The Canadian Marion Barry?

[Lord Jim]

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.

If that last bit I highlighted is really his defense, it seems mighty weak to me...

"Yes that's me talking incoherently and smoking a glass pipe with a bunch of crack dealers, but you can't prove that there was actually crack in the pipe"...

Seems to me the only acceptable defenses here (at least politically, if not legally) would be either that it wasn't him in the video, or that the video had been faked in some way....Neither of which his attorney appears to be claiming...

I suspect Rob's days as Mayor of Toronto are numbered...

In single digits....

[dales]

Here's some more high-jinx.....

[Lord Jim]

Ohh, so the bitch set him up....

[dales]

Same with that B.J. Clinton?

[oldr_n_wsr]

Women, can't smoke with 'em......

[dgs49]

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

[Scooter]

I suspect Rob's days as Mayor of Toronto are numbered...

In single digits....

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, because he tells them what they want to hear and they believe him even when he has proven that he cannot deliver.

Ohh, so the bitch set him up....

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. Unprovable, but probably true, since there is no reason to make it up (it pales in comparison to some of his other antics which were not enough to bring him down, so why bother making up something as pedestrian as this).

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

That is the Toronto Sun, probably the most right wing newspaper in the country, and mouthpiece and chief cheerleader for Rob Ford since he took office. If they are printing the story, it is only because they know that it is too credible to be ignored.

[Crackpot]

Don't you know the papers format determines wether it's credible or not

[Gob]

LOL!! I almost miss that.

No, no, I really don't.....

[Lord Jim]

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.

I knew that Scooter, I just thought it was funny because it reminded me that the line "the bitch set me up" was what Barry said when he was nailed in the hotel room smoking crack...

Gee whiz, a cross between Marion Barry and Silvio Berlusconi...

One doesn't expect Canadian politicians to be be so...uhh..."colorful"...

Canada's answer to Vladimir Zhirinovsky....

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

I admit I'm no expert in the intricacies of Canadian politics, (And I know basically nothing about the local political dynamics in Toronto; I'd never even heard of this guy before this)

And Marion Barry certainly had a hardcore that would support him no matter what...

But given the fact that this guy is supposed to be a "Conservative", might not being filmed smoking crack with crack dealers while mocking conservatives be a bridge too far? (Even for Canadian conservatives?)

[Lord Jim]

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....

[Gob]

44 stone?

[rubato]

Wow. I always tend to think of our frozen neighbors to the north as better at selecting leaders than that.


yrs,
rubato

[oldr_n_wsr]

People are people no matter where.

[dales]

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....

At least he's eating good.

[oldr_n_wsr]

Looks like his head is ready to explode. Might want to check his BP.

[Scooter]

Toronto Police now have the video of the mayor smoking crack:

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.”

The city is in for some interesting times in the next while...

[Sue U]

What took them so long?

[Scooter]

The video was recovered in the summer. There has been ongoing video surveillance of criminal associates of the mayor that has now resulted in charges. Presumably the video was not released until now in order to avoid compromising that investigation.

[Sue U]

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

That sounds like a good time will be had by all! What's the over/under on days to resignation?