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Ford crack video exists and proves he lied and denied

Police in possession of Ford crack video

Politics in Toronto took another dramatic turn into the personal life of Mayor Rob Ford today with the release of documents surrounding the arrest of known drug dealer, criminal, and Ford associate Sandro Lisi along with the bombshell that Toronto Police Services have in their possession a copy of the now infamous video wherein Mayor Ford is seen smoking what appears to be crack cocaine and uttering homophobic and racist remarks.

Half a year after the explosive revelations about Ford’s activities with illegal drugs came to light as a result of the journalistic work of The Star’s Robyn Doolittle  and Kevin Donovan along with Gawker’s John Cook the public has been made aware of the TPS surveillance of Ford and Lisi through warrants used in the arrest of Lisi.

When leaving his house this morning Ford confronted a swarm of reporters shouting for them to get off of his property and shoving a photographer.

This afternoon a press conference was held by Police Chief Bill Blair to field questions regarding the warrants, surveillance, and other matters to do with Lisi and Ford. It was at this press conference that he confirmed to reporters that TPS was in possession of a video recovered from a hard drive that depicted what had been described in the media, effectively confirming that Rob Ford was caught on video smoking an illicit substance and uttering bigoted remarks.

Ford held a short press conference outside of his office, which was decorated for Halloween as a haunted house where he told reporters “I think everybody has seen the allegations against me today. I wish I could come out and defend myself, unfortunately I can’t, ’cause it’s before the court and that’s all I can say right now.”

Ford then said he had to go return phone calls and exited City Hall shortly afterwards.

The evidence recovered by Toronto Police has vindicated the reporters who worked tirelessly on this story and had been accused by Ford allies of fabricating the story as part of a smear campaign.

Sarah Thomson, CEO and Publisher of Women’s Post and also Chair of the Transit Alliance has come forward to offer her sympathies to the Ford family and remind Torontonians that the repercussions of Ford’s drug use are far reaching and could be responsible for the grope she experienced at the hands of Ford in the spring, before the details of the crack video surfaced.

Thomson had suggested that she thought Ford was under the influence of drugs at the event held by the Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee.

“My sympathy goes out to the family of Mayor Ford. It is not easy for a family to deal with a loved one experiencing problems with drugs and addiction. In light of recent developments surrounding his troubles with substance abuse I can’t help but think that his drug issue played a role in his behaviour on the evening of the CJPAC event where he groped me inappropriately and without consent. I hope that this renewed media spotlight on his drug and personal problems will encourage him to seek the help he so desperately needs.”

Sarah Thomson
CEO & Publisher of Women’s Post
Chair of the Transit Alliance

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

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Why do you think it is okay to bully children like Rebecca Black or Alison Gold?

It must make you feel pretty big to verbally abuse a child.

Hey everyone, it’s been a while since millions of adults have mercilessly bullied a child and thought it was okay. Jeez, that must be a couple years gone since the entire world jumped on the bandwagon and taunted, teased, berated, dehumanised, and despised little Rebecca Black.

So we’re about due for that again, right? Why don’t we all get together online and lay a litany of horrible things to a little girl who is trying her best to start a music career. Why don’t we all show our ugliest sides and spew vile, hurtful things at a little girl who is singing about something sweet and innocent and make her feel really bad about herself.

A couple of days ago BuzzFeed took the reigns on this one and tore apart a music video by a little girl named Alison Gold singing about how much she loves Chinese food and the rest of the internet followed. The song shares a producer with Rebecca Black’s YouTube video that everyone interpreted as a giant ‘Kick Me” sign.

What they did — and you probably did to Alison Gold or Rebecca Black — is wrong.

There is actually a name for all of that, all of those horrible things said; all the taunting, teasing, berating, dehumanising, despising, insulting; all of the horrible things directed at these little girls. It is called bullying and it is wrong.

The strangest thing happens when the internet gets involved here. All of the people who would be the first to denounce the bullying that caused the the suicide deaths of Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons become different people. These same folks have no issue when it comes to piling on the abuse towards these other little girls.

