08.14.2013 10:25 PM

Toronto needs a mayor: a short review about a video

The scene: a Starbucks, at Yonge and St. Clair.

The players: Kevin Donovan, the lead investigative reporter at the Toronto Star, and James Lockyer, the founding director of the Association in Defence of the Wrongly Convicted.

The mood: convivial, certain, but (obviously) insufficiently discreet.

Key elements in the dialogue:

  • The video exists, and it has been seen by many, many Toronto defence layers, following Crown disclosure arising out of June’s Dixon Road “Project Traveler” police raids.
  • In the video, a large man – Lockyer does not say who he is, but he doesn’t need to – is clearly seen smoking a yellowish substance.  There is no doubt who he is, or what he is doing.
  • The authenticity of the video, and who is in it, has been independently confirmed by a very high-ranking police official.

Will it ever come out? (Probably.)

Will it force him from office before the end of his term? (Unlikely.)

And on and on the little drama goes.  Where it stops, nobody knows.

51 Comments

  1. robin says:

    It looks like Ford is all he was cracked up to be after all.

  2. Ian says:

    Legal question: With the search warrant documents being made available to the media lawyers on the 27th – what will actually happen that day? Will we likely read anything in the papers, or will it all be behind the scenes stuff?

    Speculation question: What must the Fords be doing during all of this? They have to be formulating some kind of plan or response, right? …Right?

    • skeeter says:

      I think what will happen is the media lawyers will be able to view the documents and they will take some time to decide which parts of it the public should see and then they’ll go to the judge asking him/her to release those parts, which may or may not happen. But maybe I’m wrong, I’m not a lawyer.

  3. DJ says:

    Why isn’t more scrutiny being paid to his remaining supporters on council? The question to them is: What is wrong with you? How can you in good conscience support a mayor who is so clearly not up to the job? Fine, you’re right wing, but you don’t need to support Ford to be like that.

    They should be targeted in the next election for defeat one by one along with Ford.

    • KR says:

      Well said! My thoughts exactly.

    • Laka Dukus says:

      The REAL question is…why is Rob Ford under MORE scrutiny for things he does, yet left wing Councillors kiss the union arses, over-spend by millions. yet Ford does something, it is the biggest crime on earth.

      Kinsella has not seen the ‘video’, no one has seen this ‘video’. Yet automatic guilt for Ford.

      • Slariviere says:

        You don’t happen to believe that anyone has seen the video, but there are several accounts from people who have. Even the former deputy mayor believes there is a video, he just questions whether or not it’s crack. And, like any public figure who routinely makes a spectacle of himself, Ford attracts scrutiny. If this were a progressive politician behaving in this manner, you folks would be all over it… Not trying to distract with this “ooo look how bad these other people are… Pay attention to them instead!” silliness. There are plenty of us who want fiscally responsible politicians who also don’t behave like boorish drunkards. In fact, I daresay we’re the silent majority 🙂

  4. Nasty Bob says:

    It will likely only become public if one or more goes to trial. If plea bargains are done forfeiture orders will be sought and the cell phone/recordings will become property of Her Majesty and likely destroyed without the public ever seeing it. I’m sure the lawyers who have the tape received it on trust like conditions. Talking to the press about what you might anticipate as evidence against a client is usually not a problem ( as long as it’s not too exact – like giving names ) but to leak an actual potential exhibit is almost begging the law society to kick you out of the club. I doubt any who have it would be foolish enough to do so.

  5. Buster Fykes says:

    it would be very interesting for me, to see a video, taken by a cellphone, in which a person lets the cameraman get so close as to be able to peer into a pipe bowl and ascertain a yellow substance burning inside of it. focused at macro, it would have to be, and yet still show a face. I don’t know of any phones that have macro focusing, but would love to be educated.

    • Malcolm says:

      Mr. Fykes, you have set up a nice little straw man there. You state the following supposed requirements for the video to have sufficient evidence: video quality that exceeds that of a cell phone, macro focusing, and filming near the subject.

      1) My Samsung Galaxy S3 can take HD video (1920×1080), and has both autofocus and macro focusing.

      2) I just took a video to test it out, and without macro focus I was able to get within two inches of the logo on my mouse and still have perfect focus despite low light conditions, so macro would not be required as you claim.

      3) Finally, from what I have read, the pipe is clear, so you don’t need to look down the pipe as you can see right through it. Therefore, an HD video taken at a distance far enough to remain covert would be sufficient to ascertain what was being smoked.

