Toronto Mayor Rob Ford
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Rob Ford caught in video rant
By: Kevin Donovan Investigations, David Bruser News Reporter, Jesse McLean Investigative News reporter, Published on Thu Nov 07 2013
The Star has obtained video of Mayor Rob Ford where he appears to be in a state of extreme agitation. The context in which it was shot is unclear, but his language and mannerisms clearly indicate he's angry.
Mayor Rob Ford has been caught on a new video staggering around an unknown dining room ranting gibberish and acting wildly.
Rob Ford , the mayor of Canada’s largest city, has been caught on video in an impaired rant saying he is going to kill someone and “rip his f--king throat out.” Ford slurs his words as he staggers around an unknown dining room, apparently high, ranting gibberish and gesticulating wildly.
“I’m gonna kill that f--king guy. I’m telling you, it’s first-degree murder,” Mayor Rob Ford rages as someone in the room secretly uses a cellular phone to film the chief magistrate’s addled tirade.
Moments after the Star published the video online, Ford emerged from his office and apologized.
“The Toronto Star just released a video that I was very, very inebriated.”
“All I can say is, again, I’ve made mistakes. I just wanted to come out and tell you I saw a video. It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world’s going to see it. You know what? I don’t have a problem with that.”
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“I hope none of you have ever or will ever be in that state. Obviously, I was extremely, extremely inebriated.”
The target of the mayor’s anger in the video is not in the room and is not known to the Star.
“I’ll rip his f--king throat out. I’ll poke his eyes out. . . . I’ll make sure that motherf--ker’s dead,” Ford says, then hitches up his pant legs as if bracing for action. His ire appears to be directed at someone who has called him, and brothers Doug and Randy, “liars, thieves.”
Wednesday, Ford’s chief of staff Earl Provost said he could not speak to the Star about the video. “I am sorry I cannot talk to you about this,” Provost said.
Also on Wednesday, the Star sent a transcript of the video, a description of the video’s contents and an offer to show it to the following people in the mayor’s circle: Ford, his brother Councillor Doug Ford, Provost, deputy chief of staff Sunny Petrujkic, spokesman Amin Massoudi, and Ford’s lawyer Dennis Morris.
The Star invited all of them to view the video, either at their office or the Star’s office, and provide an explanation for Ford’s behaviour. None of them took the Star up on its offer.
Ford only commented on the video after it appeared on thestar.com .
After apologizing for his behaviour, Ford did not elaborate on his filmed rant.
Last week, Police Chief Bill Blair announced that investigators recovered two video clips relevant to extortion charges laid against the mayor’s “close friend” Alexander “Sandro” Lisi. One of those videos is of the mayor smoking what appears to be crack, which two Star reporters viewed in May.
There is no suggestion that this video is the second video Blair referred to in his press conference.
In this profanity-laden, 77-second video, Ford is seen pacing about the dining room of a house, threatening death to an unnamed enemy. A person off camera, who is encouraging Ford’s behaviour, tells him to wait until “after the byelection,” an apparent reference to the byelection Ford wanted the city to hold to replace departed deputy mayor Doug Holyday.
The reference to the by-election puts the timing of the video sometime in August. The need to replace deputy mayor Holyday came on August 1 when he became a provincial legislator. City council voted on August 26 to choose his successor by appointment instead of the $250,000 byelection Ford said was the more democratic choice.
Similar to the crack video the Star witnessed in May, Ford’s words switch rapidly from being easily heard to incomprehensible.
“I am a sick motherf--ker, dude,” says Ford, rolling the cuffs of his collared shirt up to his elbow. “Like no one’s gonna f--k around with me.”
At points in the video, Ford is incoherent. He appears to say that unidentified critics call him and his brothers “birds.”
At another point, he angrily mutters what sounds like “This is f--ked, daddy.” However, the outburst also sounds like: “That little prick’s a racist f--k, daddy.”
In the video, Ford frenetically waves his arms and shifts from foot to foot. He stumbles backwards and gently bumps into the dining room table, on which sits a large bottle of alcohol. As he grows more agitated he slaps his stomach hard and appears to be discussing a plan to get “in the ring” with someone. Ford and voices off camera seem to debate how long he will need for the attack. He wants 15 minutes. A man off camera says he will only have five minutes.
The Star purchased the video for $5,000 from a source who filmed the video from someone else’s computer. The person with the computer was there in the room, the Star was told.
Asked why the paper paid $5,000 for the video, Editor Michael Cooke said: “Because of the huge public interest both in Toronto and worldwide.
“We weren’t paying a source for information, we were purchasing a video, something newspapers and TV stations do every day. I’ve paid more for a book excerpt.
“Publisher John Cruickshank and I talked about the price and quickly decided that the crisis at City Hall made it essential to get all information relevant to Ford’s true character and views in front of Torontonians.
“This was especially crucial as the mayor insisted he had nothing left to hide and has called us liars and maggots from the beginning when we reported on two of our journalists seeing a video that showed a clearly intoxicated mayor smoking crack cocaine.
“One of the mayor’s pals is accused of going to extraordinary lengths to find and suppress the crack video, while all the while he was denying its existence. We feared if we didn’t grab it quick, this revealing video might disappear.”
The Star has been assured the money went to “the legal and beneficial use of a family.”
The Star was told that Ford arrived at a supporter’s home and was clearly impaired. The Ford supporter was described to the Star as a businessman. Four people between the age of 20 and 60 were present during Ford’s outbursts. One filmed the video with a phone camera. This man appears to have been sitting on a couch near where the mayor was pacing in front of the dining room table covered with a white tablecloth and surrounded by six chairs. Blinds are drawn and a chandelier lights the room. It is nighttime.
While Ford is clearly angry with someone who has insulted him and his brothers, he uses sporting terms to discuss his plan of attack.
“No holds barred, brother. He dies, or I die, brother,” Ford says at the start of the video.
Again, a voice camera, as if in call-and-response, says, “Mike Tyson,” a reference to the former boxer. Ford continues: “I’ll fight him. I’ll . . . (gibberish)”
“I need f--king 10 minutes to make sure he’s dead. It’ll be over in five minutes, brother,” says Ford, who paces back and forth in short, stilted steps.
Ford, shoes off, struggles to focus his rant, moving around the room and flipping from an aside about his brothers to unintelligible gibberish and back again.
“My brothers are, don’t tell me we’re liars, thieves, birds?” he said. “Randy walks with a...(unintelligible)...80-year-old birds…”
The Randy section is largely incomprehensible. Randy Ford is the oldest Ford brother.
The video has two distinct cuts where it appears the person stopped filming then started again or edited together three short clips. It is unknown what, if anything, Ford said in the period of time that was not filmed. After one cut, Ford’s striped tie is gone and he tugs at his collar.
“Brother, I just need to go f--king by myself in my f--king underwear,” he says, slapping his belly six times. Near the end of the video, Ford tells his audience, “If I win, I will f--king donate,” before trailing off and leaving the thought unfinished. It is not known what the mayor is referring to.
The video emerges after seven days of revelations. Last Thursday, Chief Bill Blair announced police had found the crack video, the one Star reporters viewed that shows Ford making homophobic and racist comments while smoking a crack pipe. Brother Doug called for Blair to resign. Then the mayor announced he had smoked crack cocaine, once, during a “drunken stupor.”
Mayor Ford then said, “I have nothing left to hide.”
Kevin Donovan can be reached at kdonovan@thestar.ca or 416-312-3503
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