Doug Ford says he threatened an alleged shoplifter with “a beating like he’s never got before” after the premier slipped his security detail and chased after the man earlier in the summer.
Speaking to a packed room at the Empire Club on Tuesday, Ford recalled how he had left his Etobicoke home in July before his Ontario Provincial Police protection detail arrived for the day.
Ford said he drove to a local Home Depot looking to buy plants to spruce up his Muskoka cottage before Prime Minister Mark Carney stayed there. Once he was at the store, he said he saw a man run out with a bag, followed by security and the location’s manager.
The premier said the pair told him they weren’t allowed to chase after the alleged thief.
“I’m in my car, so I said, ‘Screw this, I’m going after this guy,’” Ford told the audience.
“By this time, my heart’s beating, I’m ticked off. So I go racing behind, no one can see, I pull up behind him and I jump out of the car. I said, ‘Buddy, what’s in your bag?’”
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Ford said the man he’d caught up with told him there was nothing in his bag.
“I said, ‘Buddy, I’m going to kick your ass all over the parking lot, show me what’s in your bag,’” he said. “I did, I couldn’t help myself.”
Eventually, Ford said, the man pulled a saw blade out of his bag, which the store manager claimed he had taken. Ford, who said he was in “a full-out rage on” the man, told him to return the items he had allegedly taken.
“I went on to tell him if I ever see him in the parking lot, he’s going to get a beating like he’s never got before,” the premier added. “That’s what you have to do.”
Ontario Liberal MPP John Fraser, who managed grocery stores in the past, said the premier’s actions were irresponsible.
“If somebody shoplifts, and they’ve got a bag and they’re out in the parking lot, you don’t chase after them because you don’t know what they may have,” he said.
“They could have a knife, it could be a dangerous situation, and generally whatever’s in that bag is not worth you getting injured or possibly killed. It does happen.”
The NDP called Ford’s “tough talk … nothing but hot air.”
Fraser said Ford should be careful and follow the advice of the police officers he said he slipped away from that morning.
“They’re here to keep you safe, and they’re not just keeping you safe for you — because it’s a changed and different world — but they’re keeping you safe for Ontarians and for the government,” he said.
“That’s one of the reasons that they’re doing it. You’re a special person, you’ve got this job that’s really important.”
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