Toronto Mayor Rob Ford is undergoing treatment at a rehab facility, the clinic in a small Ontario town has confirmed.
GreenStone Clinic Muskoka in Bala, Ontario, said in a news release on Friday that Ford consented to having the facility confirm his stay.
Ford announced late last month that he was seeking treatment for an alcohol problem after a new video surfaced that appeared to show Ford smoking a crack pipe late last month.
‘DRUNKEN STUPOR’
It was only the latest twist in the ongoing saga of Ford, whose notorious and frequently filmed behavior led the city council to strip him of most of his powers after he admitted last year that he had smoked crack in a “drunken stupor” and was depicted on video threatening to “murder” someone.
There was speculation about whether the embattled mayor of Canada’s largest city was in rehab after he was spotted taking photos with residents of a small town neighboring Bala last week.
A few days later, the mayor’s car was impounded after a Muskoka resident was arrested behind the wheel and charged with impaired driving.
“We ask that the public and the media respect the privacy of all the patients at GreenStone, to ensure they receive the most comprehensive and effective treatment,” the statement said.
‘CONFIDENTIALITY’
“We take our patient care and confidentiality very seriously and as a result will not be commenting further on this matter,” it added.
Last week marked a year since the Toronto Star and the US Web site Gawker first reported seeing a video that appeared to show the mayor smoking crack cocaine.
Months later, Ford admitted to trying the drug while drunk and to using drugs while in office.
The mayor has previously publicly sworn off alcohol, saying he had cleaned up his act and was working out.
However, he was forced to admit to drinking after another videotaped incident in which he used obscene Jamaican slang words and criticized Toronto’s chief of police.
The Globe and Mail said last month a drug dealer had shown two of its reporters video of Ford allegedly smoking what was said to be crack in the basement of his sister’s home.
The paper said it paid US$10,000 for frame grabs showing Ford holding a copper pipe.
‘UTTER DEBAUCHERY’
The Toronto Star also published details of “two nights of utter debauchery” involving Ford at a Toronto nightclub.
Police began investigating Ford after a guns and gangs probe turned up wiretaps that allegedly captured conversations about the first “crack” video.
A friend of Ford’s has been charged with extortion related to attempts to retrieve the video.
Despite Ford’s ongoing erratic behavior, he says he is running for re-election in October.
MONEY MATTERS: Xi was to highlight projects such as a new high-speed railway between Belgrade and Budapest, as Serbia is entirely open to Chinese trade and investment Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic yesterday said that “Taiwan is China” as he made a speech welcoming Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) to Belgrade, state broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) said. “We have a clear and simple position regarding Chinese territorial integrity,” he told a crowd outside the government offices while Xi applauded him. “Yes, Taiwan is China.” Xi landed in Belgrade on Tuesday night on the second leg of his European tour, and was greeted by Vucic and most government ministers. Xi had just completed a two-day trip to France, where he held talks with French President Emmanuel Macron as the
With the midday sun blazing, an experimental orange and white F-16 fighter jet launched with a familiar roar that is a hallmark of US airpower, but the aerial combat that followed was unlike any other: This F-16 was controlled by artificial intelligence (AI), not a human pilot, and riding in the front seat was US Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall. AI marks one of the biggest advances in military aviation since the introduction of stealth in the early 1990s, and the US Air Force has aggressively leaned in. Even though the technology is not fully developed, the service is planning
INTERNATIONAL PROBE: Australian and US authorities were helping coordinate the investigation of the case, which follows the 2015 murder of Australian surfers in Mexico Three bodies were found in Mexico’s Baja California state, the FBI said on Friday, days after two Australians and an American went missing during a surfing trip in an area hit by cartel violence. Authorities used a pulley system to hoist what appeared to be lifeless bodies covered in mud from a shaft on a cliff high above the Pacific. “We confirm there were three individuals found deceased in Santo Tomas, Baja California,” a statement from the FBI’s office in San Diego, California, said without providing the identities of the victims. Australian brothers Jake and Callum Robinson and their American friend Jack Carter
CUSTOMS DUTIES: France’s cognac industry was closely watching the talks, fearing that an anti-dumping investigation opened by China is retaliation for trade tensions French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) at one of his beloved childhood haunts in the Pyrenees, seeking to press a message to Beijing not to support Russia’s war against Ukraine and to accept fairer trade. The first day of Xi’s state visit to France, his first to Europe since 2019, saw respectful, but sometimes robust exchanges between the two men during a succession of talks on Monday. Macron, joined initially by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, urged Xi not to allow the export of any technology that could be used by Russia in its invasion