Correction: This article was has been updated. A previous version stated that Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was ticketed with jaywalking and public intoxication on Friday, Jan. 31, 2014. A witness at the scene claimed Ford stated he was ticketed for public intoxication. The witness has since retracted that statement. Ford’s office confirms he was ticketed with jaywalking, but says he did not receive any other ticket or citation. Global News regrets the error.
VANCOUVER — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, in Vancouver this weekend for the funeral of a family friend, was ticketed by RCMP on Friday night for jaywalking.
“He said, ‘I f’d up boys. I was just trying to cross the red light here, and this ‘B’ stopped me,'” said Ian Currie, who saw Ford being ticketed by officers.
Currie said at the time he asked Ford if he was being ticketed for jaywalking and the mayor replied, “and public drunkenness,” although Saturday morning he retracted that statement.
Ford’s press secretary Amin Massoudi confirmed to Global News that Ford received a ticket for jaywalking, but said he did not receive any other ticket or citation.
“He said ‘I thought it was looser on the West Coast, I thought you were cooler over here,'” Currie told Global News. “We said, ‘it’s still the RCMP, man.'”
WATCH: Toronto Mayor Rob Ford arrives at the Best Western in Coquitlam
WATCH: Toronto’s Mayor Rob Ford is on the west coast this weekend attending a funeral but he’s stirring up a whole lot of talk about where he was caught walking. Peter Kim reports.
An RCMP regional duty officer said: “As there is no public safety issue in this matter, we are unable to confirm or deny anything.
“In a situation where there is a celebrity involved, that is the policy.”
The fine for jaywalking is $109.
Ford was walking on North Road, a busy road dividing the municipalities of Burnaby and Coquitlam, when an officer stopped him. The officer reportedly ticketed Ford outside a Shell gas station north of Lougheed Highway, where a large crowd began to form.
Sources told Global News that Ford was in the Foggy Dew, a nearby pub, earlier in the evening.
Toronto Sun reporter Joe Warmington said Ford insisted he was not drinking.
“All I have had here is a Diet Coke,” he insisted.
Ford told Warmington he was “shocked” and “embarrassed” and called the incident a waste of taxpayers’ money.
PHOTO GALLERY: Rob Ford’s night out in Coquitlam, B.C.
Ford arrived in Vancouver Friday morning to attend a memorial service for his former staffer and friend David Price’s mother. The mayor, embroiled in controversy for months, last made news on Wednesday when a lawsuit was filed against him alleging he had a role in the jailhouse assault of his sister’s former partner.
In February 2013, a Compliance Audit Committee voted against prosecuting him after a forensic audit accused the mayor of over-spending by more than $40,000. In the same month, Ford was allegedly asked to leave a Toronto function because organizers were concerned he was impaired. Ford denied the story reported by the Toronto Star, which also claimed he had a drinking problem.
In the following month, Ford denied allegations by former mayoral candidate Sarah Thomson that he had groped her and propositioned her to visit him in Florida without his wife.
WATCH: Torontonians react to Mayor Ford’s jaywalking ticket
Ford’s behaviour was again called into question in August 2013 after several YouTube videos of the mayor appearing drunk at Toronto’s Taste of the Danforth festival. Ford later admitted on his now-defunct weekly radio show he was drunk at the festival.
At the end of October, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair announced the recovery of a video of Ford smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine. On Nov. 5, Ford admitted to using crack cocaine in the past and suggested he may have been drunk at the time.
On Nov. 18, Toronto city council voted to strip Ford of his mayoral powers and passed them to deputy mayor Norm Kelly.
Before the year ended, a judge ruled more wiretap documents may be released from a police investigation.
Only weeks ago, Ford was caught on video swearing and speaking in a Jamaican patois accent.
On Friday night, Currie said the last words he heard from the Toronto mayor were: “Don’t take photos. I’m going to get in a lot of trouble.”
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