OP-ED: Rob Ford’s legacy deserves respect, not a Netflix hit job
Sue-Ann Levy writes, "It’s been nine years since Rob Ford passed away at age 46 of an aggressive form of stomach cancer."
Author: Sue-Ann Levy
It’s been nine years since Rob Ford passed away at age 46 of an aggressive form of stomach cancer.
He was a controversial, brash and colourful Toronto mayor not without his demons.
He also had a heart of gold and an affinity for the common man.
I got to know him, reported on many a story about him and crafted an entire chapter about him in my book Underdog. My chapter was written with empathy and compassion.
I lived through that time from 2010 on when the left-wing legacy media could not accept that he’d won and wanted to end the Gravy Train, about which they’d very much sanctioned and ignored in their coverage, just like the Democratically-aligned media in the United States.
It made me sick then how they treated him.
And yet again the vultures are back.
A trashy, one-sided, just-released documentary on Netflix and its director/producer, Shianne Brown, a London native who has done work for the BBC, has rehashed the most sensational and unfortunate aspects of his mayoralty.
There is no attempt to strike a balance or to interview those of us who did not stalk and harass him.
The train wreck of a film is ironically called Train Wreck: The Mayor of Mayhem. Never mind the mayhem caused by the left-wing media.
It is told from the vantage point of those legacy media who harassed him, profited from his demise and were even promoted for their mean-spirited coverage.
The director quotes portly Katie Simpson of the CBC, who hounded him and for her mean spiritedness was rewarded with a plum assignment in the U.S.
We see Robyn Doolittle, then of the Toronto Star, who had a crack tape about him fall into her lap, and profited from that by writing a book called Crazy Town detailing his addictions.
There’s Mark Towhey, a weasel of a man who was his chief of staff for a time, and subsequently threw him under the bus with a narcissistic opus about how he tried to help the world’s “most notorious mayor.”
We see Councillors Josh Matlow and retired John Filion, both incompetent and tremendously unlikable media whores, reminisce about all his failings, as if they never did anything wrong.
To write this piece, I forced myself to relive the most sensational scenes of vultures descending on this man.
They tried to force him out through lawfare when harassment didn’t work. He wouldn’t back down or quit even when cancer started to get the better of him.
These were the very same hypocrites who have and continue to clutch their pearls about safe injection sites for crack addicts and insist we have empathy for the drug addicts who clog our downtown streets and parks.
They also insist they’re against bullying, except for those who are not politically aligned with their view of the world.
The director includes mean spirited and terribly unfunny clips of the U.S. talk shows who mocked him for a few laughs.
Only his assistants Tom Beyer and Jerry Ayemang, whose loyalty took a toll on their personal lives, showed an ounce of compassion in the movie.
Not so with the vindictive media and their political acolytes.
Asked in the film about his legacy, CBC’s Simpson couldn’t even muster the class to say something decent.
She said he’d be remembered for being “unpredictable.”
Yes he was unpredictable.
He did not accept the predictability of politicians swilling at the trough at taxpayers expense. He vowed to end the Gravy Train and for a time he did, even ending the $90K spent on staff to water the plants of his prima Donna colleagues.
Robyn Doolittle who wrote a book exploiting the crack story that essentially fell into her lap, could only say “outspoken.”
Yes he was outspoken. He spoke out about corrupt politicians and leftist loons who turned City Hall into a circus.
Toronto Star City Hall reporter and former bureau chief Dave Rider — who never broke a story unless handed to him on a silver platter — called Ford “dishonest.”
Such class and rather rich coming from a reporter who constantly skewed stories with little objectivity whatsoever.
Josh Matlow, ever vindictive, called him “exploitative.’
Talk about projection.
There were many more on council back then she didn’t quote who pontificated about his drinking issues while hiding their own and other reporters who enjoyed being part of the media mob.
I can’t for the life of me understand why Brown and Netflix felt it necessary to rehash this tragic story, except to say that it is indicative of the nastiness and the sanctimonious virtue signaling of the left here in Canada and south of the border—and by extension in her native England.
I guess, she too, wanted to jump on the Gravy Train at Ford’s expense.
I wish they’d all just let him rest in peace.
Thank you for this. I won't be watching that show. Ontario (and Canada) would be much better off if Rob was still alive.
I fell for the propaganda back then and the last 5 years have made me question what I believed about the Rob Ford years. If I had my current wisdom, I am sure I would have seen things differently. I wonder what happened to the Rob Ford voters because they don’t seem to be showing up to the polls.