TORONTO — Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford reiterated Saturday that he won’t resign despite mounting pressure for him to step aside after police said they had obtained a copy of a video that appears to show the mayor puffing on a crack pipe.
Ford smiled outside his office and said: “No. As I told you before I’m not resigning.”
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Allegations that the mayor of Canada’s largest city had been caught on the video smoking crack cocaine first surfaced in May. Two reporters with the Toronto Star and one from the U.S. website Gawker said they saw the video but did not obtain a copy. Police Chief Bill Blair said he was “disappointed” in Ford at a news conference Thursday in which he announced that the video had been recovered from a computer hard drive during an investigation of an associate of the mayor’s suspected of providing him drugs.
The Toronto Board of Trade called for Ford to take a leave of absence, saying the mayor needs to put the city first. All four major Toronto newspapers have called on Ford to resign.
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, a Ford ally, said Friday he would meet with Ford on Saturday to express the concerns of many city council members. Kelly said he hoped Ford would make the right decision.
More damaging information has also come to light about Ford’s bizarre behavior. A spokeswoman for the city of Toronto released a security incident report from city hall security guards who say they witnessed a “very intoxicated” Ford having trouble walking, sweating profusely and swearing at aides after St. Patrick’s Day in 2012.
The report states that at 2:30 a.m. the mayor “visited the security desk alone with a half empty bottle of St. Remy French Brandy.” The report states the mayor said his car had been stolen and that he wanted to call police.
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