Rob Ford's Toronto

[animatronic]

http://m.torontosun.com/2016/03/23/rob-fords-son-praises-the-best-dad

still on their mobile site

Here's the full text, for the record:

Rob Ford's son praises 'the best dad'
Jenny Yuen
Today at 7:47 PM

Doug Ford, 8, the son of Rob Ford, holds a poster in front of his Etobicoke home on Wednesday, March 23, 2016. (Veronica Henri/Toronto Sun)
article

Rob Ford’s son called his late father “the best dad I would ever have.”

Accompanied by a neighbour while his mother rested, and wearing navy blue and grey pyjamas, Dougie Ford, 8, came out to hold his own impromptu scrum on his front lawn Wednesday morning. He held a homemade Ford Nation poster and spoke candidly about his dad’s battle with cancer.

“I went up to my dad to say: ‘Daddy, you were the best dad a kid could ever have,” he recalled, looking back on those last moments at Mount Sinai hospital.

In the remaining time of the former Toronto mayor’s life on Tuesday, after a harrowing 18-month battle with a rare and aggressive form of cancer, the second grader left his father with poignant words that would make any parent proud.

“You were the best dad in the whole entire world,” Dougie said he told his dad. “You bought me toys and everything and without you, I would be nothing. You did everything for me. I don’t know what else to say.”

Dougie’s uncle Doug Ford chuckled at his nephew’s first media scrum and said he was fine with it being quoted in the newspaper.

“The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree,” the former councillor and mayoral candidate told the Sun’s Joe Warmington.

A number of Ford supporters dropped off bouquets of flowers and placed them outside the family’s Edenbridge Dr. home. Others created a memorial at Douglas B. Ford Park on Royal York Rd. in the heart of Etobicoke.

As reporters watched mourners arrive, the brave little boy came outside and began recounting his connection to his grandfather, former MPP Douglas B. Ford, and to his father.

“He was the best mayor and he was the best dad,” Dougie said. “He did everything right. He worked so hard every day. He didn’t stop. He kept going at it, going at it, going at it. It was pretty good.”

Dougie said that when he was four years old, he heard on the news his father had won the mayoral race.

“I asked him if that was true and he said, ‘Yeah, I am mayor.’ I was so happy,” he said.

“He got cancer. He was on TV, and it was a very bad pain. He had to drop out because he couldn’t be mayor anymore so then (my) uncle went in.

“My dad was really hurting. My mom said, ‘Maybe it’s just a little flu.’ It was a month. We waited a month. It was so bad. He was throwing up, so my mom brought him to the hospital and they said he had cancer.”

Dougie recalled his father needed an operation and they found a new tumour on his bladder last October.

“It was a big deal. He needed an operation. He got another cancer,” the boy said, adding he thought, “Oh my God, how can he do it? Because last time he did it.

“When he didn’t come home for a month, I knew something was going on. Is he dead? I don’t know.”

When the diagnosis came back with the odds stacked against his dad, Dougie said it felt like a whirlwind.

“We wondered, because last time it was a 99% chance he was going to live. That’s a lot of per cent. And 1% he was going to die. And now it was the opposite. It went so fast. How did it do that? If there’s only 1% chance of living and everyone is crying. I was so sad,” Dougie said.

Despite a chill in the air, the young Ford held up the collage of photos of his family to media. Canadian flags and the unmistakable signature blue, white and red colours of Ford Nation were also on the poster.

He pivoted around and waved his tiny fingers goodbye before racing barefoot towards the house.

“I’m going to be going in,” he said. “You guys take some pictures.”

jyuen@postmedia.com

 

[adma]

If people really do that, they're absolute scum. Sorry, whatever you think of the man, there's a chance his children will be reading those books growing up. They just lost a dad, and you want to mock them? You should feel ashamed.

Well...don't blame me, because actually, I agree. Message board comments are one thing; a book of condolence is another. Myself, I'd rather leave well enough alone--but it doesn't mean I can't make a "I wouldn't be surprised if" comment, with acknowlegment that the Fords and the media have set up (willingly or inadvertently) this circumstance to happen. (Like the "bumbaclot* that popped up amidst the chalk markings.)

 

[ROFOMOFO]

The Ford Family's religious convictions

They've got the same religion as Trump, whatever their voting base wants.

