Nov. 25 edition. Sarah Thomson and Travis Myers the discuss the issues in Toronto politics : Respect, Rob Ford, and todays Federal by-election. With guest panelist Ashley Csanady of the Queen’s Park Briefing – bringing you up to date with all the political news in Toronto this week.
Rob Ford’s personal trainer is an ex-con who dealt drugs — specifically, anabolic steroids, adding a new drug to the crack and weed we have become accustomed to hearing about Ford’s involvement with.
For those of you reading this who reside outside of Toronto: that thing you are doing now, where you are just shaking your head at the computer screen wondering how one man could consistently have such poor judgement, that is what the rest of us here have been doing every day since about mid March.
The trainer, Valerio Moscariello, is currently banned from coaching in Canada and was picked up in Nevada and sentenced to five months in a federal prison for dealing steroids.
The trainer’s identity (he currently uses the alias Valerio Mosca) came to light after he posted an Instagram photo of a training session with the mayor that has since been removed. He also had a Twitter conversation about training Ford with porn star Nikki Benz where she invited the two to come party with her.
Check out the text of a press release about Moscariello’s conviction from the United States Attorney’s Office, District of Nevada below.
———————————————————————–
———————————————————————–
You’ve got to love the tenacity of Canada’s own George Stromboulopoulos.
The talkshow host, candidate in our Toronto Fantasy Election, and my future husband took up Rob Ford’s invitation for calls from the one-off Ford Nation spectacle on Sun News Network Monday night.
Watch the clip and let us know what you think, would you watch a one-on-one interview with Strombo and Rob Ford?
Also, how lucky is that girl answering phones at Ford’s office?
Rob Ford may not have much power as Mayor of Toronto anymore now that Council has voted to strip him of most of his powers, but he still does hold one title: the King of Late Night Jokes.
The Daily Show’s Jon Stewart took another stab at Ford, the man Jay Leno dubbed “God’s gift to comedy,” and the result include a correspondent’s trip to Toronto with hilarious results.
Ford, take a good long look at the damage you’ve done to Toronto’s reputation.
Everyday it is something new with Rob Ford. Like today, when the spectacle at City Hall got to be too much and Rob Ford charged at the crowd knocking over Councillor Pam McConnell. Seriously? Yep. Okay. That is my mayor.
It is almost exhausting to watch this go on and on every day.
Watch the video and let us know what you think, is Rob Ford utterly and completely out of control, or is there any semblance of a mayor left to salvage from this international trainwreck spectacle?
On today’s #TOpoli radio show panelists Sarah Thomson, Travis Myers, Andrea Houston, and Josh Rachlis discussed recent breaks in the brutal murder case of Christopher Skinner, a gay Toronto man who was run down in the Entertainment District.
In a bizarre twist it turns out that one of those apprehended, Nicholas Swaby, was a captain with the Don Bosco Eagles football team that Rob Ford coached. Swaby had spoken publicly in the past about what a great role model Ford was to him.
From not reporting Rob Ford’s drunk driving to denying his behaviour, the unredacted police report released Thursday reveals how the staff surrounding Mr. Ford enabled him, at the cost and risk to all those who crossed his path.
I know I’m not the only one in Toronto who sifted through the police report last Thursday night wondering if my name would be implicated. I am sure the staff who were interviewed by police wish this sordid business would all blow over, but should his former staff get off with little repercussion for their involvement in what has turned out to be the worst case of enabling that has rocked Toronto in decades?
I found my name, albeit misspelled, on page 72 of the police report. The lines (below) referred to the incident at the CJPAC event where Mr. Ford’s behaviour was both aggressive and lascivious. But what infuriates me most in reading this was to learn that his Chief of Staff, Mark Towhey, misled the press about Mr. Ford’s true condition at the event. He told press that there was nothing wrong with the Mayor, that he was sober. But in the police report (excerpt below) Towhey admits that he was concerned about Mr. Ford’s condition (aggressive and slurring words) and asked him not to attend the event.
