WhatFinger


Toronto Star and Mayor Rob Ford

Truth Mightier than Lib-Left Media Smears



George Chuvalo--never knocked off his feet in the boxing ring even by the great Muhammad Ali--is a Canadian legend. Always a gentleman both inside and outside the ring, Chuvalo is the kind of man who would take the the time to autograph a book a teenager bought his father for Christmas. It was a random meeting when the teenager, slammed on his brakes on Elizabeth Street, having spotted the boxer talking to me just outside the offices of Toronto Free Press (TFP) predecessor to Canada Free Press (CFP). See story here Having first asked the teen for his father’s name, Chuvalo wrote, “Dear Michael, you have a wonderful son.” The gesture brought tears to the eyes of the teen and his waiting friends in the car who witnessed it.
At the time of the autograph, Chuvalo was still in grieving for his wife and son whose deaths were only weeks before. At the time of their deaths, Chuvalo was still a columnist for TFP. Yesterday when Lib-Left beleaguered Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was presenting Chuvalo with an honourary key to the city at City Hall, the event coincided in the midst of yet another Toronto Star contrived Ford scandal, this one alleging Ford is a victim of substance abuse. Before presenting Chuvalo with the honourary key to the city, Ford gave an overview of Chuvalo’s legendary days in the ring, and spoke of Chuvalo’s personal losses--the deaths of his first wife, Lynne and three sons.

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But the huge scrum of reporters, TV cameramen and photographers, led by the Toronto Star, were not interested in Chuvalo’s triumphs or tragedies. They were more interested in Ford’s alleged drinking problems, the Star story of the day. The first question after the Chuvalo introduction was about the Star story. Mayor Ford and his press secretary, George Christopoulos, tried vainly to invite questions for Mr. Chuvalo, who after all was the guest of honour. “Mr. Chuvalo,” said Star reporter David Rider without missing a beat, “you’ve fought against substance abuse; can you talk about that? And you’ve also known the Ford family--have you seen any evidence of it?” (Christie Blatchford, National Post, March 26, 2013). The Star has been leading the lib-left battle to take down Rob Ford ever since his November 2010 election. Ford, media-portrayed as a conflict-of-interest offender (proven untrue in a court of law); an accused but unproven sexual abuser of a woman who ran in the last mayoral election; a fat slob (even Esquire magazine cultural columnist Stephen Marche wrote about Ford’s girth during the election campaign) and now an “intoxicated” bore who had to be asked to leave a military event. As a penny pincher councillor who ran for mayor, Rob Ford was already a marked man--the first conservative leaning Toronto mayor in living memory. The lib-left cabal that has run the city of Toronto for proverbial donkeys years has been visibly apoplectic ever since he donned the chain of office. Penny pincher councillor, now deputy mayor Doug Holyday, who has been in the local council chamber during the time of three mayors, said the Star attention to Ford “far exceeds anything” he’s ever seen before. “No mayor has ever gone through this,” he said, wonderingly. “No PM. No politician.” Surely the media’s crescendo clash was loudest when a Star reporter was the first to post on its website “the spectacularly cruel YouTube footage of Mr. Ford, while on a celebrated and unsuccessful diet, grabbing some Kentucky Fried Chicken”. “At the Star, and in other small-L quarters of the city, people were mortified to find Rob Ford won the election. Ever since, as reader Will Newton wrote me Tuesday, “The view is, ‘If we can’t beat him at the polls, we will keep him so busy defending himself against all manner of accusations (true or not), people will believe the ploys and he will just give up and quit.’ (Blatchford) That’s the textbook 101 Liberal way that goes much further than the City of Toronto. Some 383,501 Toronto citizens voted in Rob Ford as mayor, beating his closest competitor by almost 100,000 votes. If anyone in all of Toronto history earned the term MAYOR, it’s feisty Ford. Millions of people, worldwide, admire legendary Canadian boxing champ George Chuvalo, whose name will always remain up in big lights. Two facts the lib-left, no matter how vicious and hell-bent-for-leather, can ever wipe out.


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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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