This is why we even have a special designation for bullying that uses technology: cyber-bullying. When it is a computer or cell phone screen that is between the bully and the person they are hurting, for whatever reason, a lot of people’s consciences magically allow them to be cruel. They don’t have the same empathy and hesitation because they don’t have to see the person they are hurting when they hurt them, but the impact the words have doesn’t degrade once it goes through a modem.

If we can all agree that what happened to Amanda Todd and Rehtaeh Parsons was wrong why on earth would we think that it okay when the magnitude of the abuse expands to include millions of people?

It is a miracle that these internet punching bags like Rebecca Black or Alison Gold haven’t been driven to their breaking point — but just because the collective abuse of the internet doesn’t have a body count doesn’t mean it is okay by any stretch of the imagination.

The only answer you can think of as to why bullying Rebecca Black is more okay than bullying Amanda Todd or Rehtaeh Parsons is that you didn’t take part in bullying those two little girls who killed themselves.

This is a real little girl, and the song actually isn’t that bad. She likes Chinese food. She likes dancing around and being silly. She doesn’t know that geishas are from Japan, not China. Oh my god, she’s a tween-age girl!

So, you who thinks it is okay to bully a child, why don’t you pause for a second before you hit send on that abusive comment? How about you get over yourself. What exactly are you doing that makes you so much better than this little girl? Why are you rushing for a chance to get your kicks in?

Is it because BuzzFeed told you this song isn’t cool and you can’t make up your own mind? Is it because you are some kind of musical prodigy who can only express their knowledge by calling a twelve year old a bitch? Or is it because it makes you feel just a little bit cooler and better about yourself to dismiss something and you never stopped to think that there is a real, actual, living and breathing human being who might be hurt by the comments of a stranger?

Bullying is bullying and you can’t expect kids to stop doing it in hallways if it is considered completely acceptable towards people like Rebecca Black or Alison Gold.

Grow the hell up.

 

 

You can follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

You can follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

 

Check out:

Wearing pink to stop bullying

Men are not the only perpetrators of workplace harassment

WATCH: What if ‘heterophobia’ was a real thing?

Gay Pennsylvania man takes to Facebook after brutal attack

WATCH: Trailer for new documentary about honour killings

 

 

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Gay Post

FIERCE DUO: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler to host Golden Globes for the next two years

While watching awards shows can be a bit of a chore (although we do it every season anyway because, c’mon, the red carpet dresses of celebrities aren’t going to critique themselves) Amy Poehler and Tina Fey made last year’s Golden Globes an absolute delight to watch, which is why we are so excited that The Hollywood Reporter has announced the duo will be coming back not just this year, but for the next two years!

These fiercely funny ladies — who we can thank for Mean Girls, Baby Mama, Weekend Update, and upcoming appearances in Anchorman 2 — had us looking forward to the space between awards last year with their nonstop jokes at the expense of the celebrities in attendance (including an irked Taylor Swift) and the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation that puts on the Golden Globes every year. Luckily the HFPA seem to be good sports since they’ve invited the girls back!

Are you excited for the pair to return to the Golden Globes stage on January 13 of next year?

 

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

 

Check out:

10 worst sexy Halloween costumes for men

WATCH: You’ll love Amy Poehler even more once you see her cry

10 best examples of the Hipster Merkel meme

LOVE & SEX: Workplace dating, off limits or okay?

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Living

10 worst sexy Halloween costumes for men

Halloween is just around the corner, what better way to celebrate the season than to dress up in a few scraps of clothing and call it a sexy outfit? Girls have it pretty easy here — as we learned from Mean Girls, all it takes for a girl’s sexy costume is lingerie and animal ears.

The boys unfortunately have a tougher time, as evidenced by the monstrosities below.

Familiarize yourself with the nearest eyewash station to run to after you’ve had your fill off of this list.

1. Why do I get the impression that anyone who would wear this costume is the exact opposite of what is implied here?

2. Somewhere in a warehouse full of lesbian sex-toys they realised they had too many strap-ons and began marketing them as this.

