Obesity; making its mark on politics
Rahman Mohamed
Today, Canada is at the centre of the world’s attention because major scandalous political dramas are playing out, day-by-day. Not just because of the size of the scandals but size of those involved.
On November 6 the CBC reported that Liberal Senators voted against the motion while the majority of Conservative Canadian Senators voted to suspend Patrick Brazeau, Pamela Wallin and Mike Duffy allowing the three to be suspended for two years without pay but be allowed to keep accumulating years towards retirement and pension and retain their benefits.
Even with these three Senators suspended and the end of the Supreme Court of Canada hearing arguments about Senate reform from the provinces and federal government on November 14, it’s still not possible to forget Duffy.
In Toronto, on November 14, Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong left his seat saying “he was approaching the chair” because he wanted to speak with Speaker Frances Nunziata. Mayor Rob Ford stood between him, doing it in a threatening way, “in a way I [Minnan-Wong] have never experienced on my time on this council”. After Ford said he simply asked him “to take his seat” because that is the proper protocol. Although Minnan-Wong said Ford did this in a threatening manner, to others it was noticeable because of Ford’s size.
Recently Mayor Rob Ford has constantly been in the media limelight for drug and alcohol abuse, most recently, for a video obtained by the Toronto Star showing him ranting, I will f—ing make sure he’s dead, later telling media including the CTV that he was “extremely inebriated”. His family has defended him. His mother gave an interview to CP24 saying “He’s got a huge weight problem and he knows that. And I think that is the first thing he has to attack.”
When Mayor Ford took up his public weight loss challenge he officially weighed in as 330 lbs. (150 kg) with a height of 5’ 11” (1.8 m). On June 18 he was reported to weigh 313 lbs. (141 kg). According to the World Health Organization (WHO) with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 43.5 (weight divided by the square of height in kilograms), Mayor Ford is severely obese (someone with a BMI of 25+).
What is obesity?
The Nova's Rays 