ABOVE: Mayor admits crack use, staying; brother calls on Toronto chief to resign. Sean O’Shea reports.
TORONTO – Mayor Rob Ford’s brother Doug wants Bill Blair to resign–or at least take “temporary leave”–after the police chief commented last week on a video police have recovered depicting the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
Rob Ford has since admitted to smoking crack cocaine, claiming to have been in a “drunken stupor” at the time.
Ford also hinted that Blair’s comments may negatively impact an upcoming review of the chief’s contract. Blair, for his part, refused to respond to “personal attacks.”
Blair said he was “disappointed” last week in light of the video and the growing scandal surrounding the mayor, who was the focus of a months-long police probe into the video. Rob Ford’s friend Sandro Lisi is facing drug-related charges and an extortion charge in connection with the video.
“We have the most political chief I have ever seen,” Ford told reporters. “The chief shouldn’t have come out and made the comments, wearing a police uniform, about his personal opinions about the mayor.”
In an interview on AM640’s John Oakley Show on Tuesday morning, Ford said Blair “wanted to go out and put a political bullet right between the mayor’s eyes and thought that would be the final bullet to knock the mayor off… It’s not up to the police chief to decide in the next election, who’s going to be the mayor. It’s up to the people. And he’s lost track of that.”
Court documents related to Mr. Lisi’s arrest show police had him and the mayor under surveillance for several months. Information police used to get a warrant included photographs of Ford exchanging packages with Mr. Lisi; one photo appears to depict Ford urinating in public.
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READ MORE: Mayor Rob Ford admits to smoking crack cocaine
Doug Ford said he takes issue with the documents’ release.
“It’s disturbing that they would release certain pictures that had nothing to do with the case,” Ford said in the radio interview.
Far from caving to calls for his brother to resign, Ford said it’s Blair who should step aside.
“I think personally he needs to step down until a probe is done,” Ford said. “There’s obviously a bias right now moving forward in the city, with a police chief against the mayor of this city.”
WATCH: Doug Ford calls on Bill Blair to resign.
Ford hinted the chief’s comments could put his job on the line.
“The chief has never seen eye to eye with the mayor. The mayor supported the chief through his tough times and the chief’s contract is coming up in August, if he’s going to get renewed or not, and it’s unfortunate.”
Ford also made conflict of interest allegations regarding Toronto Police Service Board member Andy Pringle, who Ford claimed went with Blair “on a personal fishing trip.”
“I wanna know who paid for that trip. Did they split the cost evenly?” asked Ford. “How can you go away with a board member that oversees what you do on a daily basis?…The board member needs to step down.”
Police Board Chair Alok Mukherjee said in a statement that the board’s “processes are followed and will be followed in any case where complaints have been received about the conduct of either the Chief or Board members.”
The TPSB could not confirm that any formal complaints had yet been filed by publication time.
Blair, at a separate media event launching the annual MADD campaign, deflected questions from the media concerning Ford’s remarks.
Ford insisted he and his brother support “frontline” police officers. But police spokesperson Mark Pugash has called the Ford camp’s invective “a concerted attack” on police and the investigation.
“I think it’s important for the police service not to respond to these personal attacks,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ford’s comments were heavily criticized by a number of city councillors.
“I think that’s very concerning. Last time I looked, councillor Ford was not a lawyer,” she Councillor Paula Fletcher. “It’s sending a signal that the media or the police chief are after Rob Ford.”
But Doug Ford’s comments rattled some city councillors.
“It is just so unhealthy what is going on. With attacking the police chief, it’s like they’re on a rampage,” John Filion told reporters. “I mean it’s really destructive, this has got to stop.”
With files from Erika Tucker
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