Star accuses Doug Ford of murder

Doug Ford celebrates a big election win.

Well that didn’t take long.

As Doug Ford marks the 100 days mark of his time as Premier of Ontario, the Toronto Star has accused Ford of killing the province’s working class.

I’m not exaggerating in saying the official newspaper of the Liberals is accusing Ford of murder, it is right there is a column that they approved.

Disgusting!

The Star published a column by Dennis Raphael, a professor in health policy and management at York University.

How does the good professor arrive at this conclusion that Ford is killing people?

He opens his piece by quoting Frederich Engels, partner in crime to Karl Marx in establishing Marxist theory and spawning communist revolutions the world over.

Raphael cites extensively from Engels’ 1845 publication, Conditions of the Working Class in England, where he makes the argument that people dying from want in any way is “social murder.”

Then the professor points to Ford’s pausing the raise in the minimum wage and promising to roll back the job killing elements of Bill 148.

That is an attack on the working class argues Raphael and therefore murder.

“Let’s not put neutral labels on what Doug Ford is doing. It is more than austerity, cutbacks and conservative politics. It is social murder,” Raphael writes.

Toxic charge.

I can be a harsh critic of people that I disagree with, just ask Justin Trudeau. But I don’t accuse people of murder unless they have actually murdered someone.

That the Star would publish this is revolting.

It is beyond the pale.

What is interesting is that Raphael uses statistics on the health outcomes of lower income Canadians to make his case. More likely to die from heart disease, complications of diabetes and other ailments all make up part of Raphael’s argument.

He points out, correctly, that lower income people often die younger.

He hates conservatives.

What he doesn’t do is accuse Justin Trudeau or murder or Kathleen Wynne of murder.

If he did, I’d still think it disgusting.

Yet if Ford can be accused of “social murder” after 100 days in office then why not Trudeau after three years in office or Wynne and her provincial Liberals after 15 years.

The stats the professor cites are all from before Ford’s time in office.

This is pure partisan politics being given the guise of respectability by having a long tenured and published professor make the charge.

Let’s call it what it is, garbage.

The left likes to talk about civility in politics, then they pull this.

As usual, they just don’t like losing elections.

Professor Raphael should be denounced for his claim, the Star should be ashamed for publishing it.