05.18.2014 08:35 AM

Have you no sense of decency, sir? At long last, have you left no sense of decency?

I live three doors down from not one, but two, group homes. Without exception, the developmentally-challenged folks who live in them are quieter and nicer neighbours than the other neighbours I’ve got.

I spent yesterday at a big family get-together, cleaning the roof, moving generators, trying to start a fire, and shooting off fireworks for Son Three. I therefore didn’t see this.

What can you say? You can say what I said in a speech in Ottawa last week.

“These people are a disgrace. These people are a stain on our politics. And, by all that is holy, I swear to God that I will spare no effort in driving them, and the memory of them, from office.”

.

38 Comments

  1. Duane says:

    I would much rather live next to a group home that is trying to improve the lives of these people than live next door to a crack addict that brings drug dealers and criminals into the neighbourhood. Or next to someone whos’ life is a freak show that has the media trucks and journalists camped out on the street waiting for the next stupid thing to happen to that person (I will not say that person name as he does not deserve any more attention). That would have a much great impact on property values than a group home.

  2. Coelocanth_Jones says:

    Doug knows that the hard-luck folks in group living arrangements are beneath him, why can’t they just wander around, taking selfies and internalizing enabling praise like normal folk?

  3. The Golem says:

    I’m sure Doug thinks if the autistic kids lose a few pounds their problems will be solved.

    But Toronto has a Human Rights Code, and it seems to me that Doug Ford is violating it. Is there a way to lodge a complaint against his comments?
    http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=05f1c4aa6f907310VgnVCM1000003dd60f89RCRD&vgnextchannel=526ae03bb8d1e310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextfmt=default

  4. It’s unfathomable. My small downtown street has a drop-in centre at the corner for folks living with mental illness, and a hospice at the other end for people living with AIDS. These hospice used to have a high gay population, but now, with the advent of drug therapies, it’s mostly for patients with drug addictions. Not only have there been no problems with either of these places in the 13 years I’ve lived here, but the people at the drop-in centre are particularly considerate.

    I leave old clothes and other items on the sidewalk for anyone to take, and several of the men there make regular perusals. They carefully fold each item that they don’t take, and leave them in a tidy pile. Sure, it’s a perfectly normal thing to do… but they’re the only ones who do it.

    I don’t buy into flowery PC speak about how these places ‘enrich a community’ or what have you. They’re struggling with some serious issues, and sometimes it’s not pretty to observe the evidence writ large on their faces and bodies. But they’re ours. They’re our neighbours, and they’re just trying to get through, like any of the rest of us. They harm no-one, and I find the irony of this bloated waste of human tissue rejecting them to be palpable. There but for inheritance and extreme privilege would go his own family.

    • Apostate says:

      Well said, Serafin….for all his families wealth and “breeding”……the man remains terribly ignorant…….sad…….

    • susan macisaac says:

      Bloated waste of human tissue, the perfect description for Doug Ford and the rest of his family.

      I am the mother of a developmentally challenged son. He has as much right to live a meaningful life in the community with the full support of the community as every one else does.

      I am deeply offended by what Doug Ford said.

  5. david ray says:

    ever notice the Fords don’t hurt people so much as hunt them.

  6. Andy says:

    Unfortunately, not everyone’s experiences with group homes is positive. We had one down the block in our old neighborhood. The people there broken into neighborhood homes (including ours, we invested in an alarm system) and there was prostitution for drugs going on. There were fist fights on the front lawn and had a person passed on our porch a few times.

    It was not pretty for a few years. Community services eventually changed the roll of the group home. But it was a nasty few years. But got better when a church group stepped in.

    • smelter rat says:

      The point is, any of your neighbours could have caused you the same problems. At least with a group home, there are ways of dealing with any negative issues that arise.

      • Andy says:

        Considering our neighbors were all retired people and pensioners, don’t think they had the ability to do any of the above.

        • smelter rat says:

          Bullshit. Senior/pensioners aren’t invalids, and they’re not stupid. Also, you’ve still missed the point entirely.

          • Andy says:

            Of course, I got your point.

            FYI: The police generally went straight to the group home when any issue was reported in the neighborhood…not my neighbors house.

    • VC says:

      That group home that you describe sounds a lot like a certain mayor’s family and inner circle of friends. Was the group home known as the Ford residence, by chance?

  7. e.a.f. says:

    Being Autistic isn’t a choice. You are born with it and that is it. The Ford brother’s behaviour, well there is no accounting for it. To make the statements, Doug Ford did regarding people living in a group home, which are developmentally delayed/stopped, is a violation of the Human Rights code anywhere in Canada. If you’ve lived next to a drug house, living next to a group home for autistic people is a walk in a lovely park.

    Ford obviously doesn’t understand any one can be born with Autisim, or downs syndrome, or any other type of syndrome. These syndromes don’t wait until they find the right “host”. Families everywhere in Canada have had children born with these syndromes. What would Ford do if one of his relatives were born with one of these syndromes. O.K. we know they all have the stupid white guy syndrome, but that can be dealt with by taking some courses in commons sense and decent manners.

    It is hoped someone files a Human Rights complaint against Ford for his comments.

    There is no place for him in a civilized society. You can think what you want, but you can’t say what you want, there are laws.

