secretly captured on video  is in line with many of the signs associated with alcohol and often drug abuse.

Dr. Raju Hajela, a Calgary family physician who specializes in addiction, said that denial is a psychological defence mechanism that includes rationalization to provide an explanation for one's behavior — for instance, 'If you had a life like mine, you would drink too' and minimization: it's the 'yeah, but' syndrome. 'Yeah, I did this, but it's not a problem.'

Dumbo needs to acknowledge he has a problem—one that is too big for him to fix by himself. He needs to seek professional help which he refused to take.

Now I will deal with other failings of Dumbo.

Misuse of taxpayer’s money

For the past year, the Toronto Star has reported on Dumbo’s dwindling work load. He would routinely not show up for scheduled events. He was the coach of the Don Bosco Catholic High School in Toronto for at least ten years. He coached as a volunteer. Many times he did this during week-days when he should have been at work in City Hall. There were times when city council meetings were held when he wasn’t there to preside over them because he was on the school grounds coaching the students.  Dumbo’s taxpayer-funded staff members accompanied him as he coached youth football in order to assist him in his official duties when in fact, he and they should have been at City Hall working. .  

Earlier this year, the Catholic school board banned him from teaching football to its students because of his drug abuse and because in a rant caught on video and later made public, he referred to the boys in his football team and fucking minorities

He hired his friend, David Price to work for him for $130,000 a year as his own rrr­
director of operations and logistics when in fact, the previous person who had that same job was only paid $65,000. The job is actually one in which he determines the efficiency as to how the mayor’s office responds to emails sent to the mayor. That is a high salary for such a job.  

Price is also the same man who the police are investigating for an incident, when in a fit of anger; he smashed the glass door at a GO station.  Divorce papers filed by Price’s wife shortly after her husband went to work for Ford. The papers allege that Price left his wife with debt from gambling and a line of credit unpaid. Price also made phone calls from 15 Windsor Road during the 2005 campaign. The police state that they suspect that the house is a crack house in which Ford has frequented many times. ­

Dumbo has given on occasion, $1,000 incentives to his staff and he has recently raised all of the salaries of his staff with a $5,000 increase. Staffer Chris Fickel got a raise of $15,000. Despite that, some of his senior staff have chosen to quit as they don’t want to associate with Dumbo any longer.  

Dumbo claimed that he watches very carefully the taxpayer’s money applied towards the city government and yet, Dumbo would call members of his staff to go to his home to change light bulbs on the front lawn of his home, change batteries in Dumbo’s kid’s toys, buy cartons of cigarettes, bleach, detergent and Diet Coke for Dumbo’s wife. He is using taxpayer’s money as if it is the spoils of his office by instructing his staff to do his personal errands.—all on the taxpayer’s dime.  

Abusing staff

Dumbo would scream at his staff, he would call staff members late at night. One time he called a staff member late at night to change light bulbs in Dumbo’s home and help his wife with her computer.

 He threatened to fire members of his staff and would get upset if someone offered him advice. One senior staff member offered Dumbo some advice about his addictions and Dumbo fired him on the spot and ordered security to escort the former staff member out of City Hall. Actually, he couldn’t give that order since the City Hall is a public building but that didn’t mean anything to Dumbo.

He insulted staff members in front of his other staff and on one occasion, he said to other staffers about one of the staff members, “This kid is as useless as two tits on a bull.”

Outrageous behavior

Dumbo who is married with two children, allegedly told a young female security guard at city hall he that he was going to eat her box (vagina). He was also seen urinating in public.  Long before the May 16^th news of the crack video’s existence, Ford staffers had allegedly endured physical violence and abuse from Mayor Ford. I watched on TV an incident at a City Council meeting on November 18^th of this year in which Dumbo left his seat to assist his brother who was arguing with a citizen and bumped into a member of the City Council who is a small elderly lady and knocked her over which resulted in her lip being swollen.  He said it was an accident but despite that, he didn’t apologize to her.  Dumbo has even refused to participate in ethnic events.

