The Progressive Conservative government's production of a TV-news-style video under the banner of "Ontario News Now" is a "pure example of fake news" that aims to undercut the pillars of democracy and muzzle media, political policy experts say.
"Having a separate news channel kind of corrodes the function of the democratic media, because it assumes that the media isn't able to fulfil the function that is assigned to them," said Jonathan Rose, a political science professor at Queen's University.
The partisan channel launched on Monday via social media with a minute-long video that served as a highlight reel of Ontario Premier Doug Ford's photo ops during his first month in power and chronicled his alleged campaign successes.
Ontario News Now bills itself as "news" and "timely exclusive content on the PC government's priorities for the people of Ontario," according to its descriptions on Facebook and Twitter.
'Taking matters into his own hands': Doug Ford's media strategy includes his own reporter
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-election-campaign-ford-nation-tv-1.4647741
"The use of the word news is what this all boils down to," said Lisa Taylor, a former lawyer and broadcaster who now teaches journalism at Ryerson University.
"It's not news.… The content being created is to further the interest of the political viability of the current premier. It's for a very specific interest."
Having a separate news channel kind of corrodes the function of the democratic media. - Jonathan Rose, Queen's University
Taylor says the PCs are looking to eradicate the need for a middleman, or reporters, by covering their own political moves, further creating a climate of secrecy.
"Once those who are a legitimate subject for journalism decides to cut out the journalists and communicate directly, there is very little reason for them to disseminate information to journalists, who, in turn, disseminate it to the public," she said.
"There's every incentive in the world to hold this information and just disseminate it through their own propaganda machine."
The Ontario News Now video is fronted by PC staffer Lyndsey Vanstone, who says that "Premier Ford attended dozens of events in 30 days, and he managed to keep a few campaign promises, too."
The frame then transitions to an interview-style clip, where Ford lists a litany of provincial issues he says he fixed, including slashing gas prices by 10 cents a litre.
Despite his claim, Ford has yet to deliver on that campaign promise.
ANALYSIS Does Ottawa's skip-the-media strategy get the message out?
https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/does-ottawa-s-skip-the-media-strategy-get-the-message-out-1.2917920
"The concern is the sound bites that are given through this partisan channel might be picked up and used as a substitute to real media because of the inaccessibility of the premier," said Rose.
"The effect is to marginalize the role of the traditional media in liberal democracies, which is to hold the government to account. And if you allow selected exposure to staffers who are going to highlight your successes and ignore your failures, then it does an end run around the traditional media."
Ford Nation Live
Ford's staff produced similar TV-style videos ahead of the PCs considerable victory in the June 7 election.
"Ford Nation Live" also featured Vanstone, who, with microphone in hand, enthusiastically covered Ford's every move during the campaign through a series of partisan messages.
Vanstone was then-executive assistant to Ford and his senior communications adviser. She is now listed as the deputy director of communication for PC Caucus Services, according to her LinkedIn profile.
The premier's office declined an interview on Wednesday about Ontario News Now and Ford didn't attend question period at the Ontario Legislature.
The premier's office previously told CBC News that Vanstone isn't employed by them. Instead, she is employed through PC Caucus Services, which is a separate, taxpayer-funded arm of Ontario's Legislative Assembly.
It's just public relations, but in the hands of political parties, that is then quickly turned into propaganda. - Chris Waddell , Carleton University
Christine Van Geyn, the Ontario director of the Canadian Taxpayers Foundation, said in an email "there are very few disclosure rules associated with the taxpayer-funded Caucus Services budget."
This loophole, she said, allows the Tories to continue branding Ontario News Now as news without breaking any government advertising rules.
"Taxpayer money should never be used for partisan purposes," Van Geyn said. "If politicians want to self-promote, go out and raise money. Don't use money that could otherwise be spent improving hospitals or fixing bridges to tell voters how awesome you are."
Harper's 24/Seven channel
Ontario News Now seemingly rips a page from Stephen Harper's skip-the-media strategy to get the PCs' messages out. The only difference: Harper's weekly video diary never billed itself as news.
In 2014, Harper's in-house media team created 24/Seven, which produced flattering features about the then-prime minister and his Conservative government.
It was later revealed that up to three public servants were involved in publishing the weekly video, as part of their regular duties. The filming, production and editing, meanwhile, was left to political staff inside Harper's office — the cost of which was never divulged.
