Olivia Chow apologizes for photo-op with homophobic, sexist wrestler Iron Sheik

Olivia Chow, Rob Ford's chief rival for the Toronto mayor's chair, is apologizing for a campaign appearance with a former pro wrestler who's known for his homophobic, sexist tweets.

The former New Democrat MP had what National Post columnist Matt Gurney called a weekend "sandwich summit" with Hossein Khosrow Vaziri, know in the ring as the Iron Sheik.

The Sheik, who's promoting a documentary about his life, had invited Ford and Chow to a downtown Toronto sub shop for lunch on Saturday but the incumbent mayor was a no-show. Chow, however, showed up, and tweeted shots of herself sitting with Vaziri and holding his championship belt.

The Sheik expressed his gratitude at Chow's appearance, Gurney wrote.

“I have a lot of respect for Olivia Chow because she is a real excellent lady and honoured [she is] Iron Sheik’s friend,” the 73-year-old Iranian grappler said before slamming Ford's non-appearance.

“I want to let you know mister ... what is his name? Rob Ford you are not real because you promised you would come today. But Olivia Chow, I have a lot of respect for. Rob Ford, you are the real Jabroni [wrestling slang for loser] today.”

[ Related: Olivia Chow won’t be forced to run on Rob Ford’s terms ]

But it appears Chow was unaware the Sheik has a long history of really nasty comments on his Twitter account.

We won't reproduce them here but they feature homophobic slurs directed at former wrestling rivals, racist and expletive-laced taunts, threats of violence, including a November tweet threatening to come to City Hall to beat and sodomize Ford, and comparisons of various celebrities' breasts to items of food.

"It’s hard to tell if The Iron Sheik is literally insane or if he’s simply engaged in one gigantic, vulgar bit of performance art taken to the extreme," Gurney observed in the Post.

Either way, Chow turning up for a photo op with the Sheik looks like a political gaffe. By Monday afternoon, Chow tweeted her contrition.

Chow said Sunday the decision to meet Vaziri was spontaneous and co-ordinated over Twitter, QMI Agency reported.

"I admire his guts," she said, adding via Twitter that although Vaziri was a controversial figure, his battle with addiction contained an important anti-drug message.

In an email exchange with Yahoo News!, Chow campaign communications director Jamey Heath dodged the question of whether her campaign had dropped the ball.

"It was spontaneous," Heath reiterated. "Olivia met with him about his movie premiere. He endorsed her for mayor. She did not then and does not now endorse or condone some of his views."

Heath said Chow's appearance was organized about 90 minutes before she turned up.

"If it wasn't spontaneous, there'd have been time," said Heath, who was not with her at the time. "But it was."

[ Related: Olivia Chow releases first attack ad against Rob Ford ]

But 90 minutes seems like enough time for someone to do a cursory web search that presumably would have turned up the Sheik's offending tweets.

Given Toronto's municipal election is not until late October, this is hardly a fatal campaign blunder, even if Chow's rivals choose to reminder voters of it later. She apologized and people likely will move on.

But Gurney noted people seemed to be giving Chow a pass, compared with Ford's many indiscretions.

"If this was Mr. Ford, people would be slamming him, demanding to know how he can associate with someone like The Iron Sheik," the columnist wrote.