05.28.2013 10:25 AM

Globe: “someone had killed him for the Rob Ford video”

Just out now in the Globe:

The tipster who prompted Rob Ford’s chief of staff to go to police about a video allegedly showing the mayor smoking crack cocaine was Dave Price, a staffer in the mayor’s office and longtime friend of the Ford family.

Late on May 17, the day after Gawker broke the story about the alleged video, Mr. Price told chief of staff Mark Towhey that he had received reliable information about the location of the video, according to a source in the mayor’s office. He gave Mr. Towhey an address and a unit number on Dixon Road.

Mr. Towhey asked Mr. Price not to attempt to find the video, according to the source.

That’s when Mr. Price added the information that his source was telling him that the original owner of the video was now dead because someone had killed him for the video.

Can Rob Ford survive this, which is now officially the biggest scandal in Canadian political history?

Who knows.  But Anthony Smith didn’t survive it.

43 Comments

  1. Michael S says:

    The only way Rob Ford leaves is via the polls or a perp walk. Shameless people don’t resign.

  2. Jane Daly says:

    I predict a tragic end to this story. Even more tragic than it already is.

    • Swervin' Merv says:

      Agreed. This can only end badly, if not swiftly.

      We used to raise money for local charities by betting on when an old Ford car would finally sink through the pond ice in the spring. Could be a similar wager on whether Mayor Ford or PM Harper sinks first, but lately it looks like Ford will make the first splash.

  3. patrick says:

    Well, I think this would be more about a dealer protecting his elite clients than the Fords executing a hit, though once Doug found out about the video and spoke to his connections in, uh, organic farming, who knows how the screaming and threatening inspired the receiver.
    Well this is going way beyond my expectations of how disastrous Ford’s administration would be.

  4. JBG says:

    Have to say that Mark Towhey has the edge on Nigel Wright in terms of honourable behaviour by a Chief of Staff in the face of a political crisis.

    • Arnold Murphy says:

      Mark Towhey as someone pointed out is ex-military, I would expect nothing less than courage under fire and conduct becoming. It is one of the reasons so few military members venture into politics, you move from a world in the military of absolute trust and integrity to one diametrically opposed to ethical behavior.

  5. ray says:

    chips are falling, chips are falling.
    Dr Johnny Fever.

  6. Tim says:

    I can’t understand, for the life of me, how this guy is still the mayor.

    • ray says:

      because as God is their witness Ford’s base thought turkeys could fly.
      sorry Warren… two WKRP references in one day 🙂 but I couldn’t help myself.
      ray

  7. Graham says:

    Let’s assume the owner was killed for the video. By whom? Someone loyal to Ford? A rival hoping to cash in? The alleged drug dealers own gang?

    My money would be on #3. Hear me out:

    The Gawker story said the gang the person belonged to was responsible for supplying most of Toronto’s “A-listers” with drugs. I don’t think the gang’s leadership would be to happy with some of their crew filming, then trying to sell a video of one of theiir clients smoking crack. It would destroy their business.

    If you were one of the “A-listers” who bought you drugs from them, would you continue to use them after hearing they taped someone and were trying to sell it to the press?

    • Graham says:

      Nevermind.

      My theory doesn’t fit the timeline unless there has been a subsequent murder nobody is aware of yet. Assuming he was the original owner Anthony Smith was killed the end of March.

      Anyone know exactly when Gawker/the Star first became aware of the video? I thought end of April, beginning of May.

      • Pat says:

        When the story broke the Toronto Star said that they had seen the tape six weeks prior to the news breaking. In your theory, that leaves two possibilities. First, Smith was killed by the drug dealer to protect Ford after Smith tried to blackmail Ford with the tape (or even, after Ford learned of the tape). Second, Smith was killed for the tape because someone saw the value (six figures) of that item, and wanted to cash in.

  8. George says:

    I can’t believe this guy still has people’s support. The “smoking gun” for me is that he hasn’t already sued the Star, and Doug hasn’t sued the Globe. They have money, they have one of the best litigation lawyers in Toronto, and if the allegations were false, they would stop at nothing to make the Star and Globe pay. Instead we get a couple of lousy self-aggrandizing speeches and denial. The empty can rattles the most. Actions speak louder than words.

