[b]The Court has lifted the publication ban on cellphone video showing embattled former mayor inhaling from crack pipe, which Ford denied in 2013 but later admitted.
A video showing Rob Ford, the late former mayor of Toronto, smoking crack has been made public for the first time, some three years after it engulfed the city in scandal and earned Ford international notoriety.
The video was published by numerous media sites in Canada shortly after a court lifted the publication ban. The short clip shows the former mayor holding a crack pipe and a lighter, inhaling as he speaks to his friend Elena Basso, who was previously convicted of drug trafficking. Throughout their expletive-laced conversation, Ford appears red-faced and his speech is slurred. Much of what he says is inaudible, but he appears to bristle at being called right-wing and engages with Basso as she launches into a scathing attack on Justin Trudeau, Canada’s current prime minister. “I don’t know if that camera’s not on,” Ford says near the end of the short video.
Reports of the video first emerged in 2013, sparking one of the city’s biggest scandals in recent history. Ford, who had been mayor of the city since 2010, responded by saying he did not use crack cocaine and he wasn’t an addict of crack cocaine. “As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist,” he said.
It was left to Toronto police to determine whether the video actually existed and whether it had been accurately described by the handful of people who had viewed it.
Months later police said they had seized the video during a guns and gang investigation in the city. The city’s police chief at the time, Bill Blair, said he had seen the video. “I’m disappointed,” he told reporters. “This is a traumatic issue for the citizens of this city and for the reputation of this city and that concerns me.”
Ford later admitted to smoking crack in an apology heard around the world. Yes, he said to a reporter who asked if he had smoked crack cocaine. He continued: “But, no, do I? Am I an addict? No. Have I tried it? Um, probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably approximately about a year ago.”
Eventually he checked into a rehab facility for treatment. Ford was never charged.
Nearly two years later, the video was entered as evidence in a Toronto court proceeding, as Ford’s friend and former driver Alexander Lisi faced charges of extortion over his efforts to retrieve the cellphone video.
On Thursday, the court agreed to drop the charge against Lisi on Thursday, paving the way for the video to become public for the first time since its existence was reported. Months after his death at the age of 46, Rob Ford was again trending topic in Canada.
Ford died on 22 March. In 2014, after being diagnosed with a rare, aggressive form of cancer, the polarising politician was forced to withdraw from his bid for a second term as mayor of Toronto. He instead ran for the city council seat he had once occupied for a decade – winning by a landslide – and promised to run for mayor in 2018 if his health permitted.
Toronto residents lined up in droves to pay their respects to the politician as he lay in repose for two days at city hall. His funeral was held at a Toronto cathedral after his coffin was carried in a procession from city hall. The day ended with a public celebration of his life at the Toronto Congress Centre.[/b]