Liberals call for Elections Ontario probe of PCs 'Ford Nation Live' video ads
"There's no evidence it had any real impact on Mr. Harper's popularity. Or it certainly didn't have an impact on the success of the Conservatives in the 2015 election because they lost," said Chris Waddell, a journalism professor at Carleton University.
"It's just public relations, but in the hands of political parties, that is then quickly turned into propaganda. Or as advertising people might say, [it's] to control the message."
Harper's 24/Seven video diary was scrubbed from Google when Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took office in 2015.
'The Conservatives think the public is stupid'
In just three days, the sole Ontario News Now video racked up thousands of views and generated considerable engagement online — something which shocked news and policy experts.
"The underlying message in doing this is clearly that the Conservatives think the public is stupid," said Waddell. "The Conservatives are relying on the assumption that the public is too stupid to differentiate between information, advertising and propaganda."
Political ads on Facebook growing 'exponentially' in Canadian campaigns, experts say
This puts a "greater onus" on voters and the opposition to scrutinize the video as a partisan advertisement that masquerades as news, said Rose.
"That's a challenge when you're inundated with all sorts of images and news clips on social media feeds," he said.
Media keeps 'democracy functioning,' Horwath says
NDP Leader Andrea Horwath slammed Ontario News Now outside Queen's Park on Wednesday, saying it's not a news site and that a "free press" is paramount for holding a government to account.
"It's our job as the Opposition, but it's also the media's job — and that's what keeps our democracy functioning. To suggest that one political party controls the news, controls what people hear or don't hear about what happens here in the Legislature, is a slippery slope into a very dangerous place," she said.
Horwath added that not a single public tax dollar should be spent for partisan purposes.
"The fact that the government is thumbing their nose at the taxpayers of Ontario and using the taxpayer's dollars to undertake this partisan broadcasting effort is absolutely wrong," she said.
Interim Liberal Leader John Fraser echoed this, saying the PCs are deliberately undermining the media by attempting to "muzzle" their role.
"They don't want the media to ask them questions," he said. "You need to be asked tough questions so you can provide good government. [They're] trying to take them out of the equation by limiting their access, just like they did in the campaign.
"We need to be asked hard questions. We may not always like those questions, but we need to be asked those questions."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/ontario-news-now-undermines-democracy-1.4769639
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Amara McLaughlin
Online reporter, CBC Toronto
Amara McLaughlin is a digital journalist at CBC Toronto. Originally from Alberta, she began her journalism career in Calgary but now calls Toronto home. Contact her at: amara.mclaughlin@cbc.ca.
Restoring Trust, Transparency and Accountability Act, 2018, S.O. 2018, c. 17 - Bill 57. Or not...
Premier Doug Ford's Progressive Conservatives are moving to make it harder to sue the Ontario government.
The PCs plan to repeal and replace the long-standing Ontario Proceedings Against the Crown Act — legislation that, among other things, outlines government liability in cases of misfeasance and negligence.
ANALYSIS: Doug Ford's PCs conclude that voters don't want deficit-slashing above all else
Ontario gas stations could be fined $10,000 a day for missing anti-carbon-tax stickers
The new law would increase the legal threshold necessary to proceed with civil litigation, including class action lawsuits, against the government. Further, it would considerably limit the instances in which the government could be on the hook for financial compensation to plaintiffs.
"What the government is trying to do is place itself beyond the reach of the courts and make it difficult, and in many cases impossible, to sue the government — even when it acts in bad faith or breaches the duties of office," said Amir Attaran, a law professor at the University of Ottawa.
Walled off from lawsuits
"Every province sets limits on how and when the government may be sued. But what Ontario is proposing is to wall itself off from lawsuits like no other province."
University of Ottawa law professor Amir Attaran said the PCs plan would make it difficult to sue the Ontario government 'even when it acts in bad faith or breaches the duties of office.' (CBC)
Perhaps the most significant element of the new legislation, according to Toronto human rights and refugee lawyer Kevin Wiener, is that it eliminates any potential financial liability in most cases where someone is harmed by government policy or regulatory decisions made in "good faith."
"What it means is that the people who exercise power over you can exercise that power negligently and cause you damage and no one will have to pay," said Wiener.
Similarly, the province will not be liable for instances in which a person says there were harmed by the government exercising its authority.
One way to look at it is that the government is saying, 'With great power should come no responsibility.' - Kevin Wiener , Toronto lawyer
While the act would not serve to "totally eradicate Crown liability," Wiener said it amounts to the government arguing that "as long as people say they are acting in good faith, it doesn't matter how incompetent they are."
