No. You're trying to have it both ways again by bringing legal terminology into the court of public opinion. Drop your last sentence. There is no "guilty" here. "Guilty" and "Not guilty" are criminal court terms, neither necessarily having bearing on whether he did it or not. Not guilty doesn't mean innocent.


Serious crime? Hardly. More like a minor slip from social graces and common decency. But I believe her.

Ford really should start taking care of himself though. I'm not saying he's gained more weight recently, only that he's not looking as healthy as he did a year ago.

He looked healthy last year?

Christie Blatchford: Rob Ford and Sarah Thomson — Mr. Train Wreck meets Ms. Train Wreck

Christie Blatchford | 13/03/08 | Last Updated: 13/03/09 3:10 PM ET

Long ago and far away, when dinosaurs roamed the earth and I was a young sportswriter, I attended a banquet of some description for some good cause. Seated beside me was a lovely man who was at the time the most famous hockey player in the world.

At some point during the tedious dinner, he squeezed my knee under the table.

As soon as I was able to flee the joint (this was in the years before I knew my tolerance for all such events was absolute zero) and got home, I called my Dad.

“Guess who grabbed my knee under the table?” I cried. “X!”

“Jesus H.!” he said with delight.

It would have been difficult to tell, I’m sure, which of our chests swelled more with pride.

I’m sure to some this speaks to some troubling issues I had, or my father had, or the hockey player had, or just to the bad old days.

That was then.

I thought of it early Friday morning as I began following what my National Post and Newstalk 1010 radio colleague, the clever John Moore, immediately dubbed “Assgrabgate,” the allegations by former mayoral candidate and aspirant Sarah Thomson made against Toronto Mayor Rob Ford.

This is now.

The two attended a swish fundraiser Thursday evening. Shortly after midnight, Ms. Thomson posted comments on her Facebook page, complete with an unflattering shot of the mayor standing beside her, coyly hinting (“Guess where his hand was in this picture? I must go shower” and “Is grabbing someone ass [sic] assault?”) that he had sexually assaulted her.

By the time Mr. Moore was on the air for his morning show, Ms. Thomson was being more direct.

The mayor first had made suggestive remarks, she said, “and then he grabbed my ass…” She professed herself shocked by the purported behaviour, because it was so out of character for Mr. Ford.

Being a thoroughly modern person, she then went on to immediately diagnose him with a substance-abuse problem, a diagnosis from which she later retreated.

By mid-morning, in a second interview on the station, this time with Jerry Agar, Ms. Thomson changed some of the details of her story.

Where first she said she had marched herself after the purported incident directly to “the mayor’s people” — for political creatures like Ms. Thomson, the phrase has specific meaning, and encompasses Mr. Ford’s aides and staff — she now said she had told some “Conservatives” who were connected to the mayor.

(The only people she appears to have named as confidantes were a lobbyist and a Liberal MPP. The latter’s office wisely insisted, as though it were 1973, that the MPP was unavailable for comment and simply could not be reached, modern comms notwithstanding.)

Among the most amusing claims was Ms. Thomson’s that she wasn’t going to take her complaint any further because she just wanted to ‘get it out there’
Shortly thereafter, a Richmond Hill councillor named Carmine Perrelli, who was at the event, was on Mr. Agar’s show.

He said Ms. Thomson casually told his small group that when she had her picture taken with Mr. Ford, he had grabbed her ass. Mr. Perrelli moved on.

Then with a different group, he ran into her again.

She was with a blond friend Mr. Perrelli believes was also named Sarah, and they were plotting how they were going to go back upstairs, where the mayor was still backed into a corner and surrounded by a mob, to set up Mr. Ford by “getting a picture of his hand near [blond] Sarah’s backside so she [Ms. Thomson] could use it in the next election.”

Mr. Perrelli thought about it for a minute and went upstairs himself to warn Mr. Ford’s handlers. “Where is she?” one asked. Mr. Perrelli pointed to Ms. Thomson, who by then was taking a picture of her friend with the mayor.

Mr. Perrelli intended to say nothing else about it until, on one of the morning news shows, he saw Ms. Thomson, “this woman I had just met the night before telling a story, a story that I knew had other components to it, and they weren’t being told.”

His version was backed up by Greg Beros, another Richmond Hill councillor.

He was privy only to the second chat. Ms. Thomson was very animated, Mr. Beros said, talking loudly to the other Sarah, and what he heard her say was this: “‘You know what? We need to go upstairs. We need to get a picture of the mayor’s hand near your butt; it would be good for the campaign.’ ”

And for the record, neither Mr. Beros nor Mr. Perrelli has a horse in this race; they know neither party.

Mr. Ford has since categorically denied all allegations. His chief of staff has done the same.

This astonishing story with all its twists and turns dominated the local news all the lib long day. Among the most amusing claims was Ms. Thomson’s that she wasn’t going to take her complaint any further because she just wanted to “get it out there. If we talk about it, we’ll change society that way.”

(I’ve confirmed she did mention the purported assault to a pay-duty officer on her way out the door. The officer asked if she wanted to file a complaint; she declined.)

Amid the sea of voices were some fretting that Ms. Thomson was being re-victimized by having the inconsistencies in her story questioned, but when you attempt to try a man in the court of public opinion, you reap what you sow.

There are no rules in that court, no effort at fairness, no publication bans to protect the innocent.

If Ms. Thomson believed she was sexually assaulted, she should have complained to a traditional body with the expertise to conduct a proper investigation, like the police. If she believed the mayor had just been a boor, she should have kept her mouth shut; wherever did the notion of discretion among ostensibly capable adults go?

And if she really wanted to run for mayor again, as she told the Richmond Hill councillors that night, she has done herself in. Torontonians are unlikely to spot any significant difference between Mr. Ford and the woman who would have the job.

As a wise friend put it, “Mr. Train Wreck, meet Ms. Train Wreck.”

3 National Post, a division of Postmedia Network Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized distribution, transmission or republication strictly prohibited.



POST POINTSEarn rewards for being a loyal National Post Reader

As a woman, there have been far too many occasions when i have been "touched" inappropiately either by accident or on purpose. i am NO shrinking violet and i have no trouble calling someone out when needed. Why she feels the need to call so much attention to this is ridiculous.

This is not news, move on already.

It's sexual assault if he grabbed her ass. Maybe hang out in a courtroom some time and see actual women dealing with having their ass grabbed by their boss, it's certainly not a "minor slip from social grace". It's a crime. She's trivializing it by hyping it for publicity rather than accusing him properly.

Again, I'm no fan of Rob Ford, but why do you believe her over him?

Try a kilt. I've had my kilt lifted/ass touched more often than I liked.

Try a kilt. I've had my kilt lifted/ass touched more often than I liked.

Several reasons: 1. Ford has exhibited an ongoing history of boorish buffoonism

2. Ford has exhibited and ongoing history of inappropriate conduct while publicly intoxicated;

3. Thomson largely defends Ford's character in telling her story. She emphasizes that she was surprised by his actions, those being out of character in her experiences with Ford. If she was out for malice, she wouldn't have done that;

4. Why would she lie? She has nothing to gain by it and she would have surely anticipated that she'd be accused, by some, of making it up;

5. Ford appears to be intoxicated in the photographs;

6. I tend to believe people when they say things. I take people at their word until proven otherwise;

She doesn't exhibit the characteristic mannerisms of someone who's lying. She's direct, making eye-contact, not flitting about or squirming. She's utterly believable to me.