TORONTO

Mayor Rob Ford kept dodging questions Thursday about whether he made the high school football players he coached roll in “goose scat,” called them “c---suckers” and showed up “inebriated” at practice.

The allegations, along with reports of bullying and intimidation, are outlined in documents released by the Toronto Catholic District School Board this week. They provide a comprehensive chronicle of the events leading up to Ford’s dismissal as coach of the Don Bosco Eagles football team in May 2013 and how the mayor’s comments about the team in a Sun News Network interview sparked the ouster.

Ford ignored questions about the salacious details as he rushed in and out of the mayor’s office Thursday.

Councillor Doug Ford claimed “there is no politician in this entire country that has put more money, more effort and most importantly more time into youth than Rob Ford has.”

“I know you guys don’t have anything else to do but look up stuff two years ago, fictitious rumours and allegations,” Ford said.

“There is no one that comes close to Rob when it comes to supporting youth in this city.”

Councillor Jaye Robinson said the allegations are disturbing but not surprising and “speak volumes.”

“He was fired as a football coach at a high school, how can he run a city?” Robinson asked.

Councillor Joe Mihevc said he wasn’t surprised by the reports.

“It is yet another chapter showing that he doesn’t have the leadership skills, that he doesn’t have the people skills, that his approach and his style is more brutal than it is helpful,” Mihevc said. “It gives further testament to the fact that he’s not even close, not even close to being mayor material for this city.”

As for Councillor Ford’s dismissal, Mihevc encouraged residents “to take his comments with a grain of salt.”

A briefing note in the documents, obtained by the Toronto Sun on Thursday, outline “critical incidents” involving Ford.

According to the document, Ford clashed with school officials, swore and made derogatory statements at them, challenged a member of the teaching staff to a fight, offered custodians cash to keep the school open after hours for football conditioning sessions, took the students on “unsanctioned” trips and reneged on a promise to pay $5,000 for 25 football helmets.

The document goes on to allege Ford — who sought treatment for drug and alcohol addictions earlier this year — showed up drunk at a practice just before the Eagles were in the Metro Bowl in 2012. That event came the same day a judge ruled Ford had violated the Municipal Conflict of Interest Act and should be kicked out of office (that decision was later reversed on appeal).

“The mayor shows up late and visibly inebriated at the final practice the evening before the Metro Bowl Championship game after being absent from City Hall in the aftermath of the judge’s conflict of interest decision against him,” the TCDSB document stated.

“During the post-practice meeting with coaches and organizers, the mayor is incoherent and pushes to have the players sequestered with him the entire afternoon in a room at City Hall prior to their Metro Bowl Championship game at the Rogers Centre.”

According to the board, Ford also made the players roll in goose poop at a post-game practice.

“At practice after game vs. (Father Henry Carr) He made the players roll in goose scat and he called them c---suckers,” the document states. “He used profane language that was excessive.”

The documents also include a 2012 letter from Chief Bill Blair providing the mayor’s background check so he could comply with the board’s rules for providing a vulnerable sector reference check and continue coaching.

“I have reviewed the applicable records and I am satisfied that there is nothing that would preclude your work with members in the vulnerable sector,” Blair writes in the letter to Ford dated Sept. 13, 2012.

According to the documents, Ford’s interview with Sun News Network about his coaching sealed his fate as a football coach.

An e-mail from Don Bosco principal Ugo Rossi to board officials drew attention to the March 2013 interview that was posted on the Toronto Sun website.

“Mr. Ford once again casts a negative image on Don Bosco,” Rossi writes. “This negative commentary about the school and the community by the mayor is reckless and problematic. I am extremely infuriated by this video. I am a very patient Catholic but this is enough.

“This is our Bosco, these are our students, they deserve better.”

Just over two months later, as the allegations that Ford had smoked crack cocaine first surfaced the board announced the mayor had been sacked as a volunteer coach.

Ford’s mayoral rivals also addressed the allegations on Thursday.

Tory campaign spokesman Amanda Galbraith called the allegations “another example of Rob Ford’s style of leadership.

“He is a bully and he cannot work with others to get anything done,” Galbraith said. “Toronto needs a mayor who can work with the other levels of government to get things done and that’s John Tory.”

The Olivia Chow campaign said the community’s response “speaks for itself.”

“We need a mayor who’ll build our city up, not make neighbourhoods feel dragged down,” said Chow campaign spokesman Jamey Heath.



Don Bosco/Mayor Ford Ford documents via the Toronto Catholic District School Board