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.” (via Toronto Mayor Rob Ford in ‘crack cocaine’ video scandal | Toronto Star)
- 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.
- The video was taken on a smartphone by a person who said he has supplied crack cocaine to the mayor.
- Throughout the video Ford’s eyes are half-closed. He lolls back in his chair, sometimes waving his arms around erratically. He raises a lighter in his hand at several points and moves it in a circle motion beneath the glass bowl of the pipe, then inhales deeply.
- In the video, what appears to be afternoon sunlight is streaming through partially closed window blinds, lighting Ford’s face. The video ends with the ringing of a cellphone (it is not clear if it is the cellphone that is being used to video the scene). The ring tone, which is a song, startles the mayor, whose slitted eyes open a bit, and he is heard to say, “That phone better not be on.”
- The Star was approached with an offer to purchase the video shortly after the Star’s story on Ford’s removal from the Garrison Ball due to apparent intoxication of some sort. The story, published March 26 of this year, described a concern by unnamed associates and staffers at city hall that Ford had a substance abuse problem. Ford dismissed the Star story, called the Star “pathological liars” and invited the newspaper to sue him. Garrison Ball attendees interviewed by the Star did not say they smelled alcohol. One said, “He seemed either drunk, high or had a medical condition.”
- After the story was published the Star was contacted by two separate people who purported to have information on Ford abusing crack cocaine.
Is Dennis Morris smoking crack as well? Was Michael Bryant on crack when he killed a bicyclist?
- In a video clip less than two minutes long, an incoherent and rambling Mayor Rob Ford can clearly be seen smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
- He is sitting on a chair holding a glass pipe with a blackened top and a lighter. Ford is the only person on the video, but there are at least two other people in the room — one, a man who said he is his dealer, secretly recording him, and another, an anonymous voice asking him questions.
- The footage begins with the mayor mumbling. His eyes are half-closed. He waves his arms around erratically. A man’s voice tells him he should be coaching football because that’s what he’s good at.
- Ford agrees and nods his head, bobbing on his chair.
- He says something like “Yeah, I take these kids … minorities” but soon he rambles off again.
- Ford says something like: “Everyone expects me to be right-wing, I’m …” and again he trails off.
- At one point he raises the lighter and moves it in a circle motion beneath the pipe, inhaling deeply.
- Next, the voice raises the name of Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau. The man says he can’t stand him and that he wants to shove his foot up the young leader’s “ass so far it comes out the other end.”
- Ford nods and bobs on his chair and appears to say, “Justin Trudeau’s a fag.”
- The man taping the mayor keeps the video trained on him. Then the phone rings. Ford looks at the camera and says something like “that better not be on.”
- The phone shuts off.
Posted May 17, 2013 at 10:45am in rob ford crack cocaine drugs war on drugs mayor toronto canada
|
6 notes
The issue is not the concentration …,” Medbuy vice-president Michael Blanchard said. “The problem is the labels do not accurately describe the contents of the bag.” Medbuy president Kent Nicholson said his company is in the process of terminating its contract with Marchese, which he valued at $2-million to $3-million annually. Medbuy is a group-purchasing organization that buys medication and supplies on behalf of hospitals. The testimony stood in stark contrast to that of Marchese president Marita Zaffiro, who told the committee last week that her company’s product met the exact specifications of its contract with Medbuy and suggested that hospitals were at fault for imprecisely administering the drugs. (..) Both executives testified that if the bags of medicine were overfilled with saline, as has been established in the hearings, the pharmacist at Marchese overseeing the compounding should have noticed, and the company should have labelled the bags accordingly.
Posted May 7, 2013 at 12:30pm in medbuy canada ontario healthcare chemotherapy cancer medication medicine
