Toronto Mayor Rob Ford reads a statement to the media at City Hall on Friday, May 24, 2013 in Toronto. Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and says he is not an addict after a video purported to show him using the drug. Ford did not say whether he has ever used the drug. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Chris Young)
by Rob Gillies
TORONTO (AP) – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict, breaking a week of silence over reports of a video purportedly showing him using the drug. Critics were not appeased, with one city councilor questioning whether the mayor told “the whole truth” and another calling on him to resign.
The controversy has drawn comparisons to the 1990 arrest of then-Washington Mayor Marion Barry, who was videotaped smoking crack cocaine in a hotel room during an FBI sting operation. Barry served six months in federal prison on a misdemeanor drug possession conviction and later won a fourth term as mayor in 1994.
The mayor of Canada’s largest city did not say whether he has ever used crack. He did not take questions from reporters at a news conference at City Hall, held after close allies released a letter urging him to address the reports of the video.
“I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,” Ford said. “As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen, or does not exist.”
Ford had been ducking the media and his only comments before Friday on the scandal came a week ago, a day after the story broke, when he called the crack smoking allegations “ridiculous” and said the Toronto Star newspaper was out to get him.
Ford said he had kept quiet because his lawyer advised him “not to say a word.”
The video has not been released publicly and its authenticity has not been verified. Reports on gossip website Gawker and in the Toronto Star claimed it was taken by men who said they had sold the drug to Ford. The Associated Press hasn’t seen the video.
The Star reported that two journalists had watched a video that appears to show Ford, sitting in a chair, inhaling from what appears to be a glass crack pipe. The Star said it did not obtain the video or pay to watch it. Gawker and the Star said the video was shown to them by a drug dealer who had been trying to sell it for a six-figure sum.
Another leading Canadian newspaper published Saturday the results of what it called a lengthy investigation into the Ford family’s past that revealed “a portrait of a family once deeply immersed in the illegal drug scene.”
The Globe and Mail, citing anonymous sources who were involved in the drug trade, alleged that the mayor’s older brother, Doug Ford, sold hashish for several years in the 1980s in the wealthy Toronto suburb of Etobicoke, where the family grew up.
Doug Ford, 48, is a Toronto city council member and influential adviser to the mayor. His lawyer, Gavin Tighe, told the newspaper that the allegations were false. On Saturday, Doug Ford, in an interview with the Global News cable TV network, called the Globe and Mail report “a bunch of sleazy, sleazy journalism.”
The Star also reported that Rob Ford allegedly made a racist remark about the high school football students he coached.
Ford criticized the media for judging him.
“It is most unfortunate, very unfortunate, that my colleagues and the great people of this city have been exposed to the fact that I’ve been judged by the media without any evidence,” Ford said.
City Councillor Glenn De Baeremaeker said he was profoundly disappointed in the mayor’s statement and called on Ford to resign. De Baeremaeker said he believes the reports about Ford’s alleged drug use and believes Ford’s tenure is over.
“I don’t believe the mayor,” he said. “He should resign and then go seek help.”
De Baeremaeker said he’s observed erratic behavior from the mayor.
“The mayor is just imploding,” he said. “The mayor had an opportunity to acknowledge that perhaps he does have a problem, and to take a leave of absence, perhaps to take care of himself and his family, instead he went on the attack.”
Other councilors said the mayor wasn’t comprehensive enough and said the distraction is not over. Councilor John Parker called the statement too little too late.
“I’m not sure we’ve heard the whole truth,” Parker said. “Questions continue to swirl around him.”
Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday, a close ally of Ford who was standing near Ford during the news conference, acknowledged it’s not over.
“He would have been a lot better off had he made this statement earlier in the week but for whatever reason he did not,” Holyday said.
The allegations have caused an uproar in Canada and have become the fodder for late night TV in the U.S.
The mayor’s statement came at the end of a dramatic week. Ford fired his chief of staff on Thursday, but gave no reason for Mark Towhey’s dismissal.
Towhey, who was escorted from City Hall by security, would only say that he did not resign. Reports from the Canadian Broadcasting Corp., the Toronto Sun and others cited sources as saying Ford fired him after he urged the mayor to get help. Towhey declined to comment on Friday when reached by The Associated Press.
Ford was fired from his job as football coach at a Catholic high school on Wednesday for reasons unrelated to the scandal over the alleged crack video.
Toronto Catholic District School Board spokesman John Yan said the decision to remove Ford as the head of the Don Bosco Eagles Football program had to do with the comments the mayor made to the Sun TV Network in March that parents found offensive. Yan said Ford characterized the parent community as not caring about their kids, that the students were involved in gangs and guns and that if it weren’t for him they would be in jail.
Ford has been embroiled in almost weekly controversies about his behavior since being elected in 2010, but these are the most serious allegations he’s faced yet. The Toronto Star reported earlier this year that he was asked to leave a gala fundraiser for wounded Canadian soldiers because he appeared intoxicated.
During his campaign for mayor, Ford vehemently denied a 1999 arrest for marijuana possession in Florida, but later acknowledged it was true after he was presented with evidence. He pleaded guilty to driving under the influence and failing to give a breath sample to police.
While in office, he has been accused of flouting conflict of interest rules and making obscene gestures at residents from his car.
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