November 14 was quite a day at City Hall, even considering most days are now filled with sex, drugs, accusations and admissions and denials. The day saw Mayor Rob Ford not only deny the allegation he said “I want to eat your p***y”, to a former female staffer, but he then added he would never do that because he gets enough to eat at home.
While making those comments, the mayor was wearing a Toronto Argonauts jersey with “Mayor Rob Ford” on the back. This resulted in a news release by the football team, expressing their disappointment at both the mayor’s statement and his attire.
Ford later met the media again, this time to apologize and make excuses for using the language he did. While speaking, his wife, Renata, who is rarely seen in public with His Worship, was standing by his side.
As Ford was getting into an elevator to leave, National Post reporter Natalie Alcoba asked him if he ever drank and drove. Ford replied, “I might have had some drinks and driven. That’s absolutely wrong. I’m not perfect. Maybe you are, but I’m not. I’m sure none of you have ever had a drink and gotten behind the wheel.”
The interpretation of what the mayor said is that drinking and driving is fairly common and really no big deal. This particular understanding of what Ford said is hard to argue with.
So what do his fellow councillors think about drinking and driving? So far, there has been little comment on Ford’s drinking and driving comments and this is perfectly understandable. The kiddie councillors are way too consumed with their motions to strip Ford of his powers while some, most notably Denzil Minnan-Wong, is crying, “Premier Mommy, Premier Mommy, help us, help us!!!!”
A lot of allegations have been levelled against Ford. These include smoking crack, snorting cocaine, drinking in a park and then urinating in the bushes, physical assaults on employees, meetings with Sandro Lisi where Lisi has dropped plastic bags in Ford’s SUV while the mayor was elsewhere, appearing drunk at social functions and in public, consorting with prostitutes that the media calls sex workers unless they might be involved with the mayor, threatening to kill an unidentified person and drinking and driving.
Some of these allegations have been denied by Ford while others have been admitted. In the case of whether he ever drank and drove he kind of, sort of, admitted he did.
Of all these allegations, the least attention has been paid to Ford’s drinking and driving. Yet this activity is the only one that could conceivably have catastrophic consequences for an ordinary person or persons that have no direct contact or relationship with the mayor. Sure, drinking and driving lacks the sexy media appeal the other allegations have and there could be indirect harm caused to innocent people by lining the pockets of organized crime groups by purchasing crack. But this indirect harm is no different that when the beautiful people buy their marijuana.
What do Ford’s fellow members of council think about drinking and driving? Well, we only have to go back to last year to understand what the council elites think about someone, well not anyone but one of their own, who drinks and then drives.
In the early morning hours of Oct. 16, 2012, police noticed rookie councillor Ana Bailao driving without her lights on. They pulled up next to her at a red light and told her to pull over. The councillor remained at the light after it turned green and then kept going. It took almost five minutes for the officers to get Bailao to pull over.
When she was asked for her license, Bailao sat motionless staring straight ahead. The officers formed the opinion, to use language that our esteemed mayor might use, that she was pissed.
Bailao later provided samples of her breath and blew .130, well above the legal limit of .08. She was charged with impaired driving and over with over 80 milligrams.
The councillor had attended the Mayor’s Ball for the Arts and afterwards went to a hotel to meet with a lobbyist. A lobbyist! At least no one has ever accused Ford of getting drunk or high while trying to conduct city business at the same time.
A tearful Bailao met with the media and said she would be pleading not guilty. Several members of council, including the Fords, stood beside her as a show of support. She sobbed about how hard this is. Sound familiar?
The support of other councillors was criticized by Andrew Murie, CEO of Madd Canada, who said the support councillors were showing sent the message that drinking and driving is okay and the worst thing that can happen is getting caught. It was no big deal.
In January, the councillor pleaded guilty to the over 80 charge and received the minimum sentence.
The hypocritical convicted drunk driver Bailao is now one of those calling on the mayor to resign. While her situation is nowhere near that of Ford’s, her attitude about drinking and driving is no different.
While members of city council no doubt think it is serious when the brown and black residents of Scarborough, who have the nerve to think they should have subways like the white downtown latte sippers have, drink and drive it is certainly not a big deal when one of their own does it.
If only Ford had stuck to booze instead of drugs, no one outside of the city of Toronto would ever have heard of him.