  8. Iris Mclean says:

    Is there anyone in that family who isn’t a wasted piece of shit?
    Have to wonder what Doug Ford Sr. would be thinking, or was he a wasted piece of shit too?

  9. Patrick says:

    Awesome. Everyday, with each vulgar spew, Doug reveals the foulness of the ford world. By election time these blights on the human genome will be eradicated from any influence on our city. Go rob and Doug! Keep pounding those nails in your coffins.

  10. debs says:

    money cant buy you manners or charisma, but it sure as hell can buy you a decent PR guy, too bad they dont stop talking and hire real talent. The ego and arrogance these fords exhibit is disgusting. They were not brought up by any sense of decency or caring or how to respect others. The fords are like wild animals dressed in expensive clothing. Its bizarre! The mother should be proud of what she has wrought, the father must have been the guy who had a sense of how to act in society as the rest seem to struggle with some of the most obvious social mores. The only real place for these idiots is on an american styled reality show called “growing up ford:P”

    • No decent public relations company or individual would work for these Neanderthal idiots.

      • debs says:

        lol, yeah they kinda have ruined that option, hah mostly because they refuse to follow any good advice. I should send them an email saying I can help them out. But my advice would be a name change and flying to an exotic island on the other side of the world.

  11. Mike Sloan says:

    Would you rather live near a group home or a Ford family member?

  12. Ian Howard says:

    Calm down and tone down the vitriol people.

    “There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too.”

    Kurt Vonnegut

    • smelter rat says:

      You have no business quoting Vonnegut, a humanitarian if ever there was one, to support some sort of misplaced Ford lovefest.

      • Ian Howard says:

        It was the over the top invocation of God, Vonnegut would have found distasteful. God Bless You Mr. Rosewater might be a good place for you to read some Vonnegut.

  13. Reality.Bites says:

    When did Doug Ford have a sense of decency to lose?

  14. Sean says:

    Well said, Warren. As for me, I’d rather live next to a maximum security prison then brother crack-head.

  15. Paul says:

    Warren,

    I grew up next to a group home for teens with developmental challenges run by a local non-profit on Vancouver’s westside. They were mostly kids with down syndrome. My brother and I played basketball with them. They brought our cat back when it strayed into their kitchen and passed it over the gate we had between our yards. Or we just sat around our picnic table on a lazy summer afternoons and talked with them over a juice or pop about what ever popped into our heads.

    When it changed to a home for young adults, it was pretty much the same. I remember going for coffee with David. We talked about his work, my studies, girls and baseball. The only problem? He was obsessed with the Blue Jays — and I’ll admit I’ve never been interested in baseball at all.

    I remember people like Doug Ford coming around asking us about the house next door, looking for reasons to complain about having a group home in their neighbourhood. We always seemed to disappoint them.

    After all, they were our neighbours — and as you said, the best of neighbours.

    Thanks for speaking out.

  16. Matt says:

    Did you happen to see John Tory’s response to Ford’s comments?

    “Deeply regrettable and from another age”

    Um, yeah. Like telling women to learn to play golf if they want to get ahead in business.

  17. Jeff says:

    I’ve done a lot of work with the developmentally disabled community. Like anyone else, they sometimes misbehave and in some cases they’re not the quietest and most courteous group around. But that doesn’t validate Doug or these neighbours’ bigotry.

    We live in such a victim culture where people love to feel inconvenienced. There’s something deeply disturbing about the commonly held conception that exposing children to people with any sort of challenge is a bad thing. This resentment to group homes and the disabled community is scarily common.

    It’s another case of people fearing differences and reacting irrationally. Ford Nation’s a voice to these idiots. Down with the Fords and down with intolerance.

  18. pablo says:

    “Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life”
    – dean wormer, animal house

  19. tf says:

    We all play into the Ford’s hands – don’t you realize this is promotional heaven for him?

    At the public meeting, where Doug Ford made these comments, he speculated that the media would jump on his opinion. Now all those people at the meeting, who actually agree with Doug, are justified in defending him.

    It’s a wonderful political tool – set yourself up for attack and then get your supporters to defend you. We are merely putty in the hands of the Ford marketing machine!

  20. John Werry says:

    I’ll take my own Autistic Spectrum disorder over Antisocial Personality Disorder any day. I’ll take the honour of having worked with Autistic children as an undeserved Spiritual lesson. I value the conversation I had with a young person with likely Aspergers about Quantum Physics and the forward to “Civilization and iIts Discontents” by Freud ( I forget who wrote the forward). : The person who commented on the Griffin Centre?? WOW!

  21. Patrice Boivin says:

    A friend of mine and I went with my parents to New York. On the way, we stopped in a small rural community to buy food by the highway at a fast food place.

    The girl at the counter was all smiles, my friend looked like Kurt Russel in Stargate. “Can I …” then her smile turned into a grimace. “help you?”

    I guess she saw his Dead Kennedys t-shirt. The one with the B-52 dropping bombs on piles of skulls.

    ^_^

  22. Geoff says:

    I can’t believe someone would even say something like that in todays world. I grew up with an Autistic brother, and spent many summers volunteering to work with the mentally challenged. They just want the opportunity to live in the community. Would you be able to get away saying those comments about any other group of society ?

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