3. You could go shirtless, or you could wear a shirt with a grainy pixelated photo of a chest you could never achieve.

4. All three of my wishes are for you to get away from me.

5. Probably not the best idea to symbolise your penis with a slithering poisonous creature everyone is afraid of.

6. Yeah, we get it, and we also know that the truth is nowhere near that big.

7. Just stop with the penis jokes, please.

8. Well this one wouldn’t be so bad if the movie wasn’t 20 years old.

9. “This year I dressed up as the only things I think women are good for.”

10. Probably not a great costume to wear when answering your door for trick-or-treaters.

 

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

 

Check out:

20 skin crawling images of old-timey Halloween costumes to terrify you

10 questions with drag queen Barbie Jo Bontemps

15 important life lessons that we learned from Miss Congeniality (in GIFs)

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Health & Fitness

WATCH: Trailer for new documentary about honour killings

Honour killings, long a problem in the developing world, have recently come to light as an issue in Canada, with such chilling examples as the Shafia family murders where three daughters and a maternal figure were killed in the Rideau canal.

In order to fight this epidemic of violence being waged against women, girls, and LGBT individuals, we have to first have an understanding of what exactly honour killings are, the place they have in conservative Islamic and eastern culture, and the damage they cause from one generation to the next.

The new documentary Honor Diaries aims to get to the bottom of this issue by presenting both the cold hard facts and personal testimony from women’s rights activists and victims of this cultural blight.

The documentary gathers these strong women to tell their stories — and the stories of those who are no longer alive to tell theirs.

Among the group is Canada’s own Nazanin Afshin-Jam, a truly amazing modern day renaissance woman known not only for her modeling, beauty pageants, and singing career, but also her scholarly writing, work with NGOs, and tireless human rights activism. Afshin-Jam is also married to Canadian politician Peter MacKay.

Watch the trailer above and let us know what you think. Do Canadians have a real understanding of the culture around honour killings? What can we do to help preserve the lives of the girls, women, gay people, and trans people caught within this culture?

 

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

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10 best examples of the Hipster Merkel meme

When it comes to the powers of the internet it seems that nobody is safe: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been memed.

As we saw with our own dear Prime Minister Stephen Harper getting memed, all it takes is one sassy photo to get the gears moving on Reddit, Tumblr, Twitter, and 4chan. The same is true with Merkel, whose glamour portrait looking directly at the camera in front of a field has ignited a flood of hipsterized Merkel edits.

Here are our ten favourite shots at the Hipster Merkel meme as collected from the Hipster Merkel Tumblr.

 

 

 

Follow Travis on Twitter at @TravMyers.

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

 

 

Check out:

8 best of the “Hipster Harper” meme

12 examples of white people twerking on Vine

7 of Toronto’s worst missed connections from September

 

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Toronto

EFTO making up problems with Simpsons style “Love Day”

Aside from the fact that the term “Love Day” appears to be lifted from an episode of the Simpsons, the Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario (ETFO) is proposing an end to Father’s and Mother’s Days [Ed. note: EFTO’s president has refuted this claim]. Suggesting “Love Day” and “GAMES (for Grandmothers, Aunts, Mom, Even Sisters) Day”, ETFO is doing nothing more here than stirring up trouble where there was none before.

Mother’s Day and Father’s Day simply do not deny any manner of inclusion. I have known a number of Queer couples who made the choice to become parents in my lifetime. At no point in time did they ever feel the Hallmark manufactured ‘holidays’ excluded the unique nature of their family.

The vast majority of families are made up of at least one mother or father. For those that do not fit into this mould this does do anything to assist them. Rather, it alerts their peers to the concept that their family is different; less normal.

Joe Warmington, of the Toronto Sun, recently added his two cents saying that those who have opposed such politically correct changes have been lumped in with notorious homophobes such as Dr. Charles McVety, President of the Christian College of Canada. However, nothing could be further from the truth. Families made up of two mothers or two fathers or one mother or one father or an aunt and uncle or grandparents, and so on, are just like any other family made up of a mother and a father. Special treatment does not create the equality that ETFO is seeking. It merely singles out those that are different.

Is this really what we endeavour to our children?

To date, the Toronto District School Board (TDSB) and/or any trustee have elected to comment on the issue. For my own part, however, I take a unique perspective. I am an openly bisexual male who has married a woman and begun a family with her. While our daughter will have a mother and father, she will also have an understanding of the fact that some families are made different. That does not make them any less normal. It is important that we teach our children that all families are created equal.

