Rob Ford lacks ‘moral authority,’ protestors say

TORONTO – The mayor was the target of a protest at city hall Tuesday that ended before he arrived at work.

A small group of concerned mothers along with their children protested outside of the mayor’s office Tuesday morning claiming the mayor does not have the “moral authority” to run the city.

Jay MacGillivray, one of the protestors, said it was influenced by a dinner conversation she had with her daughter during which her daughter asked two questions, why does the mayor want the pride flag taken down and “why does he get to be the mayor when he lies, when he drinks, when takes drugs, when he breaks promises, when he threatens people and when he blames other people for his behaviour?”

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The women left to go to work and bring their children back to school before the mayor arrived after noon, but his brother, councillor Doug Ford was there and he congratulated the women for exercising their “democratic right.”

“That’s their democratic right. We have three or four or five women down here, I congratulate them for coming down,” Ford said. “If we wanted to, we could bring a 1,000 mothers down in favour of Rob.”

MacGillivray called the councillor “disrespectful” after he spoke, saying he ignored them.

“I think he’s being disrespectful to all of the parents across Toronto. We don’t see thousands of these parents bringing children down,” she said. “He ignored them; he didn’t speak directly to them.”

Moral Authority

Though councillor Ford didn’t agree with the protestors’ suggestion his brother lacked the “moral authority” to lead the city, he did borrow their phrase to criticize members of the media for asking why the media didn’t release his schedule and suggested they would “harass” the people he was helping.

“I don’t think you have the moral authority to ask what the mayor is doing,” he told reporters at city hall. “Do you chase the premier around? Do you chase the prime minister around? No. the answer is no. do you chase any councillors around? The answer is no.”

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