Over 300 tickets have been sold, I’m told.  See you tonight!

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Thirty years ago, in Ottawa, a guy walked into the place where Chris and I were sitting. He handed me a Joan of Arc medal, and walked out. I’ve been wearing the medal around my neck ever since.

Joan was murdered by the English nearly 600 years ago in Rouen – for looking like a boy. Her story is here.

Why have I worn her around my neck for so many years? Because I admire strong women, that’s why.

Here she be:

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…and the source, as it turns out, is none other than Rob Ford.

His talking point: there is no video, but I know where the video is.  Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia, etc.

Link here. The Star:

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford told senior aides not to worry about a video appearing to show him smoking crack cocaine because he knew where it was, sources told the Star.

Ford then blurted out the address of two 17th-floor units — 1701 and 1703 — at a Dixon Rd. apartment complex, to the shock of staffers at a city hall meeting almost two weeks ago, the sources said.

The mayor cited “our contacts” as the source of his information, according to insiders familiar with the unusual May 17 session in his office.

Staffers were alarmed by the implication of hearing so precise a location, sources said.

This report is based on accounts given by those privy to what was discussed the day after the Star and the U.S. website Gawker published news of the crack-cocaine video shot on a cellphone.

Ford has called news of the video “false” and said: “I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine. As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”

Around the table at city hall on May 17 were operations and logistics director David Price, then deputy chief of staff Earl Provost, press secretary George Christopoulos and others. Missing from the meeting was Mark Towhey, then Ford’s chief of staff. Also not in attendance was communications special assistant Isaac Ransom.

Towhey was fired last Thursday after counselling Ford to seek help for his health. Christopoulos and Ransom resigned “on principle” Monday, and Provost is now chief of staff.

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As the House Communist© at Sun News, I draw to your attention this and this.

Fair’s fair. If CBC gets yet more “mandatory carriage,” so should the SNN.

I support both. The CRTC should, too.

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(And, yes, I was one at the Ottawa Citizen and Calgary Herald, many moons ago.)

• If Rob Ford was indeed heading out to Dixon Road to get really f**ked up periodically…
• …and since he’d be unable to drive himself afterwards…
• …and since he’d repeatedly refused even a police plea that he use an official driver (for reasons you can now surmise)…
• …then he’d need a driver post-binge, and not one who was a Somali drug lord or a cab driver.  One (a) he trusted with his life (b) one who knew the culture (c) and one who would therefore end up knowing the exact address of where the video was shot, and who shot it.

Ipso facto, my question: anyone got footage/pix of the “beat-up beige compact” or a certain Range Rover out near 320 Dixon Road, referred to in this NOW magazine story? Or, has anyone yet matched the private vehicles of Ford staffers to the address in question?

If you do, you’ve got something almost as good as the video: you’ve perhaps got evidence that Ford was indeed there, and that a member of his staff/circle drove him there.

Boom!

 

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The seventeenth floor at 320 Dixon Road, in Kingsview Village.  Bullet marks can be seen on a door on that floor, above.

The Sun has more:

“Several days after the shooting, the Toronto Sun learned the holder of the video that allegedly shows Rob Ford smoking crack also lives on the 17th floor of 320 Dixon Rd.

Toronto Police won’t talk about the video or the shooting, so it’s unclear if the two are connected.

Police have confirmed that homicide detectives are investigating after learning of the whereabouts of the video from a senior staff member in the mayor’s office — now believed to be Ford’s former chief of staff Mark Towhey, who was fired last week…

Whether or not investigators have the video — which Ford has claimed “does not exist” — remains a mystery.

Interestingly, the man who is believed to have shot the 90 seconds of footage with his cellphone, and may have been killed for it, also lived in Kingsview Village.

Anthony Smith, 21, was shot to death outside a King St. W. nightclub March 28 and his 19-year-old pal, who can’t be named because of a publication ban, was wounded.

Both men are also in a much publicized photo where they and a third man appear to be socializing with the mayor.”

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This is the view, right now, of the Don Valley Parkway – which Son One and I take to get downtown every day. We won’t be going that way. Thanks, Rob Ford.

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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.

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Spotted yesterday in Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. This youngster from Canada was planning on taking kiteboarding lessons, but since there wasn’t a lot of wind, he opted for the wake boarding part.

Damn, his name is on the tip of my tongue.

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After more than a week of extraordinary revelations, another one this morning: the Star is reporting that someone senior in Rob Ford’s office – paid for by Ford’s mythologized taxpayer – knew where to find the video of Ford smoking crack cocaine.

That is, the video that Ford now confidently says “doesn’t exist.”

How did they know this? Did Ford tell them to locate it? Were they hoping to buy the video themselves, and then destroy the evidence?

And why, while we’re on it, were two homicide detectives investigating this? Do the police think the murder of Anthony Smith – who knew Ford well – is connected to the video, and the office of the mayor?

Like I say: extraordinary. And getting dirtier every day.

Concerns that one of Mayor Rob Ford’s staffers was trying to obtain the crack video led to a meeting between police detectives and Ford’s former chief of staff, sources have told the Star.

Shortly after news of the video’s existence broke late on the evening of May 16, top aides began discussing the situation. One of those aides was Ford’s logistics man and former high school football coach, David Price.

Also present during discussions were then chief of staff Mark Towhey and two other senior officials. Price contacted Towhey late on May 17 and asked “hypothetically” what if someone had told him where the video was. “What would we do?” Towhey was asked.

Towhey, a former military man and the most experienced official in Ford’s office, was alarmed at Price’s comments. Price went further and said, “What if a source has told me where the video might be found?”

Shocked, Towhey told Price that the only thing he would advise is going to the police. Price also said that the video may have been the reason that Anthony Smith, a person pictured in a photo with Ford, was killed.

Towhey’s response, according to sources, was to tell Price that he would be contacting police.

Towhey called police, and shortly before he went in to give a sworn statement on May 18, Price contacted him and passed on the apartment numbers and floor (17th) of a building in Rexdale where Price said his “sources” had told him the video might be found. Price did not identify his sources.

When Towhey went to the police he did not inform his boss, Mayor Ford. He gave a statement, identifying Price as the originator of this information. Price was later asked to give a statement.

The Star has been unable to reach Price but will continue to try and will pose questions to him regarding this matter.

UPDATED: This morning, Ford was asked by media why his staff knew where video was. His response: “Ask my staff.”

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