Oh man. Where to start? This story has been consuming me...
After the story broke initially, Mayor Ford went into hiding for about a week. Then the Globe and Mail (Canada's major national daily) wrote a long story about
the Ford family's long history with drugs: apparently his brother and current city councillor Doug Ford was a medium-level (pounds, not ounces) hash dealer in the 80s. Also another brother kidnapped someone over a drug debt and their sister was involved with drug dealers and the white power movement.
Councillor Doug Ford today - who would believe this guy was a drug dealer?
Suddenly, Rob Ford re-entered the public eye with a new spring in his step, making bold declarations that no video existed. It was business as usual at Toronto City Hall! And over the next week, six of his senior staffers were fired (for telling him to go to rehab) or resigned (because he refuses to go to rehab). Meanwhile, the media was camped out in front of the Mayor's office, and Ford just kept saying "Everything's great!" and refusing to address any questions about smoking crack.
Gawker met its goal, but the guys with the video had gone underground. Then it came out that people in the Mayor's office had gone to the police because
they knew where the video was and they were worried that it was connected to a murder that had occurred. (Two of the guys that are in the widely-circulated photo of Ford were shot in March, one of them died.) Ford continued to deny that such a video existed, but there are reports that he himself was interviewed by the police about the whereabouts of the video...
Then, the address of the apartment that had at one time housed the video became public knowledge. It's a rundown apartment in a highrise that has a lot of drug trade. The National Post (a Ford-friendly paper, in principle) reported that the current resident had seen the video, confirmed its authenticity, and discussed his involvement in a plan to shoot a
FAKE Ford/crack video with a lookalike named Slurpy in order to discredit the ACTUAL video. Slurpy, who hasn't been publicly identified, eventually backed out of this plan because he was afraid.
The original owners of the video eventually communicated to Gawker that the video is gone, and they don't want to be involved anymore. Ford is extremely popular in the Somali community, and there apparently has been a ton of pressure on the video owners from their neighbours.
Ford continues to publicly deny that there is a video of him smoking crack, and most people assume that he purchased it himself right around the time that he got his mojo back.
Recently the house in the background of that photo above was identified as belonging to old friends of Ford. And, oh yeah,
it's also a crack house, more or less.
His approval ratings (which, to be fair are only so-so) haven't budged during the whole thing. But there are new revelations and wrinkles coming out every day. Thank god I'm unemployed, so I can give it the attention it deserves.
