Rob Ford's Toronto

[Kat_YYZ]

i can't believe none of you are talking about randy's pcp fuelled face eating, and that renata helped come up with the 'enough to eat at home' line... you did read those posts, right?

well, what can one say? Randy was already arrested for beating up some guy that owed him money in the 80s right? ...or kidnapping the guy's son, or something? PCP can make people psychotic so if he's already a thug, it's no surprise it would make him crazier.

I don't have any trouble believing the stuff about Renata. I don't know why some people here think she's a delicate flower; I go with Jimmi's friend who said she's "hard". Of course that doesn't mean that it's okay for her husband to assault her. But I don't see her as some poor, trapped innocent. She's probably a lot like Elena Basso.

 

[Kat_YYZ]

Subways. Subways. Subways.

Winner!

but... am I the only one wondering if there really was any "sandwich for Stephanie"?

Or if a staffer was being sent to a specific place to pick up "something" and deliver it to "someone" every day?

 

[evvabeing]

i've been trying to remember what we've learned was happening in ford's world at the end of 2011 / beginning of 2012.

by the end of 2011 or early 2012, things had changed and Ford’s drinking had started becoming a serious problem.

“I honestly don’t know what it was, whether it was stress or something else we weren’t aware of that sort of tripped him over,” he said.

http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/balanc...ider-s-look-at-rob-ford-s-mayoralty-1.2624190

there was the warrior princess thing, the conflict of interest case, the threatening to run off with the kids, macintyre broke into his house, dougie made him do the weight loss challenge... what else?

would all that be enough? or was something else going on in the background?

 

[evvabeing]

Winner!

but... am I the only one wondering if there really was any "sandwich for Stephanie"?

Or if a staffer was being sent to a specific place to pick up "something" and deliver it to "someone" every day?

i wondered if that was code for something as well.

but then what does towhey saying 'we found a way to feed stephanie without using taxpayer resources' mean?

 

[the lemur]

i wondered if that was code for something as well.

but then what does towhey saying 'we found a way to feed stephanie without using taxpayer resources' mean?

It could be that the Stephanie sandwich delivery service is a cover for something. So someone would get sent to a specific place to pick up a sandwich, plus a little something else, that would be delivered to Stephanie, the other thing goes to an adult who is either with Stephanie or whom she sees later, and then it gets passed to Rob or yet another adult?

So the new arrangement would be having someone not employed by the city providing Stephanie with her lunch and the 'extra' that goes with it is delivered to whoever by some other means.

 

[evvabeing]

Well, re Renata; has this been mentioned in this thread?

http://www.metronews.ca/news/toront...ok-on-rob-ford-delves-into-family-issues.html

2. The redacted part of the excerpt in Maclean's
The most sensational passage of Towhey’s book was recently published in Maclean’s, but some parts were redacted. In that excerpt, Towhey was on the phone with Ford in the middle of the night as he fought with his wife about money, drugs, their kids and a gun. Maclean's redacted Ford telling Towhey he thinks his wife is being paid for sex.
Excerpt: “They pay her to blow them or for a f**k. I catch them. Stephanie tells me these guys are coming over.” Stephanie is his then-8-year-old daughter.

our first outing of those in the 'night shift'...

Towhey wrote that Ford’s local police superintendent was part of his informal group of political advisers, whom he called the “Night Shift.” He writes about times he feared the local police were protecting Ford.

 

[evvabeing]

the renata sex work allegation gives new meaning to this line...

“People can say whatever they want,” he said. “I spoke to Renata and basically she said ‘I have very few friends, I don’t go to Tim Hortons and hang out with guys in a parking lot, so definitely I never said that, I was never in that parking lot.”

plus, so much for dennis morris being honest / knowing anything...

“He may have indulged on occasion with alcohol consumption but in terms of drugs, I don’t think that he ever has brought any into his home, consumed any in his home, and from what I gather she is at home with the kids 90% of the time,” said Mr. Morris.

http://news.nationalpost.com/toront...ortly-after-he-became-toronto-mayor-book-says

 

[evvabeing]

knowing what we know now, do you think rob could have been referring to carrying a gun?

