TORONTO

Embattled Toronto mayor Rob Ford has been through his share of legal battles since taking office, and his next fight in a courtroom may be against diminutive city councillor Pam McConnell.

McConnell told the Toronto Sun at City Hall on Thursday she has had to receive physiotherapy and continues to suffer headaches and shoulder and neck pain since being knocked down by Ford during a heated Nov. 18 council meeting over the mayor’s conduct and the drug scandal that now perpetually surrounds him.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with chiropractors and massage therapists,” McConnell said. “The next day (I realized) he had clearly hurt my shoulder and neck, and certainly I’ve been battling with headaches. But, in general, I’m lucky to be alive, and I’m very thankful I haven’t stopped my work.”

McConnell also said she is not ruling out taking some kind of legal action against Ford, who trampled McConnell while running to the rescue of his brother, councillor Doug Ford, who was at the time engaged in a verbal altercation with spectators in the council chamber’s gallery.

She was helped up by staffers, and at the time suffered a fat lip.

“I’m looking at all the options to see what is available,” she said. “At the moment, I have a report being done by security, and I’ve asked that the integrity commissioner look at that ... I’m not ruling out anything at the moment.”

Ford, who has since May been at the centre of a scandal involving a video showing him smoking crack cocaine, physically aggressive with the media.

On Thursday, the day after the media reported on court documents detailing Ford’s interactions with Etobicoke-based gang members, Toronto’s mayor routinely avoided the media at City Hall by lunging through groups of reporters and cameramen, at times knocking people aside.

And weeks ago, following one of his final Sunday radio shows on Newtalk 1010, Ford quickly backed out of a parking spot in the radio station’s garage while photographers were behind his SUV. Nobody was hurt in the incident.





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