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Rob Ford's Toronto

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Jude said:
On the stand at trial, Ford clarified that his foundation did *not* fund Don Bosco. I challenged Warmington about a similar claim, and he backed down. The list skitters around, but the foundation has no meaningful public presence, and there is no thorough documentation to check against.

From last September (the Mayor did not reply):

Thank you very much for your prompt reply, Mr. Warmington.

With this email, I include Mayor Rob Ford in the "To" field. I want to make it very clear that this indicates I am sending a formal message to both Mr. Warmington and the Mayor of the City of Toronto. I am following up on the suggestion by Mr. Warmington to ask the Mayor directly for clarification about what, if any, equipment was located at the Don Bosco school site that was in fact purchased by the Rob Ford Football Foundation.

Mr. Mayor, a quick clarification would be greatly appreciated.

Was there any equipment at Don Bosco that can be confirmed as material purchased through the Rob Ford Football Foundation?
If so, are there associated Foundation receipts, and / or is there any documentation that establishes that it was purchased for the Rexdale Raiders exclusively?

If none of the equipment at Don Bosco can be associated with purchases by the Foundation, did the Foundation come up at all in conversation with columnist Joe Warmington for this column? If so, in what context?

I note that no correction / revision appears online in Mr. Warmington's column today. As a result, it still reads as though Foundation equipment was used by the school. In addition, I note that no mention was made indicating there was separate equipment for the Mayor's summer program with the Rexdale Raiders being stored on school grounds. Based on Mr. Warmington's statement yesterday, I now have the image of Don Bosco and the School Board being obliged to house 4 separate sets of equipment. Based on statements from the school, none of the equipment was currently being used by members of the Eagles.

In my personal opinion, this does not appear to be an efficient use of what is likely limited storage space. I am also unclear whether the past arrangement (resolved Friday with the removal of the Mayor's / Foundation's equipment) meant that volunteers for the Rexdale Raiders programme required access to the school through summer months. If so, it strikes me as reasonable to ask that such an arrangement be brought to a natural end, months after the Mayor's association with Don Bosco and the board had ended. Otherwise, TCDSB resources would continue to be dedicated to accommodate free storage and ongoing access to equipment not associated with its school.

But of course it is Mr. Warmington's column to frame as he wishes.

Mr. Mayor, I do look forward to your clarification regarding the Foundation's supply of materials for either the Eagles and / or the Raiders, with equipment stored at Don Bosco High School until last Friday.

All the best,

Jude MacDonald

On 2013-09-09, at 4:23 PM, Joe Warmington <Joe.Warmington@sunmedia.ca> wrote:

Thanks Jude.

No big deal. I paraphrased the foundation word -- to cover off the totality of it.
Mayor talked of it being gear he gathered but not that Bosco equipment was from foundation.
I didn't know there was a distinction but mayor was not indicating what your concern seems to be.
The summer program gear I believe was from foundation but you can check with him.
Sorry for confusion. Hope this helps. Jw

Subject: Involvement of Rob Ford Football Foundation with Don Bosco: Sun article makes an unattributed link between the two

Dear Mr. Warmington:

As I have communicated to you via Twitter several times today, I ask that you and The Toronto Sun clarify and confirm a specific detail included in your piece, "Catholic school board fumbles with Ford football gear."

Article published: Toronto Sun, September 8, 2013
Writer: Joe Warmington
Available online: http://www.torontosun.com/2013/09/08/catholic-school-board-fumbles-with-ford-football-gear

I have alerted the paper through various channels to the following, as you may have done the Mayor and his Foundation a great disservice by misrepresenting the Foundation's past relationship to Don Bosco and the city's Catholic School Board.

Relevant quote:

"There was no problem fielding two [Don Bosco] teams, the cost of running those teams was incurred by the civic leader and his football foundation and they had great success on the field."

(Contextual text in square brackets and emphasis in bold are mine.)

The quote above seems to indicate that the Rob Ford Football Foundation covered costs related to the Don Bosco Eagles and/or Don Bosco's football programme. Is it something that was confirmed by the Mayor, the Rob Ford Football Foundation, the charity's administrating organization (Toronto Community Foundation), or the Toronto Catholic District School Board? If not or if it is something you are asserting without any substantiation, or if your source is now unwilling to support this statement I would suggest the paper needs to revise and correct the copy immediately.

If the paper is prepared to stand by the statement as one confirmed by a reliable source, I apologize for any inconvenience in raising the matter. Please do let me know if a correction is issued, or revision occurs to the online copy. It would be a courtesy to also notify those who are also receiving this initial message from me.

Thank you for your attention,

Jude MacDonald
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I will grant Rofo the fact that support could also be "manpower in kind" - how he arranged for that manpower is really none of our business as long as he provided for it.
 
pattycakes said:
IIRC there was a letter from Blair in the school board's information about Ford. Why would the Chief be involved in Ford coaching at Bosco? Maybe it was about the sketchy background checks on a few of Rob's associates, but maybe there is more to the story and that's why Ford is concerned about this information coming out now. Wouldn't surprise me if he hired some "entertainment" for the team or encouraged hazing as a rite of passage into manhood. All it takes is one kid letting something slip and the parents are calling the board.
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Wonder if Payman's background check went through 23 Division/Taverner? Not sure how this process works but it would make sense from a regional perspective.
 