"One way to look at it is that the government is saying, 'With great power should come no responsibility,'" he said.
Law to apply retroactively
While courts have yet to interpret the proposed legislation, the fact it will apply retroactively to existing cases means it could potentially be used to derail ongoing matters — like a class action lawsuit by a Toronto law firm on behalf of juvenile inmates placed in solitary confinement.
Ontario Budget 2019: A child-care credit, dental care for seniors, and drinking in parks on the way
Doug Ford government scrapping law that compensates crime victims
"This a way to wipe the decks clean. And even if the government did something wrong, even if people have sued it already, they're going to shut those lawsuits down," Attaran said.
One "silver lining," Wiener pointed out, is that financial damages can still be awarded in Charter cases.
A spokesperson for Ontario Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said the legislation would update outdated procedures and codify common law. (CBC)
'Trying to escape liability'
Meanwhile, the proposed Crown Liability and Proceedings Act will force plaintiffs to obtain permission from a court to move forward with suing the government in the first place.
Under current law, no such permission is required to file suit.
That means an applicant will have to prove to a judge that the province acted negligently or in bad faith before proceedings begin. The problem, however, is that usually requires access to government documents or other materials that the province will not be required to provide.
Crown lawyers will also have the option to cross-examine whomever is trying to get permission to launch a suit.
"The bottom line here is that government is trying to escape liability for being sued, even when it does things that may be very, very wrong," Attaran said, adding that contract disputes between business owners and the province are a good example of the type of cases that will likely become nearly impossible to litigate in the future.
The move could prove an impetus for other provinces to pursue similar legal changes, he added.
Booze at 9 a.m., online gambling and more combat sports feature heavily in PC budget
'Flexible' child care tax credit for low, middle-income families key promise of PC budget
Details of the proposed legislation were outlined in the PCs recent budget bill, which was tabled in the legislature by Finance Minister Vic Fedeli last Thursday.
In an email statement, a spokesperson for Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said the legislation will update "outdated procedures and codifies the common law to clarify and simplify the process for lawsuits brought by or against the government."
Mulroney posted a brief statement on Twitter late on Sunday saying section 11 of the proposed bill expressly states that the legislation only applied to negligence and failure to take reason care.
The attorney general said, as the Supreme Court has previously and consistently held: "there is general agreement in common law world that government policy decisions are not justiciable and cannot give rise to tort liability."
"The proposed bill enshrines and clarifies that concept in an attempt to reduce frivolous and unmeritorious claims, saving time and money for the courts and taxpayers," Mulroney wrote.
The Canadian Civil Liberties Association says it will challenge the legislation if it receives royal assent.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lucas Powers Senior Writer
Lucas Powers is a Toronto-based reporter and writer. He's reported for CBC News from across Canada. Have a story to tell? Email lucas.powers@cbc.ca any time.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/proceedings-against-the-crown-act-repeal-replace-pcs-1.5097205
https://www.ontario.ca/laws/statute/S18017
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Doug Ford@fordnation
Our message to the violent gun criminals is clear. We are coming for them. And we are giving our police the tools they need to hunt them down.
https://twitter.com/fordnation/status/1028318755967750146?lang=en
https://twitter.com/i/status/1028318755967750146
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Globe and Mail: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's family are, variously, a drug kingpin, a gangster, and affiliated with the KKK
The Globe and Mail, a respected national Canadian newspaper, has run an absolutely sensational and jaw-dropping investigative story chronicling the shady lives of the immediate family of Toronto Mayor Rob "Laughable Bumblefuck" Ford, including his brother, City Councillor Doug Ford.
The Globe piece details how Doug Ford was allegedly one of the top drug traffickers in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, supplying the lower-level dealers in the region and running with a notorious gang, many of whose members ended up junkies and were arrested for habit-feeding property crimes.
The piece also discusses Randy Ford, who was also allegedly in the drug trade, and who was arrested for his part in a kidnapping, allegedly over a drug deal.
Ford's sister, Kathy Ford, is alleged to have ties to the Canadian chapter of the KKK, and to have been involved in spectacular, drug-related violent incidents.
Finally, the Ford brothers' close advisor, David Price (heretofore known as Rob Ford's former coach), is described a Doug Ford's former drug-dealing partner.
