Rob Ford did. That’s what his staff are claiming, in any event.  As I said to a Globe reporter yesterday:  “If a guy wearing a white hard hat, with a German accent and looking a lot like Ernst Zundel showed up at your political event, claimed to be John Smith, and said he was interested in discussing health care, wouldn’t you be a bit wary?”

Anyway, yesterday’s post attracted a fair bit of attention. Ford is a 24/7 human gong show, and this is just one more episode in a series. You can read up on it here and here and here and here and here.  There’s more here, too.

Latvis, seen below with Rahowa (to the right of lead singer George Burdi, centre), has been unsurprisingly unavailable for comment. I presume that is because Latvis stated on Facebook what he discussed with Ford was “the Latvian Home Guard.” Along with his stormtrooper-ish mien, that should have set off alarm bells, too. The Latvian Guard actively participated in the Holocaust, and murdered tens of thousands of Jews, a fact that could have been readily ascertained by Ford’s staff, had they spent a few moments on the Internet.  Examples are here and here and here and here.

So, too, Latvis himself. His past involvement in the world’s biggest neo-Nazi rock band in recent history was no secret.  He was proud of it, in fact. It is all over the Internet, along with Latvis’ enthusiasm for white supremacy and anti-Semitism.

Here he is with Rahowa. Took me three seconds to find it on Google.  As I told that Globe reporter yesterday, the job of staff is to ensure these types of incidents don’t happen. Someone should lose their job over this.

Comments (5)

From “Jay” at jc1@bell.net:

This is the stupidest website I have ever seen.
I have read the comments left by loyal followers of this website, and I can say
I would not be proud of the quality of character’s that this website attracts.
But, I guess the fish rots from the head down!

Website:
IP: 76.70.91.252

Comments (11)

Here. In other news, up in Ottawa, certain members of the press gallery don’t know what to do with themselves.

Comments (4)

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.

-30-

George Christopoulos
Press Secretary
Office of the Mayor
City of Toronto
P: 416-338-6642
E: gchrist2@toronto.ca

Comments (67)

As I speak on Krista’s show, Christy Clark is observed lurking behind the set.

Comments (30)

…because they don’t want to hear the truth.

Comments (3)

Well Warren I take a major offence to being call names by you on BY Line , the Liberals that created the problems in this country .Treadeu brought in all the NIGGERS to this country just for votes, now you want to call me names for the mess you idiots created. Why don’t you clean up your mess and leave the good people that have lived up to the law alone. If you did any research only 1 registered hand gun was ever in an insolent so I guess  youre the F**ken idiot for not doing your home work. Go after the Bad Boys You brought into this country.
 
Dennis Lammi
Oakville
905-847-8944

Comments (21)

From msccust@gmail.com:

What kind of a moron are you?
You typical stupid ignorant liberal asshole, wo someone is breaking into your
house and raping and you want to wait for the police to show up, when
in 1 hour? what kind of a stupid moron are you get a life and I can’t believe
the sun news network give you any time on the air
Asshole prick,

Website:
IP: 70.75.27.210

Comments (18)

Delighted to hear this.  I would, however, have left ‘Belsen Was A Gas’ out.  It wasn’t funny, it wasn’t ironic, and it wasn’t right.  (Tabby Southey probably thought it a laugh riot, however.)

To commemorate the occasion, here is a vintage Pistols vid, featuring a song that changed young Warren forever at age 16:

Comments (9)

…that’s a fair metaphor to describe the Ontario Convenience Store Association’s (OCSA) demand that they be permitted to sell booze.  (McGuinty has said no, and Hudak has refused to say yes.)

The last we heard of them, the OCSA was effectively the face of Big Tobacco in Ontario.  They lobbied vigorously against modest measures to keep kids from getting their hands on tobacco.

These characters are only interested in making more money.  They don’t give a sweet damn about harm to the public.

Comments (42)