Toronto police say they have mayor drug video

Toronto police said they have obtained a video that appears to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking from a crack pipe - a video that Ford had claimed didn't exist and has been at the core of a scandal that has embarrassed and gripped Canada for months.

Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press charges. Ford, a populist mayor who has repeatedly made headlines for his bizarre behaviour, vowed not to resign.

Ford, speaking outside his office door, said with a smile: "I have no reason to resign." He said he couldn't defend himself because his case is now being handled by authorities, adding: "That's all I can say right now."

He said he needed to "go back and return my phone calls".

The scandal has been the fodder of jokes on US late night television that has cast Canada's financial capital in an unflattering light.

Ford was elected mayor of Canada's largest city three years ago on a wave of discontent simmering in the city's outlying suburbs. Since then Ford has repeatedly appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behaviour.

He has repeatedly refused to resign.

Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintains he does not smoke crack and that the video does not exist.

Blair said he was "disappointed" after viewing the video which he said "depicts images that are consistent with those previously reported in the press".

Blair said the video will come out when Ford's friend and sometimes driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on previous drug charges. Blair did not say who the computer belonged to but police later said Lisi has now been charged with extortion for trying to retrieve the recording from an unidentified person.

"As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Blair said. "This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this city."

Before the disclosure, Ford angrily screamed at reporters to get off his property as he left his house Thursday morning. At City Hall, tours were given of his office's Halloween decorations.

The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday showing they had rummaged through Ford's garbage in search of evidence of drug use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.

The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford were concerned that Lisi was "fuelling" the Toronto mayor's alleged drug use.

The documents also detail evidence that led to Lisi's arrest on drug and extortion charges.




On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and "made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour." Police later recovered a vodka and juice bottle from where they met. "So as not to reveal that the original bottles were seized replacement ones were left behind," the document says.





Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher said Ford needs to act in the best interests of the city. She said all citizens of Toronto are disappointed.

"The mayor has said there wasn't a video," Fletcher said. "He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With Chief's Blair's press conference I think that's put to rest."

Councilor Joe Mihevc said he continues to be shocked by the "depth and revelations that are coming out"

"The mayor has to come clean and do it as soon as possible. He needs to talk honestly about his use of illicit drugs," Mihevc said.

- AP

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