After a video surfaced yesterday of Mayor Rob Ford at an Etobicoke eatery (the Steak Queen) in the early hours of Tuesday Jan. 21st, visually intoxicated, speaking at times in Jamaican patois and calling Toronto police chief Bill Blair a “c*ck sucker”, Mayor Ford responded to video:

“I said I was there, I met some friends. If I speak that way that’s how I speak with some of my friends. I don’t think it’s discriminative at all. It’s my own time, it’s my own time,” (source)

Perhaps Rob Ford was so drunk that he doesn’t remember what he said, one of his blackouts #inadrunkenstupor. Perhaps he hadn’t seen the video that he was speaking to the press about. Or perhaps Mayor Ford simply doesn’t understand that calling someone a “c*ck sucker” is offensive and homophobic. 

Maybe Ford is just so stupid that he doesn’t understand how that can be seen as homophobic. If trying to belittle another man by saying that he engages in oral sex with other men as an insult in his mind is not offensive and homophobic then he’s seriously on crack. 

What truly gets me though is that Mayor Ford was irate when a reporter called him a “fat f*ck”. He clearly took great offense to that, as shown in the video below. But yet he can call someone homophobic slurs and that’s supposed to be okay?

I also take great offense to the fact that the media has not made a bigger deal about this. If a politician of a major US city made that comment the media outlets south of the border would be raking him over the coals right now. There would be outcry and demands for an apology to the Queer community. Yet here so little has been mentioned regarding it and I have heard only one reporter pose a question about it. Passive homophobia, allowing these comments to go unchecked, can be just as bad as the person making the comments.

The media outlets in Toronto should be ashamed of themselves, as should Rob Ford.

The Queer community deserves an apology both from Rob Ford for his comments and from the media outlets for ignoring them. 

George Smitherman, former deputer Premier of Ontario, has thrown his hat into the race for Toronto Mayor. If elected Smitherman will become one of only a handful a openly Gay mayors of major cities (cities over 1 million).

Smitherman has worked for the Ontario Liberals for a number of years serving as an MP which saw him fill the role of Minister of Health and Minister of Energy. The former has put a stigma on him with the e-Health scandal and could cost him in the Mayoral election, especially if the popular John Tory decides to run as well.

The things I like about Smitherman though is that he is tough and has the necessary connections provincially and federally in order to communicate effectively across all the levels of government, something that Toronto needs. Another thing Toronto has been lacking is firm leadership. There are some whiney bitchy people holding back the city that councillors and past mayors have tried to appease. “I don’t want a bridge to the Island airport”. When this comes from people who moved next to the airport the city needs to turn their backs on them. If you don’t like the airport you shouldn’t have moved next to it (I’ll have more on this in another post - so much to say with this one).

It is true Toronto has a lot of potential, but it also has a lot of humming and hawing and this needs to stop. For instance how does a soccer stadium get approved in a matter of weeks but the waterfront revitalization has taken DECADES? Not that I don’t mind the soccer stadium (TFC rocks!). But things like the waterfront revitalization, bike paths, rail to Peason International Airport, what to do with the Gardiner, are all things that the city has sat on its hands with for years and it needs to stop. Smitherman is someone I believe is ferocious and tenacious enough to make these things happen (with the exception of the rail to Pearson as this is already going through).

Slainte!