This is ARC’s picture of Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, with John Latvis. The last time John and I ran into each other, he was a member of the neo-Nazi band, RAHOWA (Racial Holy War).

More about John, and his exploits, is here and here and here and here.
Here he is in an unofficial shot from ARC, swastika tat evident.

Choice lyrics, sung by John:
I can hear the rumble on the streets
I can see the look in our eyes
I’m more convinced with every person that I meet
We don’t believe the jewish lies
Ref: (Oh oh) I can see us coming on
(Oh oh) I can see the brand new dawn
(Oh oh) WHITE MAN! Stand, march and kill!
That info took me 45 seconds to locate on the Internet. It would have taken the mayor’s staff about as much time. Latvis doesn’t hide his name or past, particularly.
Question: why is Toronto’s mayor palsy with a former neo-Nazi icon?
UPDATE: The Mayor answers. It’s a good answer.
July 26, 2012
Statement from the Office of the Mayor
An online blog today posted a picture of Mayor Rob Ford meeting a citizen during the 2012 New Year’s Levee at Toronto City Hall. The blog alleges the man posing with the Mayor is a member of a hate group and has a history of making racist, hateful and offensive comments.
The Mayor of Toronto meets, and poses for photos, with thousands of residents each year. Over the past two years, the Mayor has hosted two New Year’s Levees. These events welcomed over 800 visitors to City Hall, and 700 to 750 of them were personally greeted by the Mayor who posed with them for photographs.
While having his photo taken with the Mayor, the gentleman in the photo requested a meeting with the Mayor to discuss issues of concern to him as a constituent. The Mayor routinely receives these requests from members of the public and makes every effort to accommodate them whenever possible. In March 2012, the gentleman met briefly with the Mayor to discuss his concerns which primarily focussed on transit issues.
During both the Levee and the March meeting, the gentleman identified himself using a name different from the one attributed to him in the recent blog article. Once the photograph was posted online today, Mayor’s Office staff recognized the individual as someone who had met with the Mayor at the Levee and again in March.
At no time was the Mayor aware of allegations that this individual had made racist, hateful or otherwise offensive comments, nor were any such comments made during his meeting with the Mayor. Mayor Ford is a strong supporter of Toronto’s Jewish community and strongly deplores anti-Semitism in any form.
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George Christopoulos
Press Secretary
Office of the Mayor
City of Toronto
P: 416-338-6642
E: gchrist2@toronto.ca
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