VIDEO: Rob Ford drama makes international headlines
TORONTO – Police announced on Thursday they’ve recovered a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. Police Chief Bill Blair said the video is consistent with the one being “reported in the media,” of the mayor allegedly smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
VIDEO: Rob Ford drama makes international headlines
The news quickly garnered national and international attention, including in places like Australia, China and the UK.
READ MORE: Mayor Rob Ford says he won’t resign after police confirm they’ve seen video
The headline “Toronto Police Chief Says Mayor Appears in Video Uncovered in Criminal Investigation,” appeared in the New York Times while ‘Police recover drug video showing Toronto mayor’ made the pages of USA Today.
In a political blog, Esquire’s Stephen Marche asked “What the FK is up in Toronto?” and said the city is coming of age hard and fast.
AUDIO: Did Toronto Mayor Rob Ford call a local radio station to defend himself?
“It’s getting big and mean and the stakes involved in it are starting to become actually significant,” he wrote. “It’s not a small town by the lake anymore. It’s the ninth most expensive city in the world. But we’ve had enough fun with mayor Ford by now. We need somebody real. The monsters have to go away eventually. Usually it’s the day after Halloween.”
Vanity Fair’s Juli Weiner said the most anticipated film of the year is not Gravity or Blue is the Warmest Color or even Last Vegas, but ‘an independently produced amateur documentary that purportedly shows Toronto mayor Rob “Oh Yeah, Rob Ford” Ford smoking crack.’
On Friday, The Irish Examiner said the “the scandal has cast Canada’s largest city and financial capital in an unflattering light,” meanwhile Australia’s Herald Sun reported that not much happens in Canada “until Rob Ford and a secret video happened.”
Ford has been embroiled in a series of controversies since before he was elected to the city’s top job in October 2010.
Earlier this year, Ford denied allegations from his former mayoral rival Sarah Thomson that he touched her inappropriately during a political dinner.
In February, a forensic audit accused the mayor of over-spending by $40,168, or 3 per cent of the maximum stipulated by the Municipal Elections Act.
MORE: Full document: Mayor Rob Ford, alleged crack video target of police investigation
The Wall Street Journal said the “constant stream of controversy has made Mr. Ford an unusual object of fascination in Canada. In Toronto, he has drawn both admiration and despair in large measures.”
On Thursday, Toronto’s four major newspapers called on Ford to step down and city councillors predicted he couldn’t ignore the scandal any longer.
Comments