Plan B Forum

Rob Ford in 'crack cocaine' video scandal

A video that appears to show Toronto’s mayor smoking crack is being shopped around by a group of Somali men involved in the drug trade.



By: Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan Staff Reporters, Published on Thu May 16 2013

A cellphone video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine is being shopped around Toronto by a group of Somali men involved in the drug trade.

Two Toronto Star reporters have viewed the video three times. It appears to show Ford in a room, sitting in a chair, wearing a white shirt, top buttons open, inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe. Ford is incoherent, trading jibes with an off-camera speaker who goads the clearly impaired mayor by raising topics including Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau and the Don Bosco high school football team Ford coaches.

“I’m f---ing right-wing,” Ford appears to mutter at one point. “Everyone expects me to be right-wing. I’m just supposed to be this great.…” and his voice trails off. At another point he is heard calling Trudeau a “fag.” Later in the 90-second video he is asked about the football team and he appears to say (though he is mumbling), “they are just f---ing minorities.”

The Star had no way to verify the authenticity of the video, which appears to clearly show Ford in a well-lit room. The Star was told the video was shot during the past winter at a house south of Dixon Rd. and Kipling Avenue. What follows is an account based on what both reporters viewed on the video screen. Attempts to reach the mayor and members of his staff to get comment on this story were unsuccessful.

A lawyer retained by Ford, Dennis Morris, said that Thursday evening’s publication by the U.S.-based Gawker website of some details related to the video was “false and defamatory.” Morris told the Star that by viewing any video it is impossible to tell what a person is doing. “How can you indicate what the person is actually doing or smoking?” Morris said.

Lord Jim wrote:I suspect Rob's days as Mayor of Toronto are numbered...

In single digits....

Lord Jim wrote:Ohh, so the bitch set him up....

dgs49 wrote:That certainly looks like a reputable publication. If you can't believe what you read in the Check-out line, what CAN you believe?

Actually that article relates to a different incident where a candidate who ran against him claimed that he groped her ass at a civic function.

Rob Ford is a clown who, unfortunately, can count on the unqualified support of about a third of the electorate, who will go to any lengths to rationalize his erratic behaviour

Ford, who will turn 44 later this month

Lord Jim wrote:

Ford, who will turn 44 later this month

Geezus this guy is only 44? He looks older than me...I thought he was in his early 60s....

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair says investigators have recovered a digital video file that depicts Mayor Rob Ford and is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

Chief Blair also announced that police had on Thursday taken into custody the mayor’s friend, Alexander Lisi, and charged him with extortion. Lisi will appear in court today. Police said “the accused made extortive efforts to retrieve a recording.”

The police chief said he was “disappointed” after viewing the video.

Chief Blair said the video was recovered as part of the Project Traveller raids on alleged gang activity in the city’s northwest end this summer.

“I think it’s fair to say the mayor does appear in that video but I’m not going to get into the detail of what activities is depicted in that video,” Chief Blair said in a news conference at a police headquarters.

He said it is “consistent with what had been previously described in various media reports.”

The Toronto Star and Gawker.com reported earlier this year that they saw video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine and making a homophobic slur about Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau.

“We’ve done our job here,” says Chief Blair. He said a second digital file that was “relevant” had also been recovered.

“I have been advised that we are now in possession of a recovered digital video file relevant to the investigations that have been conducted. That file contains video images which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press, with respect to events that took place, we believe at a house on Windsor Road in Etobicoke.”

Scooter wrote:surveillance of criminal associates of the mayor that has now resulted in charges.