Judge spares Renata Ford jail for drunk driving
Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
More from Sam Pazzano Courts Bureau
Published:
June 20, 2018
Updated:
June 20, 2018 9:46 PM EDT
Her third similar offence in 21 years
The widow of former Toronto mayor Rob Ford has been spared jail sentence and given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to impaired driving.
Justice Edward Kelly ordered three years of probation and 100 hours of community service for Renata Ford, 47, and also issued a two-year driving ban and a $1,100 fine for the 2016 incident.
Her lawyer Dennis Morris had argued for no jail time and a minimal fine, while the Crown Brady Donohue had asked for 45 days behind bars and a license suspension for one to three years.
This was Renata’s third conviction for impaired driving offences in 21 years.
Ford was seldom seen during her late husband’s tumultuous term as mayor from 2010 to 2014 but captured headlines earlier this month when, in the final days of Ontario’s election campaign, she filed a lawsuit against her brother-in-law, Progressive Conservative Leader Doug Ford.
That suit alleges Doug Ford, now Ontario’s premier-designate, and his brother Randy Ford mishandled Rob Ford’s estate and destroyed the value of the family business, depriving Renata Ford and her children of income as well as life insurance proceeds.
Renata Ford, widow of ex-mayor Rob Ford, arrives at Finch courts in Toronto on Wednesday, June 20, 2018. Dave Abel/Toronto SunDoug Ford dismissed the allegations in the suit as false and insisted he puts the interests of his brother’s wife and children first.
An agreed statement of facts indicated Renata Ford was turning into an LCBO parking lot on Dec. 28, 2016, when her vehicle “rubbed up against” a parked vehicle.
Doug Ford says he’s shocked by Renata’s allegations
Doug Ford embroiled in family feud over brother’s estate
After being helped from her vehicle by witnesses, and asking them not to call the police, Ford tried to buy a bottle of wine at the LCBO but was denied service, court heard.
She failed a breathalyzer test and two hours later, she registered blood alcohol readings of double the legal limit.
“I just want to say that I’m truly sorry for my actions,” said Renata.
Morris described Ford as a single mom of two and widow with “limited means,” whose only income is her late husband’s municipal pension.
“She lived in a terrible chaotic world … being the spouse of an individual that was targeted by the media for many, many years,” Morris said.
“This was an excellent outcome and a fair and just sentence. She’s no longer under the pressures she was under for many, many years,” added Morris.
Renata lost her husband to a rare form of cancer in March 2016 and her favourite aunt and father died within two weeks, Morris said.
spazzano@postmedia.com
[youtube]oWWeg0cKMy0[/youtube]
Judge spares Renata Ford jail for drunk driving | Toronto Sun
Can you believe it--------Bar Sinister- that Silly Sister sent me an e-mail suggesting that HE IS A CONSERVATIVE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thank you Bars for brains- that was the best laugh I have had in quite a while!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Keep quacking Bar Silly Sister- I enjoy the laughs!!!!!!!
Here is a nice little story from Toronto Sun explaining why and how LIE-berals are making the ugly political climate of the infamous George Orwell novel Brave New World come true for us. And I have included a few comments of my own in brackets):
The 'duckspeak' of climate change. Tom Harris, Guest columnist in Toronto Sun. First posted: Friday, June 03, 2016 05:44 PM EDT
Wynne’s climate change strategy rewards big business while punishing average Ontarians We hear it all the time: “Climate change is real”, “97% of experts agree”, “we must increase our use of green energy to reduce carbon pollution”.
But it is all “duckspeak”, precisely what George Orwell warned us about in his novel 1984. Duckspeak was a form of speech consisting entirely of words and phrases approved by the controlling party in Orwell’s disturbing vision of a dystopian future.
Someone who had mastered duckspeak could fire off ideologically pure assertions like bullets from a machine gun, without thinking, their words emanating from their larynx like the quacking of a duck.
Being called a duckspeaker was a compliment in 1984 since it indicated one was well-versed in the official language and views of the state. We are now in an era of climate change duckspeak.
Rather than being merely ridiculous or social satire, the purpose of climate duckspeak is ominous: To convince opinion leaders and the public to think about climate change only as the government and eco-activists want. To support alternative points of view is “climate change denial”, today’s version of thought crime, punishable by excommunication from responsible citizenry.
(I point out that the LIE-beral `carbon crap and trade` program is exactly like the now disgraced European `crap and trade` model! The E.U. crap and trade allowed for shameless price gouging, rigged stock markets with insider trading of valuable carbon `credits` given out for free by govts to their pals, left fiscal loopholes that were exploited by unscrupulous stock traders working with organized crime-AND failed to clean the air as those people and industries that had the biggest carbon foot prints were EXCUSED from cutting back by govts seeking to curry favour!)
