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Breaking news Ford Crack accusations/Esco=THE FORD VIDEO DOES EXIST

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Michael Prempeh, the latest of the mayor's staff members to leave, had made that decision before the current turmoil.

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At 8:28 p.m. on May 16, the website Gawker published the first account of a video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine.

At 10:02 p.m. that night, a post appeared on an anonymous and little-noticed Twitter account, @PeeTeePeee.

“I may have to write a book,” PeeTeePeee wrote. In another post 24 minutes later, PeeTeePeee added, “I think it would be pretty good.”

PeeTeePeee called himself “Municipal Man of Mystery” in apost on Aug. 29. The Star could not verify his identity. But evidence suggests he is Michael Prempeh, who worked for Ford as a special assistant from Sept. 5 until Friday.

If PeeTeePeee is Prempeh, his veiled musings over the last three weeks are the most candid statements yet offered by any member of the Ford team about the internal turmoil that has shaken the administration.

“There is WAAAAY more going on behind closed doors,” PeeTeePeee wrote Thursday afternoon.


That morning, the Star published a story that cited sources who said Ford told staffers not to worry about the video because he knew where it was. At 7:24 a.m., PeeTeePeee wrote, “Lmao [laughing my ass off] oh boy.” A minute later, he added, “This one just won't go away like the rest of them...”

Mark Towhey, Ford’s chief of staff, was fired around 2 p.m. on May 23. Mere minutes after Towhey was escorted out of city hall, PeeTeePeee wrote, “This office has surpassed Young and the Restless.” He added, “At least I can say I was a part of history. This is some historical ish [slang for s---]." Then: “Oh my kids are going to hear alllll of this. Damn, I might even have to write a book.”

Prempeh, in his mid-20s, was a top wide receiver for the University of Toronto and earlier for the Etobicoke Eagles. He grew up in a Rexdale apartment, the youngest child in a large family of Ghanaian descent. PeeTeePeee’s Twitter biography reads simply: “I’m just a dude trying to make it out of Rexdale.”

On Sept. 4, a day before Prempeh began his new job as a junior Ford aide, PeeTeePeee wrote, “Tomorrow the beginning of something bigger and better begins.” Prempeh told senior staffers in early May that he planned to quit to focus on , a men’s magazine he runs with friends.

Prempeh’s biography page on the U of T football website says his nickname was “PTP80.” Prempeh is identified as @Peeteepeee in a photo on the CAVE Facebook page. The Instagram account @Peeteepeee includes a first-person caption on a . Prempeh has had Facebook accounts under “Michael PTP Prempeh” and “Prempeh Peeteepee.” An acquaintance of Prempeh says the PeeTeePeee Twitter account indeed belongs to him.

Both the Twitter and Instagram accounts include a link to the CAVE website. PeeTeePeee exchanged tweets with another Ford staffer and responded to people who addressed messages to “Mikey” and to “Prempeh.” And an acquaintance sent PeeTeePeee a link to an article about Prempeh’s resignation, adding, “Look at you.”

Prempeh did not respond to requests for comment. After the Star contacted Prempeh, PeeTeePeee tweeted “Stop snitching!” and, later, “The Art of Skullduggery.”

A former Ford staffer who requested anonymity called Prempeh a “great guy” and a “very hard worker with good initiative and judgment” who thrived “even when under intense public scrutiny.”

PeeTeePeee maintained a sense of humour even in writing about the Ford crisis. On May 22, he retweeted a post that read: “I need a public figure to do something ridiculous so I can record it and use the proceeds to pay off my OSAP.” He responded: “Now you thinking.”

His mood appeared darker at other times. On May 27, 15 minutes before reporters learned Ford’s spokesmen had resigned, PeeTeePeee wrote: “JESUS!!!!” He added, “Bad news bears,” then, “All you can do is give a shoulder shrug and keep it moving.”

On May 22, Councillor Doug Ford spoke to the media at length for the first time after the scandal erupted, giving a fiery speech about his brother’s policy record that was repeatedly interrupted by reporters seeking answers on the scandal.

Minutes before Doug Ford began, PeeTeePeee wrote, “These guys are actually savages.” He did not say who he was talking about. Less than 10 minutes after Ford finished, PeeTeePeee seemed ready to leave his job. “Wearing suits to work is cool and all,” he wrote, “but PEACE!!!!!!”

The next day, an acquaintance who saw PeeTeePeee’s “Young and the Restless” tweet asked whether she envies him or not. He responded: “You don’t. At all.”

https://www.thestar.com/news/city_h...er_glimpse_into_turmoil_in_mayors_office.html


 
[h=1]Charities get Gawker donations[/h]
Nearly $200,000 raised by Gawker in hopes of obtaining the notorious Rob Ford crack video has been split evenly between four Canadian charities, with each using their share to help curb drug addictions or crime.

