And I had witnesses and everything.   :P  

I guess I’m projecting my belief that Canada handles these things better than the US, and my own desire for people to be treated VERY harshly when they do this, onto this scenario.

Yes, tell people what a jerk he is _IS_ a good reaction and understandable.  But it’s also very clear that he needs to be removed from office.

I’m still curious about the claims that she was trying to get him to put his hand on her butt for a photo.    I mean, when I was assaulted, all I wanted to do was get the hell out of the room.   I didn’t think about trying to get the person to do it to me again so I could snap a pic.

A lot of people have been saying this and I find it incredible.

First of all, she knows it’s a he said, she said situation.  She knows it’s politically charged and people will say she’s just doing it for that reason.

But secondly, maybe she just doesn’t feel like what happened was criminal.  Sure, it matches the definition of sexual assault in the criminal code, but any time anyone touches you in an unwelcome way it is assault.  Have you called the police every time in your life that someone you knew laid a hand on you?

The criminal code is broadly worded enough that a woman who feels she has been assaulted can press charges, but that individuals are perfectly free to divide unwelcome touches into “criminal” and “just a jerk” as they see fit.  It’s not up to you.  The reaction of tell-people-what-a-jerk-he-was is just as valid as call-the-police.

It’s the same people who complain that we’ve criminalized guys making passes at women who then say a woman lacks credibility if she does not accuse a man who made an unwelcome pass of criminal behaviour.

That’s because, being a tabloid rag, it is not a step above one, right?

But there is more to it than that.  One might reasonably ask why people in Etobicoke, Scarborough and North York voted for Rob Ford.  As supernumary said, were they unaware of what a mad asshat he was?

It would be hard to be unaware.  Rob Ford was off by a factor of 100 more than three times when talking about budget items during the campaign (no joke, he called a bike lane a “$6M bike lane”, it cost $60k to put in).  He was an unrepentant drunk driver, justifying his arrest in Florida by saying he had only shared one bottle of wine with his wife before driving.

I used to think that we elected incompetent fools because they were amiable.  In Ford’s case he far from amiable, he’s a mean-spirited bully.  He’s also not good looking (not that I would vote based on this, but if he were outrageously handsome we might blame his victory on that).

Why did Ford get elected?  Increasingly, it seems like the things that get people elected just have nothing to do with what we think should or even might get people elected.

Also, if they did have something to do with smarts, it would be impossible for me to believe that Ford was not dumb enough.  He’s really stone-stupid.

This is basically “he said she said.” I’m no fan of Rob Ford…scratch that, I fucking HATE Rob Ford…but I find it hard to believe that he would do something so unbelievably stupid, even for him.

His opponents have been relentless in trying to get him removed from office. And while some of the tactics and charges I’ve agreed with, this smells to me like a case of temporary insanity on the part of Sarah Thomson. Caught up in the moment, caught up in her loathing of Rob Ford.

It just seems like a more likely scenario to me. I mean, you’ve got witnesses who were next to them claiming that Ford never said that provocative stuff that Thomson claims he did. They were never alone together, after all.

He’s the mayor, with a long history of things like DUI, reading while driving, a strong sense of entitlement(what about the time he felt that he should be allowed to purchase the city owned parkland adjacent to his residence for reasons of “privacy”), insulting comments and attitudes, his refusal to participate in the giant Pride Parade, citing “family time at his cabin”, etc.etc..

So this woman, with no apparent history of accusations against other politicians/people says that he did something inappropriate.

So she must be lying ?

Pressing charges against a mayor, for groping?  A civil suit?  Please.

The attitude you’ve exhibited here is a large part of the problem.

/s

Thing is…I know her character, where she lives, the racial makeup of the area, and the types of vehicles owned due to socioeconomic reasons.  Every word she claimed was her direct experience and thus the truth….wasn’t.

I suspect the eyewitness you’re quoting is being equally deceitful, and for a similar reason.