OPP supports Blair’s account in CBC dispute

The Ontario Provincial Police is supporting Toronto police chief Bill Blair in a dispute with CBC.

In October, the CBC had said in a story that Mayor Rob Ford swore at a 911 operator, a claim Blair denied.

The OPP reviewed three recordings provided by Blair.

“I can confirm that the statement you made in a public release on October 28, 2011, is an accurate interpretation of the content of the tapes,” OPP commission Chris D. Lewis wrote in a short statement Friday.

Earlier in January, CBC Ombudsman Kirk Lapointe said he was not prepared to accept Blair’s statement on the 911 call because “the chief was not a disinterested party.”

Blair then referred the matter to Lewis.

Ford had called 911 after being confronted by a CBC crew at his home on Oct. 24, 2011.  When a two-person crew from This Hour Has 22 Minutes approached him in the driveway of his Etobicoke home, Ford went inside and called 911.

When police didn’t arrive after several minutes, he called a second time.

Ford later admitted to using the “f-word” in a conversation with the dispatcher, but denied he said “you…b—-es” to the operator.