Update: Doug Ford has withdrawn from the debate after trying to have longshot candidate Ari Goldkind disinvited. Golkind, Olivia Chow, and John Tory are now scheduled to take part.
A potential showdown between Doug Ford and the man who tried to sell the infamous Rob Ford “crack video” appears to have been avoided, after Mohamed Farah agreed not to attend a mayoral debate in North York Friday night.
Farah, a community organizer in North Etobicoke, ignited the biggest political scandal in Toronto history last May when he tried to auction off to media outlets a video of Mayor Ford, Councillor Doug Ford’s brother, smoking crack. Farah was acting on behalf of another man who surreptitiously shot the footage.
In an article published on Thursday, Vice Magazine reported that Farah would be representing Rexdale at a debate at Yorkwoods Library Theatre hosted by the Inner City Union.
Reached for comment on Thursday afternoon, debate moderator Antonius Clarke acknowledged that Farah was a member of the group that organized the debate but said that he had “only been at one meeting” and had not been designated an ambassador for Rexdale. He wouldn’t rule out Farah playing some role in the event, however.
But in a second interview later in the evening, Clarke said that Farah had agreed to stay away.
“I got a call from a few candidates’ offices saying that if he is in the same room, they would not attend,” said Clarke. Doug Ford, Olivia Chow, and John Tory are all confirmed to take part, but Clarke would not say which candidate or candidates objected. A spokesperson for Chow said her team had not discussed Farah with the organizers. The other two candidates did not return a request for comment. Farah could not be reached.
Although Farah’s absence means a potentially explosive situation has been defused, Clarke said he was unhappy that “people are being excluded.”
“This is a democratic process, this is a public event. Everyone should be able to attend. But the reality is not that,” he said, noting that his priority was to shine a spotlight on the problems facing disadvantaged communities.
Among the themes that candidates will be asked to discuss at the debate are policing, racism, housing, poverty, and childcare.
Clarke, who founded the Friends in Trouble initiative in 2004 and won the Lincoln Alexander Award for anti-racism in 2010, argues that the issues facing the city’s priority neighbouhoords have been completely ignored during this election. “We know that these communities are pretty much invisible cities until crime occurs,” he said. “They are being neglected.”
Even when crime does occur, reaction from the city’s powerful can be muted, Clarke says. It took Police Chief Bill Blair three days to comment on the double slaying of 15-year-old Michael Menjivar and 17-year-old Zaid Youssef near a North Etobicoke high school earlier this week, a stark contrast to the reaction following high-profile murders of young people in other areas of the city. Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, who has held most of the mayor’s powers since November, has yet to make a public statement.
In the interview with Vice, Farah voiced similar concerns about his community being neglected by city government. He complained that when Rob Ford was a city councillor for Etobicoke North between 2000 and 2010, he dealt with residents’ problems on an individual basis but “he didn’t have any initiatives or policies or anything for the community to build a recreation centre or more after-school programs… Apparently it’s a waste of money, or a hug-a-thug program.”
Mayor Ford had originally planned to attend the debate, but he withdrew from the race last month after being diagnosed with a tumour. He is in hospital this week for a second round of chemotherapy to treat liposarcoma, a rare form of cancer.
bens@nowtoronto.com | @BenSpurr
This story has been updated from a previous version.
