The Mayor of Toronto seems to be under the impression that most of the gang members in the Toronto area are in fact immigrants. After the shooting that occurred Sunday July 15 2012 in Scarborough the Mayor, Rob Ford, stated that we wished gang members would be prohibited from returning to the Toronto area after they were released. At the current time it is not clear to what policy changes if any that the mayor was referring to. During the same press conference it was incredibly clear that the as a lot of ignorance to the immigration laws on the part of Mayor Ford, who stated that he would be meeting with the Prime Minister to discuss potential options for reducing gang violence.

What made the entire incident even worse was that Ford connected immigrants to gang violence by stating that most gangs are linked to ethnic minorities, and most ethnic minorities are immigrants. While it is true that there is a correlation between gang membership and minorities, the Mayor has made a lot of assumptions and failed to realize some simple information. Not all gang members are dark skinned minorities, and not all minorities in Toronto are gang members.

It might be easier to shrug off the statements from Mayor Ford if they were isolated incidents. The simple fact of the matter is that these comments were just one instance in a string of comments that show the ignorance of Ford to both immigration and minorities.

The Mayor made an attempt to step back and even retract the statements that he had made, but it was hard for people to accept what he had to say, especially since there is no level of government that has the power or the ability to do what he is proposing.

Ford tried hard to backpedal what he had previously said by stating, ““I don’t think the other half of my statement came out quite clearly. It has nothing to do particularly with immigration or where you come from, which I think John was trying to say, all I want to do is get information, which I’m not an expert on…””

It is troubling to see how often the right wing media gives praise to politicians for being straight shoots when the state that they are not experts on the subjects they speak on. This recognition makes it is for any politician to disregard the need for accountability and competency in their office, in the case of Mayor Ford, it has proven true that politicians are far too often speaking on topics in which they are not well versed.