      Also, apparently crack is smoked by heating the bowl of the pipe, rather than igniting the contents as you would for marijuana or tobacco – that does not require macro focusing, HD, a video camera near the subject, or even a clear bowl for a very obvious distinction.

      Your suggested requirements are not at all required.

      I do agree with you on one aspect though; it would be a very interesting video to see.

    • Robotheart says:

      Hilarious. Is that the next line of defence for Ford Nation? No longer able to deny the existence of the crack video, you’ll now start carping “we can’t tell what he’s smoking, so how do you know it’s crack?” After all the scandals, all the questions about Ford’s personal life, stories about drinking, even videos of him slurring his words, do you really think Ford is hanging out with gang members, uttering racist and homophobic remarks while smoking tobacco from a crack pipe? Sometimes if looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.

  6. Simon Sazinsky says:

    Already gave you my real name, Simon Sazinsky, in a previous post. Memory is the first thing to go after 50.

    • Warren says:

      That’s true. You, sometimes, are not.

      If you are calling bullshit on my information, and hinting at LSUC action, why not just act on both?

      • SLariviere says:

        Excellent point, Warren. Instead of twisting panties into tighter and tighter knots with silly threats and sabre rattling, why don’t the increasingly-dwindling pool of Ford supporters put up… or, you know, shut up. And threats made over the Internet are especially adorable.

        • Lance says:

          C’mon, telling “Ford supporters” to “put up or shut-up” when we still haven’t seen this video publically released yet is a little rich.

          • Slariviere says:

            And if or when said video is released, will you be man enough to acknowledge that the respected journalists were right, and you were willfully, rudely ignorant and wrong? Just curious 🙂

  7. SLariviere says:

    This is so bizarre… every morning I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop, knowing that eventually I will open up the news and read that the video has finally surfaced. At this point I don’t even care if it forces him from office before the end of his term… I simply want the braying, wilfully ignorant supporters to hush up for a little bit.

    • Warren says:

      I have a theory about this. I think they won’t do so over video evidence of him doing drugs – they all believe he does.

      I think they will abandon him when they see proof of him consorting with non-white gang-bangers. To the angry old racists who form his core, that is the bigger crime.

      • SLariviere says:

        I think you’re right… the rabid denials are being fed by some kind of internal conflict, and I’m guessing it’s the knowledge that their boy is a liar (once again). But the image of him hanging with non-white crack dealers and gun runners… well… that one’s going to stick in the craw. Racism usually trumps everything else.

        • Warren says:

          With his crew, it will.

          • harvey bushell says:

            Except from all the descriptions of the video that I’ve read the only person shown is Ford himself. Although there is “that” photo but it apparently is not a capture from the video. If his racist base is willing to overlook that photo then I don’t see the video making a difference in that regard.

      • PP says:

        I absolutely agree with Warren that our Lardship, sorry, Lordship, consorting with non white gang bangers will be a bigger crime with that crowd. I come to this conclusion because I have a neighbor who is a strong supporter of the Harper-Ford-Hudak “ideologies” and I know that would be a bigger deal with him.

        • Wayne says:

          Who are the racists here anyway? Some of y’all might want to peek in the mirror. Just sayin’.

        • Bruce says:

          A sample of one is definitely the way to pass judgement on people who voted for Ford. You progressives really know how to argue persuasively /s.

      • Vankleek Hill says:

        You label Ford voters as “angry racists.” Complete, and utter disrespect for voters in a Democracy…. This attitude is what sunk the federal Liberals. You painted Harper as a right wing maniac. Too overblown, and the Canadian public didn’t buy it.

        • Slariviere says:

          The Canadian public sure seems to have moved on from Harper. They gave him a shot with a majority, and don’t like what they see.

  8. Eric says:

    Great placement on nationalnewswatch today!

  9. Richard says:

    So the police know Rob Ford uses smack and don’t care? Or is this part of a larger investigation?

  10. jay says:

    The writing is on the wall for Ford now–the Calgary Herald has come out in his defence. This is the same paper that blamed Insite for Cory Monteith’s death:

    http://www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/editorials/Editorial+Harassment+Ford+gone+beyond+ridiculous/8789242/story.html

    • Langdon says:

      I would be most concerned as a Calgarian. This is the perspective of the people who have the greatest resources/will/knowledge to investigate, evaluate and uncover the misdeeds and cover-ups of our elected officials? This is not the journalistic gumption and attitude that leads to appropriate checks on our democratically elected officials. ORNGE, senate spending scandals etc etc would never be reported or uncovered with the laissez faire laziness present in the Calgary Herald. Get off the bench and into the corners, Herald. Don’t attack the people who do.