Rob Ford has been in the news since last week's revelation that both the Toronto Star and Gawker claimed to have been shown a video in which the mayor of Canada's largest city smokes crack cocaine, passes racist remarks about the kids on the football team he used to coach (he's been fired from that job) and calls Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau (son of Pierre Trudeau), "a fag."
Ford has been refusing to speak to the press or answer questions -- apart from a few cursory denials -- ever since, and I think this prompted the Globe to go digging in his past to see if there was anything in his history or family that suggested he might be involved in hard drugs. I'm guessing Ford wishes now that he'd just had a press conference.
Update:: I stand corrected: the Globe has been working on this story for 18 months.
In recent years, the Ford family home has become known for the annual barbecue, attended by hundreds of neighbours and a Who’s Who of Conservative luminaries – including Prime Minister Stephen Harper and federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty. But in the 1980s, the finished basement at 15 Weston Wood Rd. was one of the many places Doug Ford did business, the sources said.
“Justin” recalled descending to the basement on one occasion to buy hash from Mr. Ford, and on numerous other occasions watching as it was sold.
He said he couldn’t recall exactly how much hash he purchased that day, but that it was enough to require a triple-beam balance scale – the kind used in most high-school science classes. Normally, street-level dealers in that era relied on Pesola scales, the compact tubes often used by fishermen to weigh their catch. “If you went over [a quarter-pound], you had to go up to the three beamers – because you could get up to a few pounds on it,” he explained.
As a dealer, Doug Ford was not highly visible. Another source, “Tom,” who also supplied street-level dealers and has a long criminal record, said his girlfriend at the time would complain, whenever he was arrested, that he needed to be more calculating “like Doug.” Mr. Ford’s approach, sources said, was to supply a select group that in turn distributed smaller amounts across Etobicoke.
Globe investigation: The Ford family’s history with drug dealing [Greg McArthur and Shannon Kari/Globe and Mail]
https://boingboing.net/2013/05/25/globe-and-mail-toronto-mayor.html
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KATHY FORD:
POLITICS
Police were considering drug-possession charges against Rob Ford
POLITICS
The Rob Ford family tree
POLITICS
Rob Ford’s sister Kathy talked to the police
QUOTED:
Rob Ford’s sister Kathy, on almost missing a court date, again
POLITICS UPDATED:
Rob Ford’s ex-brother-in-law is suing the mayor over a jailhouse beatdown
POLITICS
Five things we learned from CP24’s rare interview with Rob Ford’s mother and sister
https://torontolife.com/tag/kathy-ford/
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Doug Ford government scrapping law that compensates crime victims.
The Doug Ford government is scrapping an Ontario law that provides financial help to the victims of violent crime.
Legislation to repeal the Compensation for Victims of Crime Act is contained in the 194-page bill tabled as part of Finance Minister Vic Fedeli's budget on Thursday.
The existing act allows for lump-sum payments of up to $25,000 or monthly payments of up to $1,000 to the families of those killed during a crime and to people who are injured in a criminal act, including sexual or domestic assault.
The Ford government's budget bill would also dissolve Ontario's Criminal Injuries Compensation Board, the tribunal that has awarded financial assistance to crime victims since 1971. The money is given to cover such items as funeral costs, physical therapy and loss of income.
A spokesperson for Attorney General Caroline Mulroney said the move is being made because crime victims are waiting too long for compensation from the board.
"Instead of having to appear before an adjudicator to decide how much compensation should be paid, a claimant would submit his or her paperwork and receipts to the Ministry or another administrative body who would issue its payment quicker," said Mulroney's press secretary Jesse Robichaud in a statement emailed to CBC News on Friday.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/doug-ford-ontario-crime-victim-compensation-1.5095827
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Globe investigation: The Ford family’s history with drug dealing.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/toronto/globe-investigation-the-ford-familys-history-with-drug-dealing/article12153014/
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Doug Ford drug story: Statement by Globe and Mail editor John Stackhouse.
https://whttps://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/10/doug_ford_drug_story_statement_by_globe_and_mail_editor_john_stackhouse.htmlww.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/09/10/doug_ford_drug_story_statement_by_globe_and_mail_editor_john_stackhouse.html
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2018: Bill Blair: Doug Ford’s enemy in the Trudeau cabinet
Paul Wells: Trudeau has put a controversial player onto the political battlefield, and the mere mention of his name makes Doug Ford very angry.
