Rob Ford to return June 30; Doug warns against media ‘circus’

TORONTO – Mayor Rob Ford will be returning to work on June 30, when his brother Councillor Doug Ford says he will “talk to the people of Toronto directly.”

“He’ll talk about his experience… but the media can’t have the circus that chases him around, that sits outside his office,” the senior Ford told Global News. “I think if we address the people, we sit down one-on-one with each media outlet—let’s get everything on the table and then let’s move forward together and see what the real issues that the people of Toronto are concerned about.”

The official notice of his return confirms the end of Ford’s stint at a treatment facility.

The short letter asks city staff to have everything ready for his return by 1 p.m. on June 30 and is signed twice at the bottom.

City staff said the locks on Ford’s office were changed to keep it secure while he was away. Staff access cards were also changed to give deputy mayor staff the ability to enter Ford’s office area.

“Upon the Mayor’s return, the access will go back to the way it was before the Mayor left on his leave,” said Jackie DeSouza in an email to Global News.

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Ford took a leave of absence on May 1 after reports of new recordings of the mayor surfaced, one of him allegedly in a drunken, sexist rant and another of him allegedly smoking what might be crack cocaine.

In an open letter to the citizens of Toronto at the time Ford said he has a “problem with alcohol.”

“I have tried to deal with these issues by myself over the past year,” he said in the letter. “I know that I need professional help and I am now 100 per cent committed to getting myself right.”

Doug Ford said Tuesday the mayor’s changes will be personal.

“Rob obviously is going to change his personal life, but it’s not going to change Rob Ford in the belief of saving the taxpayers’ money, building subways and holding people to account at city hall that wants to waste the taxpayers money.”

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Ford’s time in rehab was not without controversy after his SUV was stopped being driven by Lee Anne McRobb – a woman he reportedly undergoing treatment at the same facility. She was charged with impaired driving.

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