ETFO is simply inserting itself where it is not necessary. Perhaps its members would prefer that it concentrate on collective bargaining, rather than wasting time digging up problems where they did not previously exist.

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RELATIONSHIPS: When ya know, ya know

This column was originally published in spring 2012.

Country Boy and I have been playing the waiting game all month and, while I’ve been patiently waiting for our reunion, I’ve also been painfully aware that this break might be a break-up in disguise. As it turns out, that is exactly what it was: a break-up.

At the end of last week I sent Country Boy an excited message that game day was only a week from Tuesday. His response was first to cancel because he has a playoff game of his own on Tuesday and then came the blow a BBM message that ended 6 months of dating: “When ya know, ya know. Ya know?”

After six months, all I got was a barely legible text message that reminded me of the Sex & The City post-it note, “I can’t. I’m sorry. Don’t hate me.” With my romantic life reduced to a sitcom-worthy ending, it would be safe to assume that I consumed an entire bottle of wine and wept. But I didn’t. Like learning how to skate, the only way to find the good relationships is to stand up from the fall, brush yourself off, and move on.

So, I’ve got a date with a charming, intelligent and talented city boy who has spent every day of the past week reminding me that I’m beautiful and cute – apparently he thinks I’m adorable, even when I’m being weird.

After I got the most juvenile text my phone has ever seen, all I could think was, I’m too old for this. I’ll be 25 this year and with that realization came another; I want a serious relationship. I want to be with someone who wants a future, I want someone who is looking for something real, but most of all, I want a partner.

It is high time for the games to end; I can’t be dating a 30-year old man who thinks that a break-up via BBM in 7 words is an acceptable way to end a relationship. I can’t keep getting involved in dead-end relationships with boys who wouldn’t know chivalry if it slapped them in the face.

I have a great career, an amazing apartment, and wonderful friends, but I’ve let my love life slack. I’ve stayed in relationships that weren’t what I wanted, because I thought I was enough to make them change their non-committal ways.

But Country Boy was right; when ya know, ya know. Ya know?

Onto the next adventure …

 

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Living

LOVE & SEX: Workplace dating, off limits or okay?

I got into an interesting conversation with a colleague the other day, and I must say, it was one of the few business topics that I haven’t formulated a strong opinion on: workplace dating.

It’s not news to me that many people find their romantic partners in the workplace.  Many professionals spend most of their waking hours in their offices, and with 40 to 50 hour work weeks, conferences, and lunch meetings, it’s really not surprising that these relationships can develop with colleagues.  What I’m undecided on is whether or not this aspect of employees’ lives is something that should be regulated by workplace regulations.

Advocates to regulation point to things like the potential for conflicts of interest, or the possibility for preferential treatment.  These conflicts can play out particularly when the relationship exists with someone in a managerial capacity.  I can certainly see how that might be a concern, but no more of a concern than family members working together, right?  Then, of course, there is the inevitable breakdown of some of these relationships that could run the risk of personal emotions and conflicts being brought into the workplace.

Many companies have put policies in place to regulate personal and family relationships at work that specifically outline their requirements for their workers to remain free from any possible negative influences.  Examples include, full disclosure of these relationships so that safeguards can be put in place for any work that might be reviewed or approved by the other person, anyone being in a position to make and approve promotion recommendations for the other person, or being in a position to recommend or approve salary increases or expense reports.

Even after a lengthy debate and conversation with my colleague, I’m still really not sure where my opinion lies on this.  While there are many repercussions that could trickle into the effective function of a business that would necessitate regulation, I’m just not completely comfortable with a company keeping tabs on something so private and personal in an employee’s life.

Regardless of what the HR regulations are for your company however, I think it is an issue that should not be taken lightly, and it is imperative that professionalism be the ultimate guideline in the establishment or breakdown of these relationships.

I think though, that as long you’re being professional and not affecting anyone else in the workplace, live and let live …  Maybe?

 

 

Follow Women’s Post on Twitter at @WomensPost.

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