This entry will contain no editorializing. I'm merely going to report facts.
Gawker just wrote about a video of Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. John Cook, the author, has seen the video, supposedly taken within the past six months.
Here is what the video shows: Rob Ford, the mayor of Toronto, is the only person visible in the frame. Prior to the trip, I spent a lot of time looking at photographs of Rob Ford. The man in the video is Rob Ford. It is well-lit, clear. Ford is seated, in a room in a house. In one hand is a a clear, glass pipe. The kind with a big globe and two glass cylinders sticking out of it. In the other hand is a lighter. A slurred voice off-camera is ranting about Canadian politics in what sounds like an attempt to goad Ford. "Pierre Trudeau was a faggot!" is the one phrase the lodges in my mind. Ford, pipe in one hand and lighter in the other, is laughing, and mildly protesting at the sacrilege. He seems to keep trying to light the pipe, but keeps stopping to laugh. He is red-faced and sweaty, heaving with each breath. Finally, he finds his moment and lights up. He inhales.
You may recall the recent controversy when Sarah Thompson described Rob Ford's behaviour as that of a man on cocaine and the even more recent allegations that Rob Ford has a substance abuse problem.
The photo above from the Gawker story "shows Ford hanging out with a number of people. The gentleman standing to his right, flipping the camera the bird, is Anthony Smith. Smith, a 21-year-old college student, was killed two months ago outside a Toronto nightclub in a gangland-style shooting".
Update: The Toronto Star's Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan have also seen the video and believe it to be Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. They have many more details here.