Guys think I’m carrying an ... There’s no envelope, there’s no secret service. I’m him. I’m him. I don’t, there’s no secret service, I’m him.

https://ca.news.yahoo.com/blogs/dai...-ford-audio-captured-etobicoke-144617132.html

 

[toonderly]

Winner!

but... am I the only one wondering if there really was any "sandwich for Stephanie"?

Or if a staffer was being sent to a specific place to pick up "something" and deliver it to "someone" every day?

Is there any reason though why a sinister something would have to be delivered in the middle of the day every weekday? Sadly, I find the idea that Rob believed that delivering Stephanie a sandwich for lunch every day was urgent and necessary very plausible. If Renata was unable or unwilling to prepare a lunch, and/or Stephanie was picky and didn't want to take a packed lunch, I can see Rob hitting upon this as the best solution. (I may be biased because my sister-in-law appears to frequently call my mother with last minute requests to either prepare or buy lunch for my niece at school and then spend at least 40 minutes delivering it, and this sounds exactly the same to me. I would be curious to know whether the sandwich runs started out as planned or were originally "emergencies" that just became standard practice.)

I don't think he intends to be a bad parent, and within the limits of his ability he probably errs on the side of indulgence. Stephanie not wanting a packed lunch either seemed reasonable to him or he couldn't figure out how to insist that she learn to live with it.

Either because he's cheap or because he (or Renata; if he isn't always living at home that might have more weight) doesn't want a stranger in the house, he doesn't conceive of hiring some kind of childcare service to attend to Stephanie's needs.

 

[Jimmi T]

Fillion's take seems like it'll be an interesting read. It's politically Ford is destructive but personally he feels sorry for him because he's only human and has feelings. Donovan, in contrast, thinks Ford is a scumbag at his core and hasn't an ounce of sympathy for him. I'm for sure going to buy both books, even though those who know him tell me Towhey is an SOB. He did a lot of damage as mayor and is a lowlife but still interesting to read about!

Side note, that Jays loss was painful. Really fun season though!

 

[John_Dee]

It is possible that she had sarcastically asked him if he didn't get enough to eat at home in anger at the story about his comment about Gondek. She' heard worse directly from Rob on a pretty routine basis

That's as good an explanation as any. I didn't believe this particular bit of business for a second - I remember how humiliated Renata appeared in the tv coverage when Asshole Hubby made that charming remark about her - and I was wondering why Towhey would lie about such a thing.

As for Sandwichgate: When I was a kid, even a young one, I was capable of making my own sandwiches. Was something preventing Stephanie from doing the same herself?

 

[toonderly]

As for Sandwichgate: When I was a kid, even a young one, I was capable of making my own sandwiches. Was something preventing Stephanie from doing the same herself?

I'm betting one or more of the following:

• lack of suitable food available in the Ford home
• no one has encouraged her to make her own sandwiches
  
• knowledge that if she refuses to take a packed lunch, someone will have to buy her food she prefers

 

[sweetlou]

I'm betting one or more of the following:

• lack of suitable food available in the Ford home
• no one has encouraged her to make her own sandwiches
  
• knowledge that if she refuses to take a packed lunch, someone will have to buy her food she prefers

The sandwich thing is not about capability or willingness to slap a couple slices of bread together - and I'm sure Renata could manage that. It's about Robbie having a power play and yet again using his children to score points. Remember, he's the best dad EVER. What I found most chilling from Towhey's story about the night he took verbatim notes is the part where Rob asks Stephanie: "Is Mommy good or bad?" A rotten, demeaning trick to play on a child. All about family dynamics. Mommy can probably acquit herself adequately on the sandwich front. But Daddy can have a *special* sandwich made just for Stephanie, and delivered to her at school by a winged unicorn trailing rainbows and isn't that just aces better than what Mommy can do. I recall one of them saying how much Stephanie loved being the Mayor's daughter. I bet that was stoked for all it was worth.

 

[YPQ]

Can we make this a standard euphemism now? Like "Rob had to make a stop at Lisi's place first to score a Stephanie sandwich."

 

[kbdid]

Personally I think people are over-thinking the sandwich thing. There is the distinct possibility that Stephanie got her special sandwich every day because she was spoiled as hell. We've already seen footage of the former mayor trading envelopes etc with Lisi and read details of alcohol runs made by staff, no reason to think Stephanie's special sandwich was anything more than a Subway sub w/tomatoes.