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The truth about right-wing crack addicts

Rob Ford, harm reduction,
and hypocrisy

By Sophie Isbister,
Life & Style Editor

fter taking a blow in the

polls during the British
Columbia provincial election on
May 14, Canadian left-wingers
enjoyed a bit of schadenfreude
from the east, in the form of
Toronto’s Conservative Mayor,
Rob Ford, and his now infamous
crack video.

In case you spent the
last half of May without an
Internet connection, I'll get
you up to speed: there is a
video in existence, viewed by
two Toronto Star reporters and
one reporter from the website
Gawker.com, which appears
to depict Mayor Ford smoking
crack cocaine. Gawker broke
the story on May 16, and
quickly set up a Kickstarter
account (affectionately called
the Crackstarter) with the intent
to raise the $200,000 the owners
of the video want for it. The
Kickstarter has already raised
the money, but no tape has yet
materialised.

So who’s Rob Ford?
Accused of sexually harassing
female opponents, charged with
a DUI, and famous for public
drunkenness, Ford doesn’t have
the best record—and that’s just
his personal life, not his political

record. To give you a taste of
that, here’s something he said
back when he was a lowly city
counsellor: “If you are not doing
needles and you are not gay, you
wouldn't get AIDS probably,
that’s bottom line... those are the
facts.” Anti-fact, anti-bike lane,
anti-media, and anti-LGBTQ;
you could call Rob Ford the anti-
Gregor Robertson, basically the
polar opposite of the mayor in
Canada’s major West Coast city.

But to me, the most
appalling aspect of this whole
controversy is the attitude that
Ford and other right-wing
politicians take towards drug
addicts that aren’t their cronies.
According to the Gawker report
that shed international light
on the scandal, Ford and his
other crack-smoking buddies in
Toronto’s elite all get their goods
from the same dealer. A lot of
people are smoking crack and
ingesting all kinds of controlled
substances in the city of Toronto,
but the only ones that Ford and
his ilk seem to hate are the poor
ones.

Which only reinforces my
belief that it isn’t drug addicts
that right-wing politicians
hate, it’s poor drug addicts.
Conservatives don’t hate the
investment banker who sniffs
an eight ball up his nose seven
times a week; they don’t hate
the business owner who does
heroin every day and can afford
it; and they don’t hate alleged
politician crackheads like Rob
Ford, who is publicly adamant

that he is not stepping down
and intends to run in and win

the next mayoral election.

So what kind of drug
addicts do conservatives hate?
They hate the ones they have to
see. They hate the intravenous
drug users who would benefit
from safe injection sites (proven
to save lives), which Ford has
vocally opposed. They hate
impoverished, street-entrenched
youth who hustle for $10 rocks
whenever they can. And they

hate the homeless drug users—
just not enough to give them
homes, as evidenced by this
Ford quote from 2005 on harm
reduction: “It’s euthanasia.
You're just giving them a place
to kill themselves. That’s what
is going to happen. You might
as Well just have a crematorium
beside the crack house.” Ford
went on to say, “I know fora
fact that tough love has worked
and I’m talking from personal
experience. If you just enable

School of Thought: Beach body pressure

By Natalie Serafini, Opinions
Editor

Gunner is here, and a large
aspect of summertime
weather is beach time fun—with
this comes the pressure to look
good in a swimsuit, by whatever
means necessary. ‘Tis the season
for magazines hawking diets,
exercise regimens, and the
perfect bikinis to adorn and
conceal not-so-perfect bikini
bodies. What does all this
persistent pressure mean for
its subjects, namely those who
want to enjoy themselves while
lounging on sandy shores?
Kiran Moore explained
that, “T think girls in general
when they go out on the beaches
and stuff, they wear bikinis,
they want their bodies to look

nice, and their shapes, because
otherwise they wouldn't feel
comfortable about how they
look.”

On the effects of the
pressure to look good, Maryam
Sufizadah said, “I think it’s
a negative because... people
push themselves to look good.
Especially girls.”

With regards to the issue
of beach body pressure, Roger
Olsen said, “It shouldn’t be a
problem. Just go and have fun.”

A theme in the statements
of those interviewed was that
health should always be a goal,
rather than simply losing weight
fast for swimsuit season.

Olsen continued, stating
that the focus shouldn’t be
on diet, but lifestyle. “I think
it’s silly that people start diets
now, versus, you know, a long

time ago when they wanted
to, or that they start diets at
all because really they’re just
doing it for other people, not
themselves.”

Nakisa Maleki echoed
these sentiments, saying, “I
think it’s not very positive
because if people want to be
healthy, it shouldn’t be because
you want to wear a bikini. If you
want to be healthy, you should
be healthy. You don’t need to do
it because of something else.”

Sabrina Rahemtula said,
“Everyone can look their best
and be their best, but some
people take it to an extreme
where they just stop eating.

It depends on the person, it
depends on their mindset, and
what they think they need to be.
I think it also depends on their
confidence level. If they’re not

happy with themselves they’re
just going to do more extreme
things.”

Rahemtula felt the
magazines emphasizing the
importance of being thin and
trim seemed to be guaranteeing
a better life with a smaller build.
“It's empty promises. Like, if
you look like this your life will
be ways better. It’s an empty
promise, it’s not true.”

I can say for myself that,
although I try to approach the
subject of fitness in a healthy
way, I do sometimes succumb to
the pressure to be a bodacious
beach-goer. This pressure isn’t
necessarily bad if it encourages
people to consider their health
more, but a healthy mentality
rarely results. The focus is on
looking good, which is at best a
subjective goal and at worst—if

 

someone and give them a place
to live and money, nothing
changes.”

Easy for you to say, Mr.
Ford. Nobody’s taking away
your home and money, and
nobody ever threatened to.
Rob Ford, and his hypocritical
attitude toward drug addicts,
is emblematic of the entire
failed right-wing approach to
eradicating the illness that is
drug addiction.

based on the templates provided
by photoshopped magazine
covers—an unattainable one.
Obsessive dieting and
general dissatisfaction with
appearance is a common theme,
and I vote that we protest.
When you go to the beach this
summer, go with the intention
of having a good time and not
thinking about your appearance.
Eat well and exercise, but
do it for yourself, not for the
supposed judgment of others.
And even after tans have faded
and the beaches have emptied,
be healthy for the sake of it,
and do it all year round. With a
healthy lifestyle comes a healthy
body, mind, and attitude and
that should extend throughout
the year.

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