Assgrabgate: Meet "The Trainwrecks!"

Good Day Readers:

There seems to be a plethora of municipal governance scandals sweeping the country - the mayors of Montreal, London (Ontario), Toronto's Rob Ford and even Winnipeg's His Lordship Smiling Sam Katz has managed to get into the act.

"Shut you face Sam!"

He's scheduled in court early next month on a conflict of interest allegation.

What sets the Ford-Thomson fiasco apart is it's starting to take on a Monty Pythonesque quality.

Sarah Thomson: "You grabbed my ass!"
Mayor Ford: "No I didn't!"
Sarah Thomson: "Yes you did!"
Mayor Ford: "No I didn't!"
Sarah Thompson: "Then you were high on cocaine at the time!"
Mayor Ford: "No I wasn't!"
Sarah Thomson: "Yes you were!"
Mayor Ford: "....."

You have to wonder where all this is going to end.

Sincerely,
Clare L. Pieuk

Sarah Thomson offers no proof to back Rob Ford cocaine speculation

Sarah Thomson took to the airwaves Monday morning, speculating the mayor may have been using drugs last Thursday

By Jeff Green
Monday, March 11, 1013

Sarah Thomson scrums at Bathurst and Bloor Streets after making substance abuse allegations against Mayor Rob Ford. She provided no evidence her findings were the result of a Google search. (Jeff Green/Toronto Star)

The war of words between Mayor Rob Ford and former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson took another ugly turn Monday morning.

Thomson speculated Ford may have been on cocaine when the mayor allegedly grabbed her buttocks and made a suggestive remark at a party held by a Jewish political group last Thursday.

Thomson said she had no proof of drug use and that she made the allegation based on a Google search over the weekend.

“I looked up (Ford’s) symptoms and it looked like it was cocaine use. It could have been anything like that. I’m not sure what it is,” Thomson said Monday on Toronto radio station KiSS 92.5.

“I don’t have actual proof, it’s just based on the symptoms,” Thomson said. “And the symptoms I’ve read on cocaine seem to fit.”

She said Ford had been behaving in an “erratic” manner and that her Internet search also suggested his behaviour could be attributable to diabetes.

Ford refused to comment on Thomson’s allegations as he left his City Hall office Monday afternoon, accompanied by his two young children. “I’ve said what I have to say. I don’t have any further comment. Thank you very much,” he told reporters.

Related

• Sarah Thomson wants apology after accusing Mayor Rob Ford of inappropriate touch 
• Mayor Rob Ford, Sarah Thomson trade barbs, sustain furor 

On Friday, Ford in a statement called Thomson’s original claim “absolutely, completely false.”

On Sunday, Ford took to the airwaves on Newstalk 1010 to fire back at Thomson’s original allegations made on International Women’s Day. Ford said Thomson, a transit advocate and publisher of the Women’s Post, wasn’t “playing with a full deck.”

Thomson claimed that Ford grabbed her buttocks at a political party last Thursday while she was getting a photo with the mayor. She also said the mayor made a suggestive comment that Thomson should have joined the mayor in his recent trip to Florida because his wife would be absent.

Thomson made the claim through a post on her Facebook page.

With files from Daniel Dale