Toronto Wanna-Be Mayor Cries Wolf

Last week, International Women’s Day was tarnished by the brash sexually abuse accusations fired at a big city mayor by a woman he defeated in the last election campaign.

Sarah Thomson, claimed that Canada’s largest city mayor,Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, made lewd sexual slurs while grabbing her butt at a political function.

Thomson, who ran against Toronto’s Mayor and lost, didn’t follow the usual course of action by a victim of sexual assault and report it to police. Instead, she blasted Mayor Rob Ford publicly on social media, posting a picture of her smiling, alongside the accused on Facebook.

Mayor Ford denied Thomson’s whole story, claiming none of this happened, and that she was crying wolf.

Numerous people at the event, even those not traditionally supporting the controversial Toronto mayor have spoke out against Thomson, claiming they clearly saw that none of what she was claiming happened.

A handful of local politicians are even coming forward, saying they overheard Thomson talking about intentionally setting up Mayor Rob Ford, to further her own political aspirations.

Thomson claims if anything, publicly talking about this would hurt her political career, as she’ll be known as the “ass grab” politician.

Sarah Thomson – formerly Sarah Whatmough – unsuccessfully ran for a municipal council seat in her native city of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada in 1997. She then launched a monthly newspaper called the Hamilton Examiner in 1998, which shortly ceased publication. Since then, she moved to Toronto, ran unsuccessfully against Rob Ford, and failed again in politics, when she ran locally for the Provincial Liberal Party in 2011.

Her bold and potentially criminal charges – despite her lack of filing a police report – was the first time in a long time the 45-year-old Thomson had been in the public eye, with just about every news organization in the city clamouring for an interview.

Allegations of sexual abuse are traditionally he said, she said debates, hammered out in a court of law. And make no mistake, sexual assault is one of the most distasteful and disruptive of crimes one person can commit against another. 

Victims of sex abuse often endure years of therapy, as they overcome the horrible events of their past. Some never fully recover.

However, Thomson is acting more like a person with a mission, than victim, as of this writing, she still hasn’t filed a police report, laid criminal charges, or sought any of the traditional sources for assistance and recovery from sexual abuse which one would normally take in such matters.

All Sarah Thomson has done, is as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has said, is cry wolf.

If what Thomson is claiming is true, than the mayor of Canada’s largest city should be held fully accountable for his actions.

If on the other hand, Thomson is just crying wolf to rally for her personal gain, not only should she be held fully accountable for her actions – which she will because no one will believe or trust her ever again – but she should also meet with and learn from actual victims of sexual abuse.

Because those who’ve been harmed sexually often have the longest road of recovery. And perhaps, if she learns from those who’ve got more than a Facebook page with unsupported allegations to cry wolf from, she’ll realize just how devastating sexual assault is on those who’ve actually been assaulted in this manner.

And that will make her – slightly – a better person, even if she just cried wolf.

Should Criminals Host TV Shows?

Criminal record checks have become all too common as part of the hiring process. Employers want to know that you won’t steal their pencils.

But in some jobs, a criminal record check really does prevent problems for both employer and employee down the road.

Last thing a major television network wants, is to have it’s top rated morning show host taken away in handcuffs.

But if you’ve done the time for your crime, should you be allowed on television?

Television’s perfect home body, Martha Stewart is back on the TV, after doing time for securities fraud.

In Canada, media baron Conrad Black may be following the home body’s lead, as there is talk that he may get his own talk show on a cable channel available across the nation.

Conrad Black served time for fraud as well, just a different kind. His was to do with his newspaper empire, and made headlines in some of those papers, as he continued to write columns while in prison.

Now he may be on the airwaves, broadcasting his thoughts on television.

Which raises the question – should convicted criminals be hosting television shows?

We all make mistakes, and both Stewart and Black have paid for those mistakes by serving out their criminal sentences in prison.

But millions of people are denied even the most entry level of jobs, because of their criminal past.

Such as the teenage mom, that can’t get a job working in a retail store, because her criminal background check shows she was charged with theft. What it doesn’t show is she stole a loaf of bread to feed her kid.

There are other reasons why criminals don’t usually get put on the tube. The last thing any network president wants, is to turn on his station, to see someone telling the world how to break the law.

It’s unlikely Black or Stewart would publicly tell others to do something illegal. But the possibility is always there.

And our television personalities are role models for us all. We get hooked on their energy and drive, and often mimic them.

So putting criminals on television is bad for our kids, and ourselves.

Do we want others to follow Lance Armstrong?

Before the cyclist came forward with confessions of “doping” while competing he was a role model to many.

Now that he’s come out and spoken publicly about his drug-laden past, he’s on television even more – explaining himself and what he did.

Fair enough, television does provide a forum for public debate, and all sides should be allowed to participate.

But if someone were to offer Armstrong his own television show, I’d question that person’s motives.

And you should too.