The lying, denials and excuses are part of the illness.
Councillors went on record as "refusing to work with him" the night he was elected. So it is not his inability alone to get along with the others.
He has not stolen money from taxpayers and in that regard, he is not corrupt.
So if you are big enough to offer sympathy and understand that it's a sickness, don't stop half-way and say "that doesn't excuse his lying...".
No the lying and denials are avoiding the illness. They are still the result of his conscious thought processes. Or are you saying he should have been committed because he doesn't have any? Psycho Boards for everyone seen with a crack pipe? Not Criminally Responsible for drunk drivers? Being a drunk excuses everything, including not stopping being one? Is that what you think? Or do we still get to expect them to be adult and law-abiding and know the consequences of taking that drink? Ford certainly knew, and knew he couldn't handle it, and knew he was refusing help. And we should overlook what such pigheaded stupidity has done to him and our City and cluck, "Wuzza-wozzas, you couldn't help it, you're a drunk"?
Please refer us to your post last May when all his drug-related failings became undeniable and you urged the City to force him into treatment or at least get him off the job to a facility where he could do no harm.
His long record as an obstructive, unco-operative unrepentantly unethical Councillor certainly influenced some Councillors, but in fact the majority tried to make Council work in his early days as Mayor and voted with him. The one who did not try, was Rob. Hiring Don Cherry to call half the elected members Pinkos was an opening gun in his war, not an open hand of co-operation.
Every hour he and his staff spent on the football field was stolen from us taxpayers, as well as the hangover mornings, the days he didn't show up at all and the countless meeting-hours wasted dealing with his obstinate refusal to do right, listen to reason or accept that he too could now and then be wrong. Millions wasted because he was a lying, drug-abusing drunkard, never mind whether he was ever competent as a member of Council or Mayor.
Typhoid Mary was sick, and deserved sympathy in hospital, but while she was denying there was anything wrong, she deserved none. And everyone who informed on her as she fled from police and infected ever more people, deserved approval, praise and gratitude.
As does the
Star, and its reporters who have yet to be found at fault in any detail of this sad tale for the fifty-some weeks that Ford and his family denied and lied about every aspect of it. While over and over and over, he continued to choose to do wrong.
