March 7, 2007: During a council budget debate, Mr. Ford says: “What I compare bike lanes to is swimming with the sharks. Sooner or later, you’re going to get bitten. And every year we have dozens of people that get hit by cars or trucks. Well, no wonder. Roads are built for buses, cars and trucks. Not for people on bikes. And my heart bleeds for them when I hear someone gets killed, but it’s their own fault at the end of the day.” (See video above.)
If you’re not doing needles and you’re not gay, you won't get AIDS, probably.
June 28, 2006: During a council debate on public-health grants for community-based AIDS-prevention programs, Mr. Ford says: “If you’re not doing needles and you’re not gay, you won't get AIDS, probably.”
Councilor Rob Ford walks past a "no bull" poster after announcing his bid to run for mayor of Toronto in March 25, 2010.
April 15, 2006: Security guards remove a drunken and belligerent Mr. Ford from a Maple Leafs game after he shouts insults at an out-of-town couple. The attacks began after the man asks Mr. Ford to be quiet. Mr. Ford responds: “Who the fuck do you think you are? Are you a fucking teacher?” Failing to get a response, he turns his attention to the man’s wife: “Do you want your little wife to go over to Iran and get raped and shot?” The couple realizes the angry man’s identity after Mr. Ford leaves behind a business card. When reporters confront Mr. Ford with the couple’s complaint, he denies being at the hockey game. A day later, he comes clean, saying he lied because he felt “embarrassed and humiliated.” He also says: “I had one too many beers and I sincerely apologize.” Mr. Ford later e-mails the couple an apology, writing: “My complete lack of manners were unprofessional, immature, and do not in any way reflect my usual behaviour in public.”
Dec. 7, 2005: Railing against new powers for the mayor, Mr. Ford says: “Giving the mayor more power for this council is like giving criminals free guns.” The comment draws a chorus of unsuccessful demands for him to withdraw the remark.
Toronto City Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby in December, 2006.
July 23, 2005: During a council debate over a pothole, Mr. Ford calls fellow Councillor Gloria Lindsay Luby “a joke. She’s a waste of time. A waste of skin.”
July 19, 2005: During a council debate over speeding up construction of affordable housing units, Mr. Ford says: “People do not want government housing built in the city of Toronto. They want roads fixed, more police presence, but they don’t want more government housing that will depreciate the value of their property.”
June 14, 2005: Mr. Ford questions the utility of grant programs for transgendered and transsexual people during a council debate. “I don’t understand. No. 1, I don’t understand a transgender, I don’t understand, is it a guy dressed up like a girl or a girl dressed up like a guy? And we’re funding this for, I don’t know, what does it say here? We’re giving them $3,210?”
April 17, 2002: During a council debate on whether there should be homeless shelters across the city, rather than only downtown, Mr. Ford says: “This is an insult to my constituents to even think about having a homeless shelter in their ward. And you want me to have a public meeting to discuss this? Why don’t we have a public lynching?” (See video above.)
Toronto City Councillor George Mammoliti speaks to the media about a verbal exchange with Councillor Rob Ford, during which Mr. Ford is accused of calling Mr. Mammoliti a "Gino-boy." — J.P. Moczulski/The Globe and Mail
March 6, 2002: During a council budget debate, Mr. Ford calls fellow Councillor George Mammoliti a “Gino-boy.” Mr. Mammoliti says the remark is a racial slur: “I heard it in school. Hearing it at city hall shocks me.” Mr. Ford denies making the remark.
June 13, 2001: Mr. Ford questions a grant for a video about homosexuality in Toronto’s South Asian community, telling The National Post: “I have no problem giving money out to physically or mentally handicapped children or seniors, but spending $5,000 on this video is disgusting, it is absolutely disgusting to spend this amount of money on this, whatever it was called, video.”