  11. smelter rat says:

    “Mayor Ford smokes crack and you condemn him knowing that it doesn’t affect his job as mayor.”. Seriously?? You believe that?

  12. deb s says:

    reading comments from ford supporters, im beginning to see what happens at the polls on voting day. the willful ignorance and denial is tragic. The man smokes crack…his true issue is substance abuse period. He drinks to the point of losing control in public, he makes bad decisions stemming from his addictions ( like being filmed smoking crack, driving while under the influence, grabbing women inappropriately)
    and these folks think that it doesnt affect his job…really? I dont think Ford is a functional alcoholic, and his close supporters are trying to contain this mess while still remaining in power…whats it gonna take…him plowing thru a red light and killing himself or others. Jesus…get him to rehab and let some other councillor finish his term or call an election:P

  13. partrick says:

    With the theory that it’s possible to suck and blow at the same time, Crack Nation, a core of no mercy hard time advocates for not petting kittens, become absolute libertines when it comes to Rob Ford. I don’t think a video, druggie friends of various shades, drunk incompetence, setting the whole city of Toronto back 10 years, means anything as long as Ford rails against unions and government. That core has made a decision and will follow it over a cliff. The question is how deep is that core and how is it defeated in the next election.

  14. RoFoMoFo says:

    Any insight on how Lockyer saw the video? Is he retained by any of the defendants implicated in Traveler, and he somehow has authorization to disclose this info? Or is it just a case of defence lawyers gossiping outside of school?

  15. Andrew says:

    Sorry, but every time I read about someone knowing of someone who knows someone who has seen the video, it makes me think, “My best friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s brother’s girlfriend heard from this guy who knows this kid who’s going with the girl who saw Ferris pass out at 31 Flavors last night. I guess it’s pretty serious.”

  16. Bunny LaMont says:

    The Ford family saga has all the hallmarks of National Socialist style pure power politics. Nazi military units were amply supplied with methamphetamine, often in the form of chocolate bars. Infamous mass-murderer Klaus Barbie profited greatly through the cocaine trade and participated in the cocaine coup that installed ruthless Bolivian dictator Tejada. There is a global pattern of neo-Nazi groups funding themselves via the drug trade. Google Danny Casolaro – a cautionary tale indeed about drugs and power.

    Unfortunately, progressives have painted themselves into a corner in a public relations sense; that is, their embrace of similar tactics make it now difficult to attack drug use on moral grounds. For example, Vancouver’s Insite Movement, now pushing towards “inhalation rooms” for smoking crack cocaine and methamphetamine, has also supported dispensed heroin. One recalls the Socialist Patients Collective; that is, “pro-illness,” using “illness as a weapon,” and that addiction is viewed as a product of the “capitalist system.” A total embrace of addiction and the idea of “junkie cadres” hammering away at bourgeois society and sparking revolution. In essence, the same as the National Socialist program.

    History has proven that the anesthetizing power of drugs almost always goes hand in hand with a violent and volatile political landscape. It is no coincidence that Cairo is awash in hashish. Consistent that pro-Castro Trudeau is also pro-legal cannabis. No accident the corporatists pump out pills like jelly beans. True freedom begins with a free mind – princes, the powers-that-be are not interested in freedom in case you haven’t figured it out yet. Whether this video surfaces or not is completely incidental. To be a true leader, Rob Ford must break the chains that bind his mind rather than being the poster child for narco-power excess.

  17. Tiger says:

    Ford outsourced garbage collection successfully, he dealt well with the unions, and he got the fifth lane of traffic restored to Jarvis.

    He’s building the wrong subway line (we need a downtown relief line), but he’s right about subways over LRTs.

    He’s got my vote in 2014, crack video or no.

    These are hired hands; he’s doing what I want done, and not doing the stuff I hated in Millertown. That’s enough. (Is this an incredibly low set of expectations? Sure. But others have consistently failed to meet them. (Also, if you’re going to blame anyone, blame John Tory — had he run at the start in 2010, Ford wouldn’t even have run. Tory would have won in a walk.))

    • Tiger says:

      It’s true, Tory can’t win anything.

      That’s why he couldn’t run in 2010 — had he gotten into the race at the start, he couldn’t have not won. So to preserve the ironclad political law of “John Tory can’t win anything”…

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