What is really disturbing is that Dumbo has friends who are known criminals. He hangs about with them in crack houses and on one occasion, he was photographed arm-in-arm with two suspected drug dealers.

On Monday, November 18, 2013, while the City Counselors were debating what was needed to strip Dumbo of his powers he walked over to the crammed public gallery and taunted the citizens like a schoolboy bully. Members of the citizens began shouting “SHAME! SHAME!” Dumbo’s thuggish brother joined in the fray and this increased the ruckus to such an extent that the Speaker had to recess the meeting. Dumbo’s brother called one the citizens a scumbag. Dumbo’s driver stood near the mayor and filmed the citizens.  It was Dumbo who initiated this ruckus. He shouldn’t have left his seat at the other end of the Council Chamber.

Watching Dumbo and his thuggish brother, Counselor, Doug Ford strutting about the council chamber and heckling and taunting the spectators and ignoring the Speaker’s instructions to return to their seats, shouting down other city counselors when they are speaking is not unlike the behavior one sees when unruly spectators in a soccer match run rampant.

Mayor Ford is an outright liar

When a Toronto Star reporter stated publicly in May 2013 that he saw a video of Dumbo snorting cocaine, Dumbo admitted that he had used cocaine but said that he hadn’t used it for over a year. That was an outright lie because the video was taped in February of 2013.

In the very first two-and-a-half minutes of his lengthy CBC interview on November 18, 2013 with Peter Mansbridge, Dumbo told three lies.

The first lie: “The people elected me with the largest mandate in Canada’s history.”

Dumbo was not elected with the strongest mandate in Canadian history. He was not even elected with the strongest mandate in Toronto history. By both measures of percentage and raw vote count, that title belongs to Mel Lastman since the city was amalgamated into the Toronto megacity. Lastman had approximately 100,000 more votes in 2000 than Dumbo did in the 2010 election, and he won 4 per cent more of the vote in 1997 than Dumbo did in 2010.

The second lie: “Now Toronto is having the lowest tax increase of any major city in North America.”

Both the cities of Windsor, Ontario, and San Antonio, Texas, have had tax freezes which have been in place for some considerable time.

The third lie: “I’ve showed up every day to work for the last 13 years.”

Dumbo has been declared absent from committee or council meetings 84 times out of 440 meetings. That’s an absentee record of about 19 per cent. A great many of those absences were because he was coaching a high school football team instead of working as the mayor of Toronto.

He denied the drunken incident where he verbally assaulted a Durham couple during a hockey game but later admitted to it. During his 2010 civic election campaign, he denied being stopped for pot possession in Florida and then admitted it and another DUI charge. Ford was found with a joint on him while on a Valentine’s Day getaway in 1999 with his then-fiancée Renata (whom he later married) Dumbo explained that he’d forgotten about the marijuana charge because there was a more serious charge: refusing to provide a breath sample while driving. For that, he was fined $500 and ordered to do 50 hours of community service (he opted to coach football to repay his debt to the state of Florida).

Dumbo apologized for his graphic remarks made on November 14, 2013 when he denied reports he made lewd comments to a female aide last year.

Dumbo has a history of denial and lying but he usually owns up to his mistakes once the facts become overwhelming obvious and are made public.

In his first six months in office, Dumbo said, “We have saved over $70-million. And so if we can find 70 million, I’m sure we can find 700 million.”

He lied. The truth is that $64 million of that money was not cut from spending, as Dumbo claimed but instead it was cut from revenue, in the form of the elimination of the Vehicle Registration Tax. This does not save the city money; it costs the city money which is the exact opposite of his claim.

And finally

The City Counselors have had enough of this stupid substance abuser, obnoxious jerk, liar and bully so they have taken steps to emasculate his powers. I will tell you how they did this in the next article on Friday, November 22^nd.