Rob Ford plans to apologize for racial slurs

Rob Ford plans to provide a “comprehensive and specific apology” for admitted instances of uttering racial slurs while he was mayor of Toronto, after the city ’s integrity commissioner found he violated the code of conduct.

The promised mea culpa will occur at next week’s council meeting, according to integrity commissioner Valerie Jepson.

It stems from a complaint brought forward by Ethiopian- Canadian journalist Samuel Getachew regarding episodes in 2012 and 2014.

In the first instance, Ford addressed a cab driver by a “racial slur” and made “mocking fake language sounds,” according to a report by Jepson. The account originated in a police interview with former Ford staff member Isaac Ransom, and was widely reported by the media. The statements were not just inappropriate, but “abusive, harmful and agreed by society to be unacceptable,” Jepson said.

“Considering the position he held at the time, his actions were egregious and wholly unbecoming of the Office of the Mayor.”

Ford “did not dispute the allegations or defend his actions” but he did point the integrity com- missioner to a sweeping apology he made last June.

Both Jepson and Getachew sought a more specific apology, and Ford’s chief of staff says he will address the matter next week.

Getachew “welcomes Mr. Ford’s decision to deal with the matter proactively,” the report states. The commissioner says no further action is necessary should an apology be made.

But Coun. Shelley Carroll said she remained skeptical because in the past Ford’s apologies have been “utterly disingenuous.”