    • Graham says:

      He could have sued the CBC and Star after they reoprted he called a 911 operator a B**ch, without either of them hearing it. Both the Toronto Police Chied and OPP commissioner listened to it and publicly stated Ford did not say it.

      But Ford didn’t sue.

      I think Doug should sue, but the Globe has very deep pockets. The could tie it up in the courts for a looooong time. Still, if someone made those allegations against me, I’d have to sue.

      Warren, you’re a lawyer. Isn’t the an exception to libel dealing with the public’s “right to know” that can be used to sheild/protect the media from lawsuits for libel and defamation?

      • Warren says:

        That’s in the US.

        There is no risk to him suing. He’d recover his costs if he won. He wouldn’t be out of pocket one cent, and he knows it.

        He isn’t suing because truth is a defence.

        • Graham says:

          Thanks for clarifying.

          Would the Globe or could the Globe be forced to identify/provide their sources for questioning by Ford’s lawyers?

          • Warren says:

            They’d be asked, but they’d likely refuse. If they communicated with them via email/text, they’d be perhaps outed that way.

          • Reality.Bites says:

            The last thing Ford wants is to dig deep into this. The video exists and Ford smokes crack and spouts bigotry.

            That’s the best face that can be put on the story.

        • G Johnson says:

          Even successful litigants don’t get all their costs.

        • Pauly C says:

          Exactly.

      • Eric says:

        I don’t think that the Fords would sue the papers, because they wouldn’t win, but also because the don’t want to win. If they did, they would not be able to use the ‘victim’ card that plays so well amongst their followers.

      • Ted B says:

        His lawyer would be paid on a contingency basis so there is no cost to Ford.

        More to the point, if you think you have been defamed, your first step under defamation legislation is to issue a notice of defamation, which must be done within 6 weeks of becoming aware of the defamatory material. No cost to this notice and the longer you delay, the more the court can consider you didn’t think your reputation was really at risk.

        The exception you may be thinking about is the “fair comment” exception which allows an opinion/comment to be made if the comment is on a matter of public interest (excluding gossip), based on known and provable facts, an opinion that any person is capable of holding based on those facts, and with no actual malice underlying it. So if the facts are in question, there is no defence.

        And no reason not to issue a notice or to sue.

        Unless the facts are true, of course.

  9. Ding Ming-Wong says:

    Did anyone notice Rob Ford’s buzz haircut? It is the shortest he has ever had it. I was reading that hair drug testing measures the drug molecules embedded inside the hairshaft, eliminating external contamination as a source of a positive result. Since hair growth is fed by the bloodstream, the ingestion of drugs of abuse is revealed by analyzing a small sample of hair.

    To date most drug screening has been done by testing urine samples, but it is not possible to detect most drugs in urine after 48-72 hours since the majority of drugs are out of the body by then. This makes it difficult to detect drug use by random testing or to monitor the success of treatment in a clinical setting, and impossible to prove use or non-use historically.

    Hair analysis is proven to solve these problems, providing a secure, retrospective window of detection. Hair can show the trend of a habit over time and accurately determine what drugs were used. Just as importantly, it will show definitively if someone has not been taking any illicit substances.

    Hair drug testing is the most effective test for long term drug use.

    Perhaps Ford figures that by the time the police get a warrent and/or he is under so much pressure to produce a drug test, that his hair will still be too short
    for a sample (if he buzzes it daily himself), and by the time it grows long enough for a sample, the crack cocaine will be totally out of his system.

    I am not saying this is definitely the case, but it is interesting that he cut his hair so short right around the time the story about this video tape first
    become public knowledge.

    Any thoughts?

    Ding Ming-Wong

  10. steve says:

    Top ten birthday presents for anyone having a birthday today

    1)Stealth Crack pipe, it has infrared lights that prevent the face of user from being photographed
    2) fake hair samples that are drug free, if his birthday had been last week he could have avoided that bowl cut.
    3)All expenses paid trip to Somalia, there are more than drug dealers, there are pirates as well.
    4) Voodo dolls of every maggot reporter in Toronto
    5) A Segway so he can run down reporters
    6)Kim Dot Com’s cellphone number so he can get his stylist.
    7) A Japanese companion pillow so he can grab ass without making news
    8)a collector’s edition version of Aeorosmith Rocks
    9) The ultimate fixe bike so he can drive over it to relieve the stress
    10) Your brothers old high school black book so you can start to track down a new dealer if his old one is dead.

