Aye aye aye. The fake name means that they didn't make the decision. They couldn't without the correct background information.
That's my point. The problem was that Mr. Peyman used a fake name, not that Ford brought him in for the position. It was up to the school board to decide whether or not he was an appropriate candidate based on his background information. Unfortunately they couldn't do that, but that doesn't necessairly have anything to do with Ford.
It would seem Ford knew he was doing this job under a pseudonym (people were not referring to him by the name Rob would have known him by). One would have to assume Ford would also know why he would be doing it under a pseudonym.
Did he though? My understanding was that this fellow, who has gone by several different aliases, simply changed one letter in the spelling of his name on the application. He didn't create an entirely new fake name for the position - he just switched one letter, essentially circumventing the background checks.
If he brought him in knowing his background - and it seems like he knew his relationship with Lisi - then it's kinda wrong on moral grounds, no?
Not necessairly. It was up to the school board and the school board alone to make that decision. Circumventing the background checks was morally wrong, but there's nothing wrong with somebody simply applying for a position.
If you're so sure this isn't a controversy, how about this: tell us why it's a good thing that Ford brought a guy with a number of assault charges and ties to the drug trade in to help him coach high school kids. Go ahead - defend it... rather than just claim that it's baseless to criticize it.
What is their to defend? Until there's something suggesting Ford was complicit in circumventing the background checks, he did nothing wrong. The issue isn't that Ford brought on somebody with a criminal record - the issue is that said individual circumvented the criminal background check, essentially removing the school board's ability to make an informed decision factoring in the safety of their students. The article itself says that the school board may have approved this guy after a proper background check anyway.
So you don't think Ford had any idea what kind of a guy this was? He just hired a random friend of Sandro Lisi?
This speaks to Ford's judgement -- even in his football team he seems incapable of picking "good" people. I run a small business and I would never in a million years hire someone with arrests for assaulting a peace officer and assault. I wouldn't hire my drug dealer's sketchy, drug dealing friends who lived with their moms either. If these are the people he hires to coach his high school football team -- how can we trust his judgement to hire the right people for the mayor's office?
I'm sure Ford knows exactly who this guy is, but I don't, nor does anyone else here. It isn't my place (or even Ford's) to decide whether this guy was suitable for the position he was in. That was up to the school board, and the issue here is that their ability to make that decision was quelled.
I'm not going to say, on the basis of a few criminal charges (which I'm not privy to the details of), that this guy was not appropriate for the position. I'm not going to say he
was appropriate for it either. I know some people from my school days who do have criminal backgrounds and, if I was a business owner, I would gladly hire them if they met the job qualifications, as they've turned their lives around for the most part.
I agree that this, on it's own, is nothing much. BUT when combined with the fact that the mayor was allegedly filmed smoking crack, that he described someone arrested for trafficking as a "friend," that he is under active investigation and surveillance by the Toronto Police, that he was photographed with a person who was murdered in an "execution style" shooting, that he was almost thrown out of office for conflict of interest, that he has been repeatedly rebuked by the integrity commissioner, that there are reports of him drinking a mickey in his car in an LCBO parking lot, that he has refused a driver and has been photographed reading behind the wheel on a highway, you gotta start putting the pieces together.
This is not someone who is demonstrating good judgement. Yes, this is a piece of straw, but there is already a huge pile on the camel's back. It's not going to last forever. We hold elected officials to a higher standard, but Rob Ford is failing to even meet normal standards of good conduct and decency.
Well, I actually agree with you on this. Ford doesn't show good judgement. I'd be willing to say a lot of the controversies surrounding Ford are warranted (although not as many as most UT posters think), but I just feel that this specific issue is really a non-controversy, at least until there's an indication that Ford was complicit in the deceit.