In appointing Bill Blair, the MP for Scarborough Southwest, as minister of border security and organized crime reduction, Justin Trudeau has sent an experienced and controversial player into the political battles leading up to next October’s federal election. But what’s most striking about the new minister is the deep animosity between Blair and the new Ontario premier, Doug Ford.
I mean, deep animosity. It’s hard to overstate how angry the mere mention of Bill Blair’s name makes Doug Ford. Fortunately we have video.
The feud between the two Torontonians has been a long time building, and dates back to the Toronto Police Service’s extended investigation into the late Toronto mayor Rob Ford, the premier’s brother, when Rob Ford was Toronto mayor and Doug Ford a Toronto city councillor.
READ MORE: Here is Justin Trudeau’s new cabinet
Rob Ford, it would become clear, had serious addiction problems. His family was in denial for years. On Oct. 31, 2013, that stance became impossible: Blair called a news conference in his capacity as Toronto’s police chief to announce that the force had obtained a copy of the video showing the mayor smoking crack cocaine. This is the video whose existence Gawker and the Toronto Star had reported five months earlier.
A reporter asked whether Blair had been shocked to see the video. Blair replied, “I’m disappointed.”
That was enough to set the Fords against the then-chief. In a media blitz several days after Blair’s remarks, Doug Ford called for Blair to step aside, accusing Blair of wanting to “go out and put a political bullet right between the mayor’s eyes.”
Shortly after the new year in 2014, cell-phone video surfaced showing a deeply inebriated Rob Ford in a fast-food restaurant, calling Blair and “them all” a succession of obscenities, beginning with “c–ksuckers” and continuing to other terms in Jamaican patois whose precise meaning was the object of some debate.
In February 2014 the Toronto Police Services Board revealed it had received a formal complaint from Doug Ford against Blair. Two things were bugging Ford: a 2012 fishing trip Blair had taken to New Brunswick with Andy Pringle, a civilian member of the Police Services Board; and Blair’s remark that the crack video had “disappointed” him.
READ MORE: Are you ready for Premier Doug Ford?
Doug Ford believed the latter comment constituted a public judgment that could jeopardize Rob Ford’s right to a fair trial. He saw the fishing trip as evidence of a too-cozy relationship between Blair and Pringle, a long-standing Ford family friend whom Doug Ford now suspected of preparing to campaign for John Tory as a Toronto mayoral candidate. (It was a pretty safe bet: Pringle had served as Tory’s chief of staff when Tory was leader of the provincial Conservatives.) “This chief has gone rogue, in my opinion,” Ford told reporters in what was, even by the standards of the day, an extraordinarily acrimonious scrum that you should probably watch.
By this point, the growing contempt was mutual. Blair called Rob Ford’s comments on the cell-phone video “disgusting.”
By mid-summer, Doug Ford had accused Blair of leaking damaging information to the Toronto Star, calling the alleged behaviour “payback.” Blair served Ford a notice of defamation. Ford stonewalled before apologizing to Blair in an extraordinarily grudging scrum that was captured on video and which you should probably watch. Blair said that apology wasn’t good enough. Ford offered a more complete written apology. Blair accepted it.
So. Bygones, right? Not on your life. More than two years after Blair had dragged Doug Ford through two apologies, the former city councillor and unsuccessful mayoral candidate had not forgotten their confrontation. A Global News reporter was interviewing Ford about a new book he had written, describing his late brother’s star-crossed mayoralty. The reporter, Alan Carter, asked Ford whether he still owed Blair an apology.
In an extraordinarily angry response you should probably watch, Ford went off on Carter. “You gotta be kidding me,” he said. “You gotta be kidding me. He goes out and starts accusing the mayor that he shouldn’t even be involved in politics? He shouldn’t be involved in politics, Bill Blair right now.”
By this point Blair had been elected to Parliament as a Trudeau Liberal. “You gotta be kidding me… He’s getting paid trips by his boss, one of the commissioners, on a fishing trip that just so happens to be John Tory’s campaign manager, and head of fundraising? Come on, give your head a shake.”
Carter pushed back, asking whether it was worthwhile for Ford to “attack” Blair over the original Rob Ford crack video. “I would continue to attack him,” Doug Ford replied. “Who in their right mind spends millions and millions of dollars… and comes up with nothing? Zero? With Zero? And you’re telling me that’s not a witch hunt?” There’s more in that Global video. Ford’s emotions are still raw on this, and the mention of Bill Blair’s name brings it all bubbling to the service.
