We have seen a cellphone video of what looks very much like Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack, said Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan in the Toronto Star. After a source tipped us off last month, we met a Somali drug dealer who played us the video three times. While we have no way to authenticate the video, here’s what it appears to show: Ford sitting in a chair, “speaking in an incoherent and rambling manner, smoking what looks exactly like a crack pipe.” It was a “crystal clear” image, shot in bright afternoon light. Ford and a voice offscreen are talking about football and politics, and at one point Ford calls Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau “a fag.” The video ends when Ford glances over and says, “That phone better not be on.” The dealer wants $200,000 for the video, and the Toronto Star won’t pay. But an editor from the U.S. website Gawker.com, who also saw the video, is trying to raise the sum online.
“It is a staggering, astonishing story,” said Christie Blatchford in the National Post. Ford has presented himself as a gruff, authentic, regular guy—he still coaches high school football, even while holding the office of mayor. He was elected largely by Toronto’s outer suburbs to represent the interests of car-owning, conservative suburbanites who resented all their tax money going to urban improvements they never use. Heck, I voted for him. We thought we knew what we were getting, and we weren’t too upset over his previous gaffes, such as when he told bikers that “it’s their own fault” if they get killed cycling in a bike lane; said that only gays and intravenous drug users can get AIDS; and marveled at those “Orientals” who “work like dogs” and are “taking over.” We forgave him those rough edges. “But crack was never part of the deal.”
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