 

[JWBF]

If people really do that, they're absolute scum. Sorry, whatever you think of the man, there's a chance his children will be reading those books growing up. They just lost a dad, and you want to mock them? You should feel ashamed.

You have been paying attention to how Dougie-Dougie treats his nephew; reality is harsh but we all have to deal with it, if you want to white-wash the truth and fart rainbows be my guest but that does not make you a unicorn.

If Rob was real then so are the people that he pissed off, right or wrong.

 

[animatronic]

Rex Murphy gave a vomitous eulogy on The National tonight. Apparently Ford was a "decent man" whos flaws didn't merit the scorn of his detractors...

 

[CowboyLogic]

You have been paying attention to how Dougie-Dougie treats his nephew; reality is harsh but we all have to deal with it, if you want to white-wash the truth and fart rainbows be my guest but that does not make you a unicorn.

If Rob was real then so are the people that he pissed off, right or wrong.

Ok, so you support mocking a kid's deceased father directly to him/her. And Rob was the bad guy. Interesting.

 

[tiffer24]

If people really do that, they're absolute scum. Sorry, whatever you think of the man, there's a chance his children will be reading those books growing up. They just lost a dad, and you want to mock them? You should feel ashamed.

And yet, our Rob once bailed on a funeral service early to plaster campaign detritus in the parking lot to unsuspecting mourners....

 

[animatronic]

And yet, our Rob once bailed on a funeral service early to plaster campaign detritus in the parking lot to unsuspecting mourners....

Funerals are for the living. Can everyone just leave this part of it alone?

 

[Roy's Square]

In Warmington's latest report on the funeral arrangements:

“While all of these arrangements involved very personal decisions to be made by the family, I was anxious to ensure they had our full support in determining how best to honour Rob’s life, including his public service,” Tory told me. “It was quite simply what I thought to be the right answer to a reasonable request and I think the people I serve will be very comfortable with it.”

From that are we to understand that someone in the Ford family actually asked if they could park him in the Rotunda for two days?!?

 

[CowboyLogic]

Crazy how delusional some people here are. "Rob's evil, but we're doing the right thing by defacing his memorial services and mocking his children about their dad's death". Wow...the left is so tolerant.

 

[kbdid]

Jim Flaherty was Catholic.

Crazy how delusional some people here are. "Rob's evil, but we're doing the right thing by defacing his memorial services and mocking his children about their dad's death". Wow...the left is so tolerant.

Yes, something scrawled in chalk (in the rain) is defacing a memorial. As for mocking his children, no, it is the height of bad sense for a media outlet to "interview" a young child, unsupervised, about their father's death. That's not mocking, that's ethical/normal. Give your head a shake.

 

[JWBF]

Ok, so you support mocking a kid's deceased father directly to him/her. And Rob was the bad guy. Interesting.

Your words not mine, and I'm thinking your projections are not too healthy. If you want to troll someone then you should try elsewhere.

 

[JWBF]

Crazy how delusional some people here are. "Rob's evil, but we're doing the right thing by defacing his memorial services and mocking his children about their dad's death". Wow...the left is so tolerant.

Finally showing your true colours, it only took a day or so before the mocking labels begin, that may be a record.

 

[CowboyLogic]

Finally showing your true colours, it only took a day or so before the mocking labels begin, that may be a record.

Mocking labels? What do you even mean by that bizarre term? You just said you supported defacing this man's condolences, even though his kids may see it. That's all on you, buddy.

 

[Yaitsme]

Indeed. Trying to get him to answer questions for his behaviour = media abuse/hysteria. Interviewing the kids who've just suffered a loss = crickets. Like honestly, dragging the kids to the point of getting them to say distinctively unkiddy things in front of a friendly paper is just gross.

AoD

It's far more than gross to me. I work with kids. This is abuse. Firstly, the kids's outside with no shoes. Even based on that I'd be saying things are very wrong.
Absolutely the Sun would have a SIGNED document allowing it or else it wouldn't have happened. If they didn't? Their lawyers would have lost it. 14 year old kids can't be interviewed without parental permission in my arena.

Coaching a child the day after his fathers death like that is tantamount to clear abuse to me. I'm calling CAS in the am. I can't let this final attempt to destroy these kids go by unnoticed.

Again my alcoholic father lost his dad at 7 and that messed up iodolization of an abuser will haunt Dougie his whole life. He will never be able to realize that narcissists set him up to fail.

Terrible shame.