And now Justin Trudeau has elevated Blair to cabinet to make him one of the Ford government’s chief interlocutors. It is impossible to predict how this will play out.
https://www.macleans.ca/politics/ottawa/bill-blair-doug-fords-enemy-in-the-trudeau-cabinet/
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Doug Ford sat down with Global News’ Jackson Proskow in an interview, where Ford denies the allegations in the Globe and Mail report. Watch the complete interview above.
TORONTO – Toronto Councillor Doug Ford says allegations that he was heavily involved in Etobicoke’s drug trade in the 1980s are untrue in an interview with Global News.
https://globalnews.ca/news/589636/doug-ford-calls-drug-trade-allegations-sleazy-journalism/
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Toronto Coun. Doug Ford says “there is no truth” to allegations that he once dealt hashish.
In an interview with CTV Toronto’s Ashley Rowe, Ford denied a Globe and Mail report in which 10 unnamed sources say he sold the drug for several years during the 1980s.
The Globe said its sources include two former hashish suppliers, three “street-level” drug dealers and some “casual” users of the drug.
“There is no truth to it. Very simple,” Ford said Saturday.
“I don’t believe in drugs, I don’t condone drugs, I don’t use drugs.”
Ford lashed out at the Globe, saying the report is a “disgusting allegation they can’t back up.”
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/doug-ford-says-drug-allegations-against-him-are-not-true-1.1296623
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RELATED STORIES: 'I do not use crack cocaine,' Mayor Rob Ford says
https://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/i-do-not-use-crack-cocaine-mayor-rob-ford-says-1.1294910
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The Globe’s report, an investigative article released Saturday, says multiple unnamed sources characterized Ford as “a go-to dealer of hash” in the Toronto suburb of Etobicoke for many years, mostly in the 1980s.
“Some of the sources said that, in the affluent pocket of Etobicoke where the Fords grew up, he was someone who sold not only to users and street-level dealers, but to dealers one rung higher than those on the street,” the article said.
It also cites sister Kathy Ford’s links to violence and white supremacists, and decades-old charges of assault causing bodily harm and forcible confinement against brother Randy Ford, which reportedly had to do with a neighbourhood drug dealer. The Globe couldn't determine the outcome of the charges. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's lawyer, Dennis Morris, who represented Randy at the time, said he did not recall the incident, the paper reported.
The article makes clear that The Globe could find no criminal records for Doug Ford that supported allegations against him.
It also quotes Ford’s lawyer, Gavin Tighe, who denied allegations against his client.
In an editor's letter, Stackhouse also said the publication tried to contact both the mayor and his brother about the reports, and when a senior editor paid a visit to Doug Ford, he “rebuffed our entreaties, and aggressively threatened legal action.”
The Globe’s report comes after editor John Cook of Gawker and reporters from the Toronto Star said they viewed a video purportedly showing the Toronto mayor smoking crack cocaine. Rob Ford called their reports “ridiculous” and on Friday made a public statement to address the allegations.
“I don’t use crack cocaine nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,” he said.
https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2013/05/25/doug-ford-drug-dealing-globe-and-mail_n_3336567.html
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Is Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford, Rob's Brother, a Former Hash Dealer?
A day after Toronto mayor Rob Ford carefully denied smoking crack cocaine.
The Globe and Mail unleashed a bombshell of a story alleging the entire Ford family -- and Ford's closest adversary in office -- has very close ties to the drug trade.
https://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2013/05/toronto-deputy-mayor-doug-ford-robs-brother-former-hash-dealer/314893/
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Doug Ford assistant had police run-ins for drugs, drunk driving.
https://www.thestar.com/news/city_hall/2014/02/28/doug_ford_assistant_had_police_runins_for_drugs_drunk_driving.html
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2018: Rob Ford's alleged drug dealer is running for school board trustee in Doug Ford's old ward.
Sandro Lisi, one of several shady figures at the centre of the Rob Ford crack scandal, is running in Doug Ford's old Etobicoke North backyard – must be a coincidence
https://nowtoronto.com/news/rob-ford-doug-ford-sandro-lisi/
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In the final days of the Ontario election, Renata Ford, widow of former Toronto Mayor Rob Ford and sister-in-law of Progressive Conservative leader Doug Ford, made a rare public statement about her notorious family. It came in the form of a $16.5-million lawsuit, filed on Friday, alleging that Doug has deprived her and her two children of millions of dollars. Among the charges: that Doug, who along with his brother Randy, is a trustee of Rob’s estate, “improperly retained and withheld” a $220,000 life-insurance policy for Rob and charged “unreasonable and unjustified expenses and fees” against the estate; and that Doug is a “negligent” business manager who is steadily ruining the family’s Deco Labels company in which the estate has shares.
