Did Pam McConnell lie saying Mayor Rob Ford hurt her?

Frank Touby—

Is it fair or accurate to call Councillor Pam McConnell a liar or a faker because she says she feared for her life when raging bull Mayor Rob Ford charged intoher last month during a city council meeting?

That’s been the attack stance of various AM radio talk-show talkers and some right-wing commentators who say McConnell changed her tune and deserves ridicule. (Videos are below.)

I think not and for some very good reasons.

Sure, her first reaction in that moment when Ford slammed into her and held her up so she wouldn’t fall was to say, “I’m all right.” And she was okay, from a crucial  standpoint, considering that as an overweight senior citizen McConnell had no broken bones and wasn’t slipping into unconsciousness.

It doesn’t mean she was unhurt. “Hurt” doesn’t necessarily show up in the adrenalin moments after a trauma. It’s clear she was dazed by the attack both from a physical standpoint and by suddenly being run into and held up from a fall by the city’s mayor.

Her chiropractor and massage therapist treated her in the aftermath of the event. So watch the video as McConnell explains what it was like.

On November 18, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford body-checked Councillor Pam McConnell, as he raced to the aid of his brother Doug, another councillor who is probably in better shape than Toronto’s crack-smoking, hard-drinking mayor of worldwide renown.

Hockey fans will say it was a clean hit because Pam didn’t have her head down

(Of course that body check did occur between two players of vastly different ages and expectations. But hockey and city council have similarities. This is, Toronto, after all.)

In this first video, Pam describes for readers and viewers of The Bulletin what happened to her and how she reacts now that the shock is long past. She praises her chiropractor for getting her “skeleton” back in shape after the collision.

[jwplayer mediaid=”7545″] In this earlier video you’ll see the original assault, albeit unintended, against the senior citizen who has been on council since 1998 representing Downtown Ward 28, a mixed-income ward in the heart of Toronto.