  11. Ms Buttercup says:

    The End of Conservatism

    “Every woman adores a fascist”
    Sylvia Plath

    Lately, I’ve been trying to make a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves, us Conservatives that is. It hasn’t been easy nor has it been pretty.

    In spring, I watched, totally gob smacked, as Tom Flannigan stated that “he was put on the mailing list of the national Man Boy Love Association for several years” and generally try to defend that most satanic of media, child pornography. Who knew one of the architects of modern, Canadian conservatism had a special place for deviants – this is not the Family Values I signed up for. I quietly began another morning in horror reading Barbara Amiel – another elite Conservative – trying to somehow explain away gang rape as the natural outgrowth of boys will boys and hussies deserve whatever they get. Remind me keep my daughters away from the Black’s house. Blatchford took the same line.

    Now, I’m watching decent enough men go to the wall and frankly, the slimiest SOBs remain firmly entrenched. Nigel Wright, widely remembered as the smartest guy in just about every room, has been forced out under a dark cloud of shame. Sure, he’ll survive but, will he ever get the stink of Mike Duffy out of his pinstripes? Mark Towhey, a man who survived the infantry only to be escorted by the mayor’s security out of the building, is yet another causality of the imploding Conservative movement.

    It would appear that the Conservative elite are a dreary ballroom of tar-babies. We the rank and file, and functionaries like Wright and Towhey, I guess are learning the hard way there is no way to dance with these people without getting absolutely filthy dirty and caught up in scandal, shame, or, as the Ford Family’s troubles continue to ripen, something akin to an episode of the Sopranos or Goodfellas.

    How did this come to be? The brutal truth is: the Conservative movement in Canada has been dominated by a social phenomenon similar to what has occurred in Saudi Arabia; that is, an incredible infusion of wealth into a social milieu that was stagnant at best, wildly backward at worst – hence the religious fundamentalism; the emphasis on capital, corporal, and carceral punishment; the underlying misogyny, as the above illustrates, truly Talibanesque views about women; and, the logical outgrowth, the alpha males, princelings, have carte blanche to lord it over the serfs, the environment, over the women, the kids, to indulge whatever sick and corrupt desires their tar-sands-black hearts dream up.

    I could go back and talk about the Aberhearts or the Mannings but that’s the past – everyone knows Stephen Harper is the most powerful man in this town now. Try this: Google images, Stephen Harper alongside JR Ewing. Weird isn’t it? It’s even better if one plays the soundtrack from the film “There Will Blood” – “I know there’s an ocean of oil just under my feet … I have a competition in me. I want no one else to succeed. I hate most people.”

    For a while, especially when the money was rolling in, I have to confess it was more than fun – it was addictive – the dresses, trips to Las Vegas, the champagne and coke. But now, the thrill has gone. As for me, I can only hope the Fords and Harpers soon say, “I’m finished!”

    “There’s a stake in your fat black heart
    And the villagers never liked you.
    They are dancing and stamping on you.
    They always knew it was you.
    Daddy, daddy, you bastard, I’m through.”

  12. rumleyfips says:

    Ms. Buttercup, eloquent as she is, makes a mistake attributing the odour surrounding Nigel Wright as emminating from the Dufster, The stink is coming from Stevie. It is his ethics that encouraged the rot .

  13. Woody says:

    Starting to need a scorecard just to keep track of all the players …
    Timeline? http://pastebin.com/BTGFFmzb

  14. Michael Reintjes says:

    Did any of these kids go to Don Boscoe (sp?) ?

    • Graham says:

      There was a case in April where a former Don Bosco player, Kwado (Kojo) Mensah, was murdered, but at least until this point has no connection to the drug story.

      He was shot in Malvern, which is a pretty rough part of Scarborough with a loooooong history of gang related violence.

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