Surprising nobody, prison officials deny plotting a jailhouse beatdown with Rob Ford

Surprising nobody, prison officials deny plotting a jailhouse beatdown with Rob Ford

(Image: Christopher Drost)

Rob Ford’s mayoralty has given the world plenty of unforgettable headlines, and this one ranks with the best of them: “Prison officials deny plotting with Rob Ford in jail attack,” says the Star. There you have it: Toronto politics have arrived at a point where it’s necessary for the Ministry of Correctional Services to deny, specifically, having helped the mayor of Toronto brutally maim an enemy—because right now, in this city, almost anything is possible.

The denial was part of the ministry’s statement of defence in a lawsuit brought by Scott MacIntyre in January. MacIntyre, the one-time spouse of Ford’s sister Kathy, was arrested in early 2012 following a bizarre incident during which he reportedly walked into the mayor’s home and started screaming about debts supposedly owed to him by members of the Ford family.

The assault took place in March 2012, while MacIntyre was being held at the Toronto West Detention Centre. He alleges that the beating, which left him with shattered teeth and a broken leg, was part of an attempt to keep him from going public with information about the mayor’s ties to the drug world. In MacIntyre’s version of events, the assault was abetted by corrections staff, whom he says conspired with Ford to allow a fellow inmate named Aedan Petros—a former player for the mayor’s high-school football team—the opportunity to do the deed.

None of these allegations have been proven in court, but we know the police are still actively investigating possible extortion in connection with the Ford family. Presumably, we’ll know more soon.