TORONTO

Mayor Rob Ford says he should wear his previous sins and is asking mayoral candidates to not take out any retribution on his brother Doug.

“Doug is a good guy and is not what was being said,” the mayor said Monday night. “It’s not fair that he takes the blame for my” (past errors).

Ford was referring to Sunday’s debate hosted by United Jewish Appeal Federation of Greater Toronto and the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs in which mayoral candidate Ari Goldkind called out the mayor’s racial slurs earlier this year that were highly offensive.

“I would start on the issue of anti-Semitism by not having a mayor who refers to us, the people in this room, the Jewish people in this room, with a derogatory name that starts with K,” Goldkind said from the podium. “The fact that he insulted my religion, whether it was under the influence or not, we cannot have a mayor like that because that is where it starts.”

Mayor Ford said he was sitting in the audience and was floored by the comments.

“I was blindsided by it,” Ford said. “I was taken aback. I said to Renata, ‘I don’t remember saying that,’ and she said, ‘Yeah you did. You insulted 99% of the world and you don’t remember covering that one?’ Then I said, oh yeah I do remember and I did apologize. I think maybe I should apologize again but I don’t think it should be blamed on Doug. It’s not his fault. It was my fault.”

Mayor Ford acknowledged his comments were awful. “I was a mess,” he said. “I was inebriated and that is no excuse. I feel terrible for it. I am doing better now. I have not touched a drop of alcohol or done any drugs (since coming out of rehab in June).

When he saw his brother Doug on the ropes trying to get out of political nightmare, Ford said he thought about standing up and addressing the issue. “The problem was it was not my debate and not my place to do that,” he said.

Instead Doug was on his own and tried to address it with his now infamous, “You know something? My doctor, my Jewish doctor, my Jewish lawyer — hold it — my Jewish accountant.”

There was booing.

“Let me finish please. My family has the utmost respect for the Jewish community. The utmost respect,” said Doug Ford. “And we look forward to working with the Jewish community, as we have for the last four years.”

The comments drew scorn, including from front-runner John Tory, whose campaign called it “shameful.”

Doug has told the Sun he should have addressed it in a different way. He also said his wife and her mother are Jewish.

Mayor Ford said the whole thing upset him because “Doug is not anti-Semitic” in any way.

“Are you kidding me. He loves people. He loves everybody.”

The mayor said he too is not bigoted but was impaired, struggling and in a dark place.

“I have changed that and I don’t ever intend to go back to that kind of lifestyle again,” he said. “Nobody there said they were upset with me. Many said they know I felt bad. I have a apologized and maybe I should phone Ari and apologize to him personally.”

Mayor Ford said he was scheduled to go in for his second round of chemotherapy Tuesday but it has been “pushed back until 8 a.m. Wednesday.”

The mayor said he’s crossing his fingers the treatment will help him with his rare cancerous tumours.

But when he goes in, he said, he sure hopes people don’t try to put onto his brother what were his mistakes.

“As I told people that night, ‘This has nothing to do with Doug.’”