Here is something that maybe of interest...re Rexdale Raiders welshing (per the header) hopefully I've typed the address out correctly seeing I haven't figured out how to cut and paste
hppts://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-55-yard-line/rob-ford-funded-rexdale-raiders-football-program-turfed-160404323.html
 
Greg Banks said:
Here is something that maybe of interest...re Rexdale Raiders welshing (per the header) hopefully I've typed the address out correctly seeing I haven't figured out how to cut and paste
hppts://ca.sports.yahoo.com/blogs/cfl-55-yard-line/rob-ford-funded-rexdale-raiders-football-program-turfed-160404323.html
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Old news...
 
Any of those is worthy of police intervention and investigation. One has to wonder why such was not the case .... And why has there never been any inquiry by CAS on his to be around kids period?
 
pattycakes said:
Well, whatever it is, it must be pretty bad for the Fords to try to delay it until after the election. After all the crap Ford has been involved in, it seems strange that they are worried about a report from the school board. At this point what could damage Ford any further? Your guess is as good as mine.:confused:
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Jimmi T said:
But we already know that stuff. Why would he try to prevent the release of stuff we've heard 1,000 times? I'm not suggesting crimes were committed as police would've acted. It must be something embarrassing on a whole new level though.
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I'm not so sure that it necessarily has to be terrible at all for the Fords to delay it. Don't get me wrong: I'm hopeful that there's something there which will damage his re-election chances (as others have noted: what could that be at this point!?) but consider this:

It's in Ford's nature to poke his finger into the eye of the downtown latte conspiracy wherever he finds it. Even if there's nothing new in the report, why allow it to be released when he can simply say "I object and wish to review this with my lawyer" and ideally drag it out until after the election? Or just until "a time that isn't now" since that's good enough for Rob Ford. Subways.
 
sweetlou said:
Pure speculation:

Something incredibly inappropriate like naked shower romps. Or a behaviour that will turn a key supporter or donor against him.
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My guess is more mundane: Being rude/verbally abusive to players, parents and/or staff. Suspected of showing up inebriated on school grounds. Maybe concerns Rob helped Payman skirt the police check. Concerns over Rob's aggressive style and potential player safety issues. Acting like a dick in general.
 
tariqata said:
Maybe I'm being naive, here. But if there was any inkling that any of these activities were going on, surely someone in the school who's a mandated reporter would have heard about it, and would have had a legal obligation to bring it to the police or CAS, even if the school board didn't? And if that were the case, wouldn't we have heard about an investigation, as we heard about the domestic violence charges? I wouldn't be surprised if Ford was crossing boundaries with the kids on his team in non-illegal ways or being verbally abusive, and I think the way he allowed them to become involved in his political scandals (assuming he didn't encourage it) was wildly inappropriate, but I can't believe that there's anything of this scale.
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Yeah, it's not like Catholics have ever covered up anything ever. Wouldn't surprise me in the least if there were charge-worthy allegations in the docs.
 
Cooper said:
My guess is more mundane: Being rude/verbally abusive to players, parents and/or staff. Suspected of showing up inebriated on school grounds. Maybe concerns Rob helped Payman skirt the police check. Concerns over Rob's aggressive style and potential player safety issues. Acting like a dick in general.
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Is locker room towel-snapping still common?
 
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I'm assuming his "helpers" on the team needed a vulnerable sector check as they were working with kids, so all paperwork goes through TPS downtown, it's not handled within the local division unless it's a simple background check. A vulnerable sector check requires legal I.D. by the agency requesting the check, to confirm the name and address. Someone definitely dropped the ball on Payman and probably others. At the very least, it's embarrassing for all involved.
 
themarc said:
I will grant Rofo the fact that support could also be "manpower in kind" - how he arranged for that manpower is really none of our business as long as he provided for it.
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The Rob Ford Football Foundation supplies a cheque for equipment after receiving an invoice from a supplier, provided by a school with which the foundation has an agreement. Rob Ford has testified, under oath, that this is what his foundation does. Nothing more, nothing less.
 
Cooper said:
My guess is more mundane: Being rude/verbally abusive to players, parents and/or staff. Suspected of showing up inebriated on school grounds. Maybe concerns Rob helped Payman skirt the police check. Concerns over Rob's aggressive style and potential player safety issues. Acting like a dick in general.
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After all that has come out in the Lisi ITOs about Ford, why would he not want some mundane details about his times as coach made public? Someone mentioned it could be something tame such as bringing kids from a different school zone in. Is that really a serious issue that needs covering up? Is he going to lose votes over something like that? It doesn't make sense. Clearly he's worried about something serious hence the blocking of the release.
 
dforthandbview said:
After all that has come out in the Lisi ITOs about Ford, why would he not want some mundane details about his times as coach made public? Someone mentioned it could be something tame such as bringing kids from a different school zone in. Is that really a serious issue that needs covering up? Is he going to lose votes over something like that? It doesn't make sense. Clearly he's worried about something serious hence the blocking of the release.
Click to expand...

For a guy who claims he has nothing left to hide... what is he hiding?
 
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