By Yohannes Ayalew
Following a citizen complaint by Ethiopian – Canadian Toronto resident, Samuel Getachew, to Toronto’s Integrity Commissionaire about racial slurs made by Rob Ford, one-time Toronto mayor is set to formally apologize from the City Hall chamber on Tuesday, March 31st. His apologies is expected to be directed to his council colleagues, to the residents of Toronto and more specifically to Getachew.
Ford’s comments that included – “Nobody sticks up for people like I do, every f—ing k–e, n—-r, f—ing w-p, d-go, whatever the race. Nobody does. I’m the most racist guy around. I’m the mayor of Toronto.” – was found to be “egregious” and “unbecoming of mayor”, by the integrity commissionaire. According to her, “the serious nature of Ford’s widely reported slurs, an apology is required beyond past ones he has made of his own accord, after admitting he smoked crack and abused alcohol while in office”.
She went on to describe his comments as hurtful and that an apology by the now Councillor would serve a “public interest objectives” and that it would make him (Ford) “to be directly and formally accountable for his actions before council colleagues and the public including the complainant”.
Getachew along with members of the Jewish, Black and South Asian community leaders are expected to attend the procedure at City Hall tomorrow to formally accept Ford’s apology and will be followed by a press conference afterwards.
Photo by Yohannes Ayalew of www.ethiofidel.com
