Giorgio’s Same-Sex Media Flashback
Jan 27, 2010 | RumourWillis | 10
Photo courtesy: National Post
Only three weeks in and the digging has already begun. A mischievous TEN reader produced a nasty column written by Toronto Star scribe Jim Coyle about mayoral candidate Giorgio Mammoliti way back in June 1994 during Ontario’s same-sex legislation debate – when Giorgio was an NDP MPP.
It looks like Giorgio won’t be picking up any votes at Church and Wellesley. Of course the media has often mentioned in passing Giorgio’s “anti-gay proclivities”, the Coyle article puts them in black and white. Let’s review the highlights:
“His chief claim to fame during his term has been the submission of annual expenses of some $14,000 or so for travel around his riding and back and forth from his Toronto home to his Toronto office. He has explained this by saying he likes to go home for lunch to check for messages.”
“While others were engaged in discussion of human rights, pro or con, Mammoliti worried that the “body parts aren’t complementary. They don’t fit together.” He then expanded the debate, to an end known only to himself, by reading from a manual on sado-masochism.
“I can tell you that when we talk about electric torture, whipping, water sports and scat, fisting, cleaning your toys, what does that say to the community, that wide and open community in Ontario that believes that lovemaking has turned into a toy?”
“He went on to cite the high incidence of AIDS in the gay community as evidence that deviant sexual practices are dangerous. He began babbling about the future complications of individuals claiming the right to have five or six or seven wives.
“If I vote in favor of this,” he declared. “I would have to vote in favor of others when they come knocking on the door as well.”
While such a stance may play well with certain constituencies, it may be a little harder to blunt the edges in other parts of the cosmopolitan city that Mammoliti is looking to represent.
Ah, the wonders of Factiva. Only the beginning, we imagine.
Popularity: 68% [?]
Filed Under: Gossip
You can get a complete copy of Giorgio's idiotic speech to the legislature from online Hansard: http://hansardindex.ontla.on.ca/hansardeissue/3...
Because we all know working class people are homophobic, right?
Really not sure what is meant by “such a stance obviously plays well in his working class ward”. Vast majority of Canadians are decent people that most certainly do not subscribe to Mr. Mammoliti's views on this topic.
Fair points, @Guest and @Huh?. The intent was to suggest a possible motive to Mammoliti’s comments during that debate. The post has been edited accordingly.
Um, folks, it's simpler than that: George [as he was then] didn't like "homos"–and given what he looked like in those days–cuddly and very chubby–maybe he had to fend off inquiring yet polite looks. Whoever posted the Coyle article or the Ontario Hansard comments probably rememembers how embarrassing George/Giorgio was in the legislature, not just to his own caucus.–"Yippee" over these postings, Ontario, Canada
Actually, most people outside of insiders like yourself would have no idea that Giorgio holds/held such views. Let's remember most people don't even know he used to be a NDP MPP.
The point of the article is to highlight the fact that rival campaigns and enemies alike are putting together background documents on everything a candidate has said in the past. As I said in the article, this is just the beginning.
Hi Toronto Election News: the 1994 Mammoliti Ottawa Citizen article by Jim Coyle came from ProQuest, not Factiva, but readers would hope that you'd confirm its legitimacy by checking Factiva to confirm–i.e. that it's not a trump up or, um, creatively edited, before you created the very good Gossip article you've posted on this.–Helpful, in Ontario
Actually Helpful, I used my own Factiva account to find the article again after it was submitted to confirm its accuracy. In addition, another reader posted the Hanard transcripts from the debate, which was the basis for the article.
For those that are interested, the article was printed on June 7, 1994 in the Ottawa Citizen and June 8, 1994 in the Kitchen Waterloo Record.
As I said in response to another commentator, the point of the article wasn't about the dirt per se, but abot the fact tha people are digging for it.
"Brett Bell, the chair of the election day operation of Oak Ridges-Markham Conservative candidate Paul Calandra, delivered the bad news around 11 p.m."
from
Nail-biting races go right to the wire
Authors:Daniel Dale
Source:Toronto Star (Canada); 10/16/2008
————————————————————————————
" "Identifying the incumbent is easy," says Brett Bell, a City Hall lobbyist with law firm Fasken Martineau and a member of the provincial Progressive Conservative Party executive. "Identifying the challenger is the interesting part. That is the parlour game being played." "
from The million-dollar question: Can anyone beat Miller?
Jennifer Lewington. The Globe and Mail. Toronto, Ont.: Apr 30, 2005.
Yep. That's me.