Rob Ford is getting a thumbs-down on social media after a Facebook post described an unexpected encounter with the mayor Friday night at the intersection of Dundas St. W. and Spadina Ave. According to the post, Ottilie Mason and her 6-year-old daughter pulled up next to Ford and spotted him talking on his cellphone while driving. So they did what they always do when they dislike something.
They gave him a thumbs-down, and Mason rolled down her window and said: “Get off your cellphone.”
Mason said Ford responded by giving her the finger.
“I’m shocked. I had to drive around the block to calm down,” said Mason, who was dropping off her daughter’s babysitter in the Kensington Market area. The 43-year-old woman corroborated the sequence of events.
Ford didn’t roll his window down, Mason said.
The mayor’s office would not comment, nor confirm whether the incident happened.
“Elected officials are held to a certain expectation of respect. When they are caught doing something obviously wrong and dangerous, you say ‘sorry’ and that’s done with it,” Mason said. “What can I say to that? I’d accept your apology. But it made me madder that he reacted the way he did.”
Mason, an artist and designer, said she was driving east on Dundas, and Ford was driving a beige minivan with a licence plate that says “ROBFORD.”
She has never been a Ford supporter and disagrees with his policies, she said. This incident confirms her opinion, she added.
“I know he has major work to do and a huge population to be responsible for, but he could have said ‘I’m sorry.’ We all make mistakes,” she said.
Mason’s post has been shared on Facebook and Twitter, eliciting both angry and skeptical responses.
A man who shared the post on Facebook said: “I’m unsure if this is true . . . but I wouldn’t be surprised.”
A comment on Mason’s post said, “He is a bully and obviously feels that he is above the law. He only cares about himself. He didn’t care that a woman and child saw the finger.”
The cellphone in question is itself the stuff of legend. Ford is famous for inviting constituents to call him on his cell to discuss grievances with the city — even responding to calls when he was in the hospital with a kidney stone.
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Source: Toronto Star
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