By Graeme MacKay, The Hamilton Spectator, Saturday July 21, 2012
Rob Ford’s gun crime call-in
Mayor Rob Ford says he wants to banish everybody convicted of gun crimes from Toronto, not just immigrants.
“I don’t care if you’re white, pink, or purple, I don’t care what country you’re from, I don’t care if you’re a Canadian citizen or not. All I’m saying is, if you’re caught with a gun and convicted of a gun crime, I want you out of this city,” Ford said on NewsTalk 1010 Thursday night during an interview in which he struggled to explain himself.
Ford said on AM640 on Wednesday that he would be asking the prime minister to look at “immigration laws” in finding a way to implement his exile proposal. Though federal immigration minister Jason Kenney said on Twitter that he agreed, the cryptic comment was generally received with a mix of anger and bewilderment.
Ford called in to the NewsTalk show hosted by John Downs and Ryan Doyle to address the criticism. He said he had spoken imprecisely in the Wednesday interview and had not meant to single out immigrants.
The new interview, however, was itself perplexing, sounding at times like an Abbott and Costello routine about the federal government as Ford uncertainly attempted to explain to Downs why he mentioned immigration laws if he had not been referring to immigration. (Source: Metro News)