***WARNING: VIDEO CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE***
Note to readers:
We’re releasing the Rob Ford crack video today because you have the right to see it.
Whatever one thinks of the late Toronto mayor, the controversy over this video, including its very existence, until it was confirmed by former Toronto Police chief Bill Blair, is intrinsic to understanding Ford’s term as the mayor of Toronto from 2010 to 2014.
Until now, the public has had to rely on descriptions of what the video contains from reporters and the former police chief, due to legal restrictions, which no longer apply.
Ford himself, shortly before he admitted smoking crack, called for Toronto Police to release this video in November 2013 saying: “Whatever this video shows folks,Toronto residents deserve to see it and people need to judge for themselves what they see on this video.”
We agree. That’s why we’re making it public today.
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TORONTO -- Extortion charges against Sandro Lisi, Rob Ford’s former driver and friend, were withdrawn Thursday, permitting public access for the first time to the notorious “crack video” that dogged the city’s former mayor.
The video captures Ford at the lowest and most tragic point of his struggle with drugs and alcohol, and in it, a barely coherent Ford is seen smoking from a glass pipe and carrying on a disjointed conversation with a friend from high school.
Lisi was accused of threatening two Dixon City Bloods gang members, Mohamed Siad and Liban Siyad — who’d secretly recorded the video of a clearly stoned, incoherent Ford in 2013 and then tried to peddle it to media outlets — in order to retrieve the video.
Ford initially denied smoking crack for several months but later admitted he smoked it while in a drunken stupor.
The video reveals Ford mumbling incoherently, taking issue with his portrayal as “a radical right winger,” as Elena Basso, the owner of the home where the video was made, rambles from topic to topic from Ford’s passion for coaching his minority-laden football team and to his love for his children.
“Kids are important to you. That’s what drives you, baby, that’s what I love, your kids, your f--ing footballers you coach,” Basso says to Ford, who responds, “f--ing minorities” after nodding his agreement that he loves coaching his minority-rich team.
Some of the disturbing quotes previously attributed to Ford appear to have been spoken by Basso, who makes outrageous comments against gays, Justin Trudeau and Ford’s portrayal in the media.
“They say I’m a radical right winger,” Ford said dismissively, shaking his head.
“I’d love to get my foot so far up Justin Trudeau’s ass, so far, it would tickle his nose-hairs,” Basso says to Ford. “F--ing BS.”
Then, the cellphone camera rings and is turned off immediately.
Lisi, who served as Ford’s occasional driver, was exonerated earlier of a drug dealing charge.
The notorious crack smoking video was played at a preliminary hearing for Lisi’s extortion charge, but was never available for the public as it covered by a publication ban.
Ford, who’s been described as Toronto’s most bombastic, unconventional and tough-talking politician, died at age 46 in March of cancer after being diagnosed in September 2014.
https://www.torontosun.com/2016/08/11/rob-ford-crack-video-released