Over the years, the Ford family has maintained an honour-among-thieves united front. No matter how outrageous the behaviour — and it has ranged from weird to offensive, and from disturbing to criminal — there has been a wall of denial. An example: Doug Ford — who quite possibly will be the next premier of Ontario — was his brother’s chief enabler and cover. When the Toronto Star reported on Rob showing up at several events visibly intoxicated, Doug dismissed the stories as “a conspiracy” and “a personal attack.” (Doug has also denied credibly reported accounts of his own history of drug-dealing in the 1980s.)
What Doug Ford Says About Women Says Even More About HimWhat Doug Ford Says About Women Says Even More About Him
Family allegiance was bred into the Fords. The late Doug Ford Sr. was a domineering, distrusting patriarch. He once forced his adult children, then in their 20s and 30s, to take a lie detector test when a wad of cash he kept squirreled away in the basement walls went missing. Loyalty, and keeping it in the family, was everything.
Which is what makes Renata Ford’s lawsuit so extraordinary: It’s an unprecedented acknowledgement from an insider of the Fords’ rampant dysfunction. Throughout her husband’s tenure on city council and his 2010 to 2014 term as mayor, Renata was a reclusive figure who rarely appeared outside her fortress-like home. Even as her husband’s public behaviour grew increasingly erratic, she did not speak up.
But then, no one spoke up for her. Silence and denial were also the Ford family’s responses to the routine domestic violence calls from the home shared by Renata and Rob (who died in 2016), where police officers were frequently dispatched during their marriage. Rob was once charged with assaulting Renata and threatening to kill her (the charges were later dropped). A few years later, police noted that Renata was covered in bruises and cuts, but no charges were laid. On another occasion in 2013, an undercover police drug bust targeting Rob’s bodyguard, Sandro Lisi, was interrupted by a domestic violence call at the couple’s nearby home.
While the Ford men met every new public scandal and accusation of criminal activity with bluster and bombast, the Ford women remained in the shadows. At the height of Rob’s troubles, just as he entered rehab, his mother Diane joined the chorus of denials about Rob’s drug use (she said she had no idea it was going on), and his sister Kathy is mentioned only occasionally in press reports, mainly in reference to her struggles with addiction and her experiences of violence (she was once shot by a family acquaintance).
‘It’s Been 100 Percent Worth It’: 3 Women On Running For Office For The First Time‘It’s Been 100 Percent Worth It’: 3 Women On Running For Office For The First Time
The most striking public image of Renata Ford is one of her in a shiny blue blouse, standing behind her husband with her eyes downcast. It was a press conference in late 2013. Rob was addressing comments he made in an earlier scrum at City Hall, surrounded by reporters and cameras, when asked about accusations that he had told a woman on his staff that he wanted to perform oral sex on her (though Rob hadn’t framed it so delicately). It wasn’t true, he said, because he was a happily married man and had “enough to eat at home.”
As he apologized for these comments — “For the past two months, I have been under tremendous stress… I acted on complete impulse in my remarks” — Renata was silent, impassive and unreadable. What she may have said, or wanted to say, remains a private mystery, as is her right.
But in the absence of her voice, much was speculated: Was she cowed or complicit? Was she a victim of the Fords, or was she as bad as the rest of them? Was she a devoted wife, or a dupe? Did she need help? Did she want to leave him? Did she just want to be left alone?
Had Renata spoken back then though, it’s not certain she would have been heard anyway. At the time of the press conference, despite the abuse allegations, the crude comments, and the admission of smoking crack, Ford enjoyed a shocking degree of support. In a poll from November 2013, 42 percent of Toronto residents said they approved of the job he was doing and 33 percent said they would vote for him. Would her denial or confirmation of his behaviour have made any difference at all in his popularity?
But now, five years later, it seems that Renata has something to say. What’s more she’s chosen to say it a time when it may do the most damage to her brother-in-law’s political ambitions and her in-laws’ reputation. And a woman who never seemed to have much power at all suddenly appears to have quite a bit of it.
https://www.chatelaine.com/opinion/renata-ford-lawsuit-doug/
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