Critics and allies alike renewed their concerns that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is no longer fit to lead Canada’s largest city after a new video surfaced showing the mayor in a rambling rage, threatening to “murder” someone.
His mother defended him later on Thursday, saying she has advised him to work on his “huge weight problem,” get a driver, put an alcohol detector in his car and watch the company he keeps, but she insisted that her son, who has acknowledged a drinking problem, did not need to enter rehabilitation.
Moments after the video was posted online, the mayor told reporters that he was “extremely, extremely inebriated” in it and “embarrassed” by it.
The context of the video is unknown and it is unclear who the target of Ford’s wrath is. The video appeared at length on the Toronto Star’s Web site.
City councilors moved ahead in efforts to force Ford out of office, although there is no clear legal path for doing so.
The controversy surrounding Ford escalated last week when police announced they had obtained a different, long-sought-after video that showed Ford smoking a crack pipe. After months of evading the question, Ford admitted on Tuesday to smoking crack in a “drunken stupor” about a year ago.
Despite immense pressure, the mayor has refused to resign or take a leave of absence.
The 44-year-old Ford, who is married with two school-age children, said on Thursday he made mistakes and “all I can do is reassure the people. I don’t know what to say.”
“It’s extremely embarrassing. The whole world is going to see it,” Ford said.
In the blurry, shaky new video, Ford paces around, frantically waves his arms and rolls up his sleeves as he says he will “make sure” the unknown person is dead.
Ford tells another person in the room that he wants to “kill” someone.
“Cause I’m going to kill that [expletive] guy,” Ford says. “No holds barred, brother. He dies or I die.”
At one point he says: “My brothers are, don’t tell me, we’re liars, thieves, birds” and then later refers to “80-year-old birds.”
The Toronto Star said that it bought the video for US$5,000 from “a source who filmed it from someone else’s computer.”
The newspaper said it was told “the person with the computer was there in the room.”
Toronto City Councilor James Pasternak urged Ford to make a “dignified exit.”
“The video is very disturbing,” Pasternak said. “It’s very upsetting, it’s very sad.”
Ford’s lawyer Dennis Morris said the context of the video “is skeletal.”
“Was it taken eight, 10 months ago or a short time ago?” Morris asked.
Earlier on Thursday, Morris said he was in talks with police for Ford to view the video that appears show the mayor smoking crack. Morris said Ford would not answer questions.
Toronto police obtained that video during a drug investigation into the mayor’s friend and occasional driver, and they have said they are prohibited from releasing the video because it is evidence before the courts.
Police have not charged Ford, saying the video does not provide enough evidence against him.
In a television interview, Ford’s mother and sister acknowledged he had problems, but insisted he was not an addict and defended his ability to continue as mayor.
His mother, Diane, said he did not need to enter rehab, adding that he should work on his “weight problem” first.
“If he was really, really in dire straits and really needed help, I’d be the first one ... I’d put him in my care and take him there,” she told CP24 television.
The mayor’s sister, Kathy, added: “Robbie is not a drug addict. I know, because I’m a former addict.”
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in