Mayor Ford vehemently denies alcohol abuse allegations
Posted March 26, 2013 11:50 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Rob Ford delivered an angry response to an explosive Toronto Star report on Tuesday that claims members of his inner circle have tried to get him into rehab for two years and that he was asked to leave a black-tie dinner last month because he appeared to be impaired.
The report states that it’s an “open secret at city hall” that Ford has struggled with alcohol.
“It’s an outright lie,” Ford said after a ceremony in which he presented a key to the city to Canadian boxing legend George Chuvalo.
“It’s the Toronto Star going after me again and again and again. They’re relentless. That’s fine. I’ll go head to head with the Toronto Star anytime,” Ford said.
Ford suggested waiting until the next election “and then we’ll see what happens.”
“I’ve called you [reporters] pathological liars and you are, so why don’t you take me to court? Let the courts decide.”
Coun. Paul Ainslie, who sits on the mayor’s executive committee, was quoted in the Star story, verifying the mayor was asked to leave the Garrison Ball at the Liberty Grand at Exhibition Place on Feb. 23 — an annual event that celebrates the Canadian Armed Forces and benefits the Wounded Warriors charity.
When CityNews contacted Ainslie for comment, he said he wouldn’t be speaking on the issue Tuesday.
The mayor reportedly showed up late to the military gala event and was speaking incoherently and stumbling. However the co-chair of the event, Mark McQueen, told the Star he saw no reason why Ford should’ve been asked to leave. Another guest was quoted as saying the mayor appeared to be “fine.”
The six people who told the paper the mayor appeared to be impaired at the event weren’t named in the article.
“Newspapers don’t print information from anonymous sources lightly,” Toronto Star city hall reporter Robyn Doolittle told CityNews about the article she co-authored with Kevin Donovan.
“In this case, the people that we spoke with felt that they would lose their jobs or face political retribution and we granted them anonymity.”
The Star report claims members of Ford’s staff, both past and present, tried to get him help for “binge drinking” but the mayor refused.
Deputy mayor reacts to allegations
At city hall on Tuesday morning, Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday said he’s never seen Ford impaired.
“I’ve never seen him take a drink,” he told reporters.
“I’m always concerned about his health just because of the pressure that he’s under and the things that he has to go through and the weight that he carries. I think a lot of people are probably concerned about his health.”
Holyday criticized the use of anonymous sources in the article and suggested the story may be part of a ploy to force Ford out of office. He said there’s a “strong left contingent … that don’t want us to continue with the things we’ve been doing.”
The Star story came two weeks after former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson alleged Ford groped her at a Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee (CJPAC) event. She also claimed the mayor looked “completely out of it.”
“I feel saddened by the latest events surfacing around Mayor Ford. Addiction is a serious issue that strikes thousands of people in Toronto,” Thomson said in a statement posted on Facebook Tuesday morning.
“Although angered by Mayor Ford’s actions towards me at the CJPAC party, he is in my prayers.”
Ford is no stranger to controversy and has faced similar allegations in the past. A 1999 marijuana possession charge in Florida, which was dropped, surfaced during his 2010 mayoral campaign. In 2006, he was reportedly drunk at a Toronto Maple Leafs game and yelled obscenities at those sitting near him. In December 2011, the Star reported that police had been called to his Etobicoke home after his mother-in-law called 911 on Christmas morning. There were claims he had been drinking and threatened to take his children to Florida without his wife.
