Calls for the resignation of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
intensified after police said they had obtained a video that appears to show
him smoking a crack pipe, discovered in a massive surveillance operation of a
friend who is suspected of supplying the mayor with drugs.
Police said they did not have enough evidence to file
charges against the mayor, who had claimed the video didn’t exist and vowed not
to resign, repeating the pledge Thursday.
Voters could have the final word on the strange career of
the populist mayor whose travails have captivated and embarrassed Canadians for
months. Ford has promised to run for a second term next year.
“I have no reason to resign,” Ford told reporters with a
smile, as his office welcomed visitors to check out its Halloween decorations
Thursday.
The embattled mayor, who has been the butt of jokes on U.S.
late night television, said he couldn’t defend himself because the affair is
part of a criminal investigation involving an associate, adding: “That’s all I
can say right now.”
Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on
video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said
they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintained he
does not smoke crack and that the video did not exist.
Ford was elected mayor three years ago on a wave of
discontent simmering in the city’s outlying suburbs. Since then he has survived
an attempt to remove him from office on conflict-of-interest charges and has
appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behavior.
But the pressure ramped up on Thursday with all four major
dailies in the city calling on Ford to resign.
Cheri DiNovo, a member of Ontario’s parliament, tweeted:
“Ford video nothing to celebrate Addiction is illness. Mayor please step down
and get help?”
Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after
being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press
charges against Ford.
Blair said the video of the mayor “depicts images that are
consistent with those previously reported in the press.”
“As a citizen of Toronto I’m disappointed,” Blair said.
“This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this
city.”
Blair said the video will come out when Ford’s associate and
occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug charges. Lisi now also
faces extortion charges for trying to retrieve the recording from an
unidentified person. Blair did not say who owned the computer containing the
video.
Blair said authorities believed the video is linked to a
home in Toronto, referred to by a confidential informant as a “crack house” in
court documents in Lisi’s drug case.
The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday
showing they had rummaged through Ford’s garbage in search of evidence of drug
use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring
the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.
The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford
were concerned that Lisi was “fuelling” the Toronto mayor’s alleged drug use.
The police documents, ordered released by a judge, show Ford
receiving packages from Lisi on several occasions.
“Lisi approached the driver’s side of the Mayor’s vehicle
with a small white gift bag in hand; he then walked around to the passenger
side and got on board,” reads one document dated July 30, 2013. “After a few
minutes Lisi exited the Escalade empty handed and walked back to his Range
Rover.”
Another dated July 28 says Lisi “constantly used counter
surveillance techniques” when he met with Ford that day.
On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and “made their
way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from
surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour.”
Ford recently vouched for Lisi in a separate criminal case,
praising his leadership skills and hard work in a letter filed with the court.
The letter was part of a report prepared by a probation officer after Lisi was
convicted of threatening to kill a woman.
Ford said previously that he was shocked when Lisi was
arrested earlier this month, calling him a “good guy” and saying he doesn’t
abandon his friends.
The documents also say that Ford met Lisi through Payman
Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School,
where Ford coached the team while also serving as mayor. He told police he was
“mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor’s drug abuse,” the document
says.
Ford’s controversies range from the trivial to the serious:
Walking face-first into a TV camera. Falling down during a photo op while
pretending to play football. Being asked to leave an event for wounded war vets
because he appeared intoxicated, according to the Toronto Star. Being forced to
admit he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, after repeated
denials. Making rude gestures at Torontonians from his car.
“The mayor has said there wasn’t a video,” Toronto councilor
Paula Fletcher said. “He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With
Chief’s Blair’s press conference I think that’s put to rest.”
Councilor Joe Mihevc said he continues to be shocked by the
“depth and revelations that are coming out.”
“The mayor has to come clean and do it as soon as possible,”
Mihevc said. “He needs to talk honestly about his use of illicit drugs.”
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