Wednesday 26 October 2011

Who ya gonna believe. . .



Jabba the Ford or Mary Walsh?
Comedian Mary Walsh recalls her Monday morning visit to Mayor Rob Ford’s house much differently than he does.

Walsh said the mayor’s daughter wasn’t there when she showed up in his driveway in character as the outlandish, loudmouthed Marg Delahunty.

“There was no child at all,” she told the Star. “I mean, was she inside his suit jacket? We never saw any children.”

Ford’s daughter was with him but fled back in the house crying and “freaking out,” the mayor told Newstalk 1010 Tuesday evening.

In the clip that aired on CBC’s This Hour has 22 Minutes on Tuesday night there were no children in sight outside Ford’s home.

Walsh, dressed in the red “warrior princess” garb her Delahunty character sometimes wears, ambushed Ford around 8 a.m. on Monday with a crew from the comedy show.

She said the mayor retreated inside his house and later emerged with a phone in hand as he was calling 911. That decision baffled Walsh, who said she wasn’t trying to alarm or upset him.

“I’m a 60-year-old woman with a plastic sword,” she said. “I was just going to give him a bit of friendly advice.”

Walsh said she called out to him: “Oh, a big husky guy like you, trying to call the police. Come on.”

The Toronto Police website says 911 should only be called in emergencies. They consider an emergency to be any situation where there are people or property at risk.

Spokesman Mark Pugash said police don’t comment on specific calls.

Ford’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
. . .
The CBC received less than a dozen complaints about the incident with the mayor, spokesperson Chris Ball said. The segment aired at 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

There's a short clip of the encounter at the Star link.

Jabba also claimed it was dark. Watch the clip. Is that dark?

Of course the Twitterverse broke into rage (RWNJs) and mockery, the latter led by the inimitable @canadiancynic:
Oddly, wingnuts who claim that all those Anders Breivik socialist brat victims had it coming furious about comedians in someone's driveway.

Today, some wanks are trying to spin it into sympathy for Ford.
Watch the clip. Jabba jiggling his way hurriedly into his house inspire any sympathy in you?

Hiding behind (as if!) a child. Lying about the conditions.

The old maxim seems to be holding: Bullies are, at heart, rank cowards.

Image source.

UPDATE: Oh dear. More about Jabba's classy reaction.
In the video of the encounter, Ford seems at first to be playing along, but becomes increasingly agitated, asking, “Can I go to my car please?”

Ford eventually walked back inside his home and called 911 — not once, but twice.

Several police sources tell CBC News that Ford asked for police assistance but became agitated as he waited, and called back to ask when officers would arrive.

Sources say Ford turned on the dispatcher, yelling: “You … bitches! Don’t you f--king know? I’m Rob f--king Ford, the mayor of this city!”

Recordings of the call have spread like wildfire throughout the police service — even though officially Toronto police spokesman Mark Pugash tells CBC News they can't discuss a private call to the 911 service.

Dispatchers sent a crew on high priority, arriving at his Etobicoke home 10 minutes after the call.

Way to waste a bunch of very expensive (thanks to you) people's time, Robbo.

ADDED: Alison in the comments brought us a link to the whole clip.

AND ALSO deBeauxOs here, adding from this tweet, a link to Robbo's past anger management *issues*.

7 comments:

deBeauxOs said...

Would Jabba the Ford LIE about the encounter?

It's what the Contemptuous Cons do, isn't it?

Anonymous said...

Sad that we've moved away from attacking ideas we disagree with toward attacking the person.

fern hill said...

Who's attacking whom here? Mary Walsh was doing her schtick. Ford, a humourless lying bully, over-reacted. And this morning we find out that Ford went on to verbally abuse the 911 dispatchers. If anything, Ford's doing the attacking here.

Beijing York said...

Attacking his behaviour is legit in my view. How he treated the 911 dispatchers is beyond reproach, not to mention that his "situation" was not a freaking emergency.

deBeauxOs said...

Aaaw, concern troll "Way Way Up" is a widdle bit upset that DJ! is critical of Ford's behaviour.

Perhaps you should direct your *concern* towards your RWNJ buddies who have set the current tone for ad hominem attacks.

Alison said...

22 Minutes has the whole clip up now.

Doesn't quite jibe with RFF's remark about "death threats" *snerk*
Not surprisingly - it's not dark and no freaking out daughter anywhere in sight.

Niles said...

As a Westerner, I have little to contribute to the locals who must deal with 'Mayor' Ford, but I must say, he is an amazing poster child for the stereotypical, all-negative points portrayal of a privileged white male in auTHORrritay.

He's also neon signage that Canada is not and never has been immune to what too many Canadians would like to think is an 'American' rightwing radicalism. Our elected PM Harper wants men like this in power at every political level in the country and is willing to support them...even if he dislikes getting *caught* supporting them.

"It can't happen here". Keep whistling that on the way to the next voting booth.

It's morbidly interesting (and an anecdotal observation) that given substance or style, people seem to prefer voting for a man with an aggressive personality, no matter how negative that aggression is.

Does that hold for women as well (I'm thinking of Margaret Thatcher), or is it just another invisible influence of patriarchy?

Speaking of Margaret Thatcher (notice how smooothly I segued there) we're doing a major shift of software systems at workland and amid the usual babblePR posters etc, there was one titled "What is success?" with a quote from the er..Iron Lady.

to whit "I think it is a mixture of having a flair for the thing that you are doing, knowing that it is not enough, that you have got to have hard work and a certain sense of purpose."

...did anyone else find that as inspiring as I did? The flair truly comes through.

Ford is one of her spiritual heirs.

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