The total amount — $201,199 — was hit with $16,416 of processing fees before being cut into four equal cheques and mailed over the border in August. The four charities have since found apt ways to use the money.

The Somali-Canadian Association of Etobicoke will use their $46,000 to start a program geared at keeping Somali youth out of Toronto gangs and away from drugs.

“We’re going through a troubled time in the Somali community,” said the organization’s executive director, Osman Ali. “This money will let us hire two people to go to the high schools . . . to tell these Somali youth that there’s another way, another life.”


Fifteen honoraria will be created for Somali youth mentors who will help teens with homework and give them peer-to-peer counselling, Ali said.

Toronto’s Somali community became part of the story after the Star reported that the video, which appeared to show the mayor smoking crack cocaine, was being shopped around by Somali drug dealers.

But the crowd-sourced money is not enough for the organization to start the proposed program, which Ali says will cost $202,000. The City of Toronto and the Ontario Trillium Foundation are in talks with the charity to make up the outstanding $156,000, but neither has confirmed if, or how much, they can contribute, Ali said.

The three other groups that received the donations are the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Unison Health and Community Services and the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee.

The South Riverdale Community Health Centre will use their share of the Rob Ford Crackstarter to help people with “substance use issues,” a representative told the Star.

Unison used the money in similar fashion, funneling it into their harm reduction program.

“That was a condition of the donation, that it goes to programs that work with substance users,” said Michelle Joseph, the CEO of Unison.

The Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee (ORAPC) will pay to train certified counsellors to work one-on-one with Native people living with addictions in Ontario.

“For us, it’s going to be used for certified training of Ontario NNADAP workers,” said Autumn Johnson, the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee Coordinator.

NNADAP, the National Native Alcohol and Drug Alcohol Abuse Program, works closely with the ORAPC to treat Aboriginal people with substance abuse issues.

Gawker launched the online fundraiser in May after news broke that two Star reporters, Kevin Donovan and Robyn Doolittle, and Gawker editor John Cook watched a video of the mayor smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine.

The campaign reached its goal of $200,000 in just 11 days, even surpassing it by an extra $1,199.

However, Gawker eventually lost communication with the video’s seller. In early June, the source reportedly told the gossip site that the video was “gone.”

The decision to donate the funds was made public in mid-July.

 
Who is going for corn on the cob to the Ford's bash today??
 
Ontario Press Council deems Star, Globe coverage responsible and ethical

Canada's two largest newspapers acted responsibly and in the public interest in reporting on drug allegations against Mayor Rob Ford and his brother, Coun. Doug Ford, the Ontario Press Council ruled Wednesday.

In dismissing two separate public complaints, the council found the Star and Globe and Mail had engaged in responsible, ethical investigative reporting.

The Ford brothers, the council said, were given more than ample opportunity to respond before the papers published their stories in May.

"The panel concluded that the Star and the Globe both followed appropriate journalistic guidelines in their reporting on the Fords," George Thomson, chairman of the panel that heard the complaints, said in a statement.

Dozens of readers had complained about the newspapers' coverage of the Fords.

In its story, the Star detailed how two of its reporters had viewed a cellphone video it said showed the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

The Globe ran a separate account that alleged Coun. Ford had dealt drugs in his west-end neighbourhood as a young man.

The press council, an industry arbiter, accepted two representative complaints, one from Darylle Donley, who accused the Star of letting its distaste for the mayor's policies taint its coverage.

The video could have been a fake, and the Star should have bought the footage it said was being shopped around by drug dealers to back up its story, Donley argued.

In her complaint, Connie Harrison faulted the Globe for undermining the public trust by using anonymous sources to tell the story of Doug Ford's alleged drug dealing.

"We don't know who to believe at this point," Harrison told the panel at a hearing last month.

In their defence, both newspapers said they had taken every possible step to ensure their stories were both accurate and fair.

They argued they went to extraordinary lengths to verify the information, and had repeatedly asked the Fords for their side of the story — to no avail.

They also argued it was in the public interest — given the Fords' positions — to publish the material.The Globe said it had to rely on anonymous sources for confirmation of its information.

The press council also decided the Globe was right to include other Ford family members in its story, but qualified the decision.

"The Globe came close to crossing the line into what are the problematic, but private affairs of family members," the council wrote.

"However, the council believes that the overall theme of the article ... justifies reference to the actions of these other family members."


FULL STORY HERE
 
Oh boy, the right and Ford nation are not going to like this decision.
 
Rob Ford is toast!! THE FORD VIDEO DOES EXIST

Rob Ford is toast!! THE FORD VIDEO DOES EXIST

Cops say they've recovered Rob Ford crack video

"We have recovered a digital video file that is consistent with what has been described in media reports." - Bill Blair
 
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