Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, was caught off-guard by a comedy team called This Hour Has 22 Minutes.One of the fictional characters on CBC’s This Hour is Marg Delahunty. She plays a “warrior princess journalist” who often confronts politicians in a funny way. She “ambushes” them and talks to them about the issues of the day. It’s meant to be funny but often insightful, too.
Last week she tried to ambush Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in the driveway of his home.
There are two sides to the story of what happened next.
According to Marg Delahunty (comedian Mary Walsh in real life), their camera crew ambushed the mayor at 8:30 a.m., in daylight, and in her typical loud-mouthed way she started offering the mayor some advice. She was trying to tell him that “we bombastic buffoons should stick together.”
According to the mayor, it went a little differently. He said he was scared by a crew of people he had never seen before. He said it was eight in the morning and quite dark. He said his daughter was with him in the driveway and ran back into the house, crying because the crew scared her. He said Delahunty would not let him get into his car.
Rob Ford has received some death threats in the past, and he said the crew frightened him and he was concerned for his daughter.
In any case, Marg didn’t get to say much because Mayor Ford went into his house and called the police. They came about 10 minutes later. By that time, the camera crew had left.
There has been a lot of back-and-forth about the incident. Walsh says there was no daughter in the driveway; she may have been in the house, but she wasn’t near the camera crew. Walsh also says the producer of the show had planned to cancel the ambush if there were any children nearby. She also said it was light out and that she was dressed in a silly outfit that was not scary, although she was brandishing a plastic sword.
The mayor said that because he had already gotten some death threats, calling 911 was the right thing to do. He said he wanted to protect his family.
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
By Kathleen Tilly
Writing/Discussion Prompt
There are certainly two different sides to this story. Marg Delahunt (a.k.a. Mary Walsh) and Rob Ford strongly disagree about the situation. What do you think happened? Whose side of the story do you believe? What evidence do you have to support your opinion?
Reading Prompt: Making Inferences/Interpreting Texts
Regardless of whose side you believe, many people on both sides argue whether it was fair for Ford to be ambushed in the first place. Do you think reporters have the right to go to well-known or famous people’s homes when they aren’t invited? Why or why not?
Junior
Use stated and implied ideas in texts to make inferences and construct meaning (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Intermediate
Develop and explain interpretations of increasingly complex or difficult texts using stated and implied ideas from the texts to support their interpretations (OME, Reading: 1.5).
Grammar Feature: Quotation Marks
Quotation marks (” “) are used in a variety of ways. Here are some different ways in which they’re used in this article:
1. To show when people are speaking. She was trying to tell him that “we bombastic buffoons should stick together.”
2. Quotation marks are also used to bring attention to certain words and/or to show skepticism. She “ambushes” them and talks to them about the issues of the day.
Add quotation marks to the following sentences below:
1. Will our homework be due on Monday? asked Shayan.
2. Jessica added I did it because it was funny.
3. The lunch lady plopped a brown glob of food onto my plate.
4. When I walked into the haunted house a ghost whispered Boo!
5. My brother claimed that he was too busy to help me with my chores.