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau sets the stage for climate change duckspeakers by repeatedly asserting, “climate change is real.” Trudeau’s claim is correct but trivial. It is the duckspeak equivalent of proclaiming “sunrise is real”. But Trudeau is employing a strategy right out of 1984.
His statements imply that experts have concluded that unusual climatic events are happening because of humanity, and that government must save us.
U.S. President Barack Obama does the same, asserting in the Cutting Carbon Pollution in America section of the White House web site: “I refuse to condemn your generation and future generations to a planet that’s beyond fixing.”
Referring to greenhouse gases (GHG) as “carbon pollution,” as both Obama and the Canadian government do regularly, is pure duckspeak.
“Carbon pollution” conjures up subconscious images of dark and dangerous emissions of soot.
But what they are almost always discussing is carbon dioxide (CO2). But were they to call it that, most people would be unconcerned, remembering from grade school that CO2 is a trace gas essential for plant photosynthesis.
So government and climate campaigners mislabel it as “carbon” to frighten the public and discourage critical thinking, closely following Big Brother’s strategy in Orwell’s classic.
Similarly, Trudeau and Obama err when they refer to low CO2 emitting energy sources as “clean” or “green” since CO2 isn’t unclean.
But the label promotes an image of environmental wholesomeness, hiding the ineffective and damaging nature of many alternative energy sources.
(I point out that here in Ontari-owe where LIE-beral govt has committed to buying every volt of green energy produced in the province-AHEAD of any other form of generation-we now MUST keep a pack of natural gas fueled generating plants fired up and ready-24 hours a day-seven days a week to be ready at a moments notice to take over from green energy when the sun goes behind a cloud or when the wind does not blow as planned. The grossly costly LIE-beral green energy plan has NOT cleaned our air-but it HAS cleaned our wallets and provided windfall profits to those mostly civil service Hogs and great LIE-beral pals that own wind mills and solar farms-while at the same time subjecting people in the countryside-farmers and such to towering eye sores that emit irritating noises that can make people ILL!)
(Govt has turned rural people into lab rats with this noise issue-and a TVO documentary has illustrated the probable scale and scope of deception regarding that noise-TVO played a documentary from England re a wind farm that was sued and the medical information used to dismiss the claims of the frantic neighbouring land owners was based on readings from a wind tower ONE THIRD the size of the one planted near their house! Yes-the test model used by researchers was MUCH SMALLER AND FARTHER AWAY than the unit being complained about-and judge IGNORED these incorrect measurements and dismissed the complaints- talk about the GOVT FIX being in! One wonders if the judge had stock in that wind farm?)
Finally, the “97% of experts agree” phrase is designed to suppress debate. After all, who would dare contest experts about such a complicated issue?
But appealing to authority or consensus is a logical fallacy that proves nothing about nature. Regardless, the surveys used to back up the consensus argument are unconvincing.
They either asked the wrong questions, or asked scientists who don’t research the causes of climate change, or polled mostly those who would obviously agree with the government.
It is not surprising, then, that language tricks like Orwell’s duckspeak are being used today to justify the unjustifiable in the war of words over global warming.
Tom Harris is executive director of the Ottawa-based International Climate Science Coalition, which opposes the hypothesis carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are known to cause climate problems.
(I say Harris makes some good points about LIE-beral duck speak on the subject of environment and I point out that for most people the debate on climate change has MUCH MORE to do with how to cut back on green house gases-and the great majority of us recognize that NONE of the current LIE-beral initiatives will do ANYTHING to clean the air-it will ONLY BE OUR WALLETS that are cleaned! LIE-berals are treating climate change issues as a grand excuse to set up a HUGE CARBON SLUSH FUND they can dip into as necessary for MORE GRAVY!)
(The quickest way to cut back on green house gases is to cut back on Hog gravy! IN the 9 months after the 9/11 terror attack-during which time 25 percent of the worlds airline fleet was grounded-there WAS a MEASURABLE IMPROVEMENT IN AIR QUALITY! Airplanes produce 75-85 percent of ALL pollution related to transportation-that means that ALL the pollution emitted by cars, trains, trucks buses and ships represents ONLY a FRACTION of the filth spewed by airplanes! Cut back on Hog gravy and they will fly less-AND CLEAN THE AIR while we balance our govt books in the process!)
(It seems obvious that we need to burn less fossil fuel-the problem is how to get it done WITHOUT destroying our economy and rendering millions of people homeless and unemployed! Radical environmentalists use duckspeak just as much as LIE-berals because the radical environmentalists are loons who don’t care that their `solutions` to climate change may force us into miserable lives shivering in mud huts in the forest and eating our daily meal of Dandelion greens raw because the trees around us are sacred and NOT to be used for burning, cooking OR for building! Its an ugly set of selfish LOONS quacking at us-LIE-berals on one side seeking to set up a huge carbon slush fund for selfish reasons and radical environmentalists seeking to destroy our economy because they figure we humans do not deserve to dominate the environment as we do!)