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Toronto mayor dogged by controversy at ceremony

Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford couldn’t escape controversy at a Remembrance Day ceremony Monday, where a veteran refused to shake his hand.

TORONTO — Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford couldn’t escape controversy at a Remembrance Day ceremony Monday, where a veteran refused to shake his hand.

Ford gave a short speech honouring the military and there was a quiet smattering of boos and cries of “shame” in the crowd as he walked up to the podium, though there was also light applause.

After he laid a wreath at the foot of the cenotaph at Toronto’s Old City, the mayor walked past a row of veterans and at least one refused a hand shake.

Tony Smith, who was stationed in Germany after the Second World War, said after the ceremony that Ford should not have been there, given his admission last week that he had smoked crack cocaine.

“I didn’t shake his hand because he’s a drug addict, a druggie,” Smith said. “He’s No. 1 man in the city and he’s smoking up and boozing it up. I don’t mind people having a drink. I certainly don’t agree with drugs.”

Ford reversed five months of denials last week when he admitted he had smoked crack cocaine, likely in one of his “drunken stupors.”