____________
Canadian Jewish Public Affairs Committee (CJPAC) Event and Sarah THOMPSON (sic) Allegations
ii) The incident at CJPAC with Sarah THOMPSON involved the allegation that The Mayor groped her and was on drugs that night. TOWHEY and PROVOST were both there that night with the Mayor.
jj) The Mayor arrived with Sandro as the driver.
kk) Sandro is not on the staff of the Mayor. TOWHEY was concerned that night when he spoke with the Mayor on the phone prior to his arrival. He again sounded a little “hyperactive and slurring his words”. Again, TOWHEY asked him not to come.
ll) The Mayor attended the event and ended up behaving himself. There were 3 staff members around him at all times. TOWHEY believes that the Sarah THOMPSON allegations are false.
mm) The Mayor arrived to the CJPAC intoxicated by something. TOWHEY never saw him drink while he was there; in fact TOWHEY has never seen the Mayor drink alcohol at all, ever.
TOWHEY’s beliefs in relation to Mayor FORD’s alcohol use
nn) TOWHEY has maybe attended 25 to 30 events with the Mayor. He has never seen him consume alcohol at any of these events. TOWHEY had suspicions that it was maybe mixed in his drinks but cannot be sure.
oo) He believes that the Mayor is an alcoholic. Staff members routinely buy alcohol for the Mayor because they do not want him doing it himself. As soon as the Mayor walks into a liquor store it is on Twitter.
pp) TOWHEY was advised every time a staff member left the office to go and buy the Mayor alcohol. It was TOWHEY’s belief that the Mayor consumed alcohol while at City Hall.
qq) The Mayor would normally sound the worst late at night. This would be when he would sound the most incoherent. This could sometimes be attributed to him not getting any sleep, which would happen often as well.
rr) FICKEL had told TOWHEY that one time the Mayor had stopped and consumed a “mickey” of vodka while driving. After hearing this TOWHEY implemented a new rule that if staff was driving with the Mayor then they would have to drive. The Mayor was never to drive any of the staff around.
_________________
The report goes on at length about other issues involving drugs, prostitutes and inappropriate behaviour with a female staff member, but what stood out time and again was the level of support his staff gave time and again to enable Mr. Ford to keep up the charade. They all knew about Mr. Ford’s drinking, they had heard rumours of drugs and yet they all stood together as a wall limiting Toronto from learning the truth about our Mayor. They knew that if the truth got out they could lose their positions, but they were also given a clear message when chief of staff, Mark Towhey refused to address the fact that the Mayor of Toronto had broken the law. If Towhey had done the right thing and reported the incident to police, other staff might have come forward. Why didn’t Towhey report the incident to the police? Was he afraid they might follow the Mayor and catch him driving drunk? Was it self-interest, blind loyalty or heart-felt sympathy that drove Towhey to place Mr. Ford above the law?
The events of the past 2 years at city hall demonstrate the extent to which the staff working under Mr. Ford enabled him. It isn’t surprising. Greed has a way of making people rationalize things and they all wanted to keep their jobs. But what disgusts me most is the lack of respect they had for their positions. Never did Towhey, nor any of the other staff, think about their role as government employees who actively covered up the lies and actions of a Mayor driven by addiction. By going along with his charade they corrupted both the office of Mayor and the trust we as citizens place in it.
It didn’t take long for Ford’s outburst about female genitalia — in which he managed to degrade not only a woman who once worked for his office and his wife, but women everywhere — made it down to the late night talk shows in the USA.
Check out what Jon Stewart said about Ford’s latest outburst on the Daily Show and let us know what you think: if you think smoking crack, deriding minorities, defaming gays isn’t enough to ask Ford to step down, are his comments about women enough?
Just when you think things can’t get any more insane in the circus that surrounds Rob Ford, like, you know, the massive protest outside City Hall today, new police files that allege prostitutes have visited the Mayor’s office, and the now doldrum crack cocaine use that Rob Ford has admitted to, things got a little more crazy.
In today’s special debate surrounding Ford’s recent actions his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, blew his stack by repeatedly demanding to know if Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong has smoked marijuana — to the point where the speaker had to shut off his microphone and call a recess.
After this was all said and done the Mayor stood up and charged at Minnan-Wong in a stance of physical intimidation while the gallery cried out that he is a bully.
Minnan-Wong, once a fierce advocate of the Fords on Council, has turned his back on the administration after the most recent slew of revelations surrounding the mayor’s crack use. Minnan-Wong has also expressed some interest in running for mayor himself.
Watch the video and let us know what you think, is this behaviour (even divorced from the context of crack cocaine) acceptable in an elected leader?
#TOpoli Radio Show for the week of November 11, 2013 with Sarah Thomson and Travis Myers, featuring guests Ivor Tossell, Paisley Rae, and Ashley Csanady.
