User:Theoldsparkle/rf

In May 2013, the American website Gawker and the Toronto Star reported that they had viewed a cellphone video that appeared to show Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine and commenting on political issues. Gawker raised money to buy the video, but it has not yet surfaced.

The picture at right is the image provided to Gawker and Toronto Star reporters of Rob Ford posing outside with three individuals outside the house where the alleged video was recorded. The individuals with Ford were later identified as Anthony Smith, Muhammad Khattak and Monir Kassim. The location was later identified as a house on Windsor Road in the Etobicoke area of Toronto. The individuals are alleged members of a gang residing in the area. Khattak and Kassim were both arrested in a sweep of an apartment complex near the home in June 2013. Smith was shot and killed in a shooting on the streets of downtown Toronto in March 2013. The home was identified as the residence of a friend of Rob Ford from his high school days. The home was attacked in a home invasion days after Gawker and the Toronto Star published the video story.

Rob Ford has consistently denied the existence of the video, and denied that he uses crack cocaine. Ford has remained Mayor although several members of Toronto City Council called for him to step down. The crisis led to the firing of the Mayor's chief of staff and the resignation of a half-dozen of his staff. As of July 2013, the allegations have not affected the level of support for Ford among Toronto voters as measured by polls.

May 2013

 * Wednesday, May 3: Toronto Star reporters Robyn Doolittle and Kevin Donovan meet with Mohamed "Soya" Siad, 27, an alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods, in the back seat of a car in the parking lot of an apartment complex at 320 Dixon Road in Etobicoke. Siad shows the reporters a video of "the mayor appearing to smoke crack cocaine and making homophobic and racist remarks." Siad allows the reporters to view the video three times on a cellphone and says he might sell it for a "six-figure price" so that he can move to Alberta, Canada.


 * Thursday, May 16: Gawker reports the existence of a cellphone video that appears to show Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. Donovan and Doolittle report having seen the video on May 3. Gawker also publishes a photo of Ford posing outside a house with three young black men, including Anthony Smith, a 21-year-old college student who had been shot and killed in March 2013, and Muhammad Khattak, who was injured in the same shooting. The house was later identified as a home on Windsor Road, near the Dixon Road apartment complex, belonging to a longtime friend of Ford.


 * Friday, May 17: As Ford leaves his house in the morning to drive to City Hall, he speaks about the allegations to an assembled press scrum: "Absolutely not true. It's ridiculous. It's another Toronto Star whatever." Gawker sets up a Kickstarter campaign fund called "Crackstarter" to raise $200,000 to purchase the video.  Radio station Newstalk 1010 reports that it was offered the video for $20,000. David Price, a long-time friend of Ford, informs Ford's Chief of Staff Mark Towhey that Price was told the video was being kept at 320 Dixon Road.


 * Saturday, May 18: Towhey contacts the police, who take a statement from Price.


 * Sunday, May 19: Ford and his brother, Toronto City Councillor Doug Ford, Jr., cancel their weekly Newstalk 1010 talk show.


 * Monday, May 20: Jay Leno comments on the scandal on The Tonight Show.


 * Tuesday, May 21: Jon Stewart and Jimmy Kimmel comment on the scandal on their shows. An unidentified man forces his way into the Windsor Road home where the photograph of Ford with Anthony Smith was taken, although the house had not yet been publicly identified as the picture's location. The intruder assaults two people with a weapon and flees on foot. One victim is treated for non-life-threatening injuries. On the same evening, a man is shot, requiring hospitalization, at a 17th floor apartment in the Dixon Road apartment complex; police later say there is no connection between the shooting and the video scandal.


 * Wednesday, May 22: Ford is fired as football coach for Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, following a review prompted by remarks Ford made in March 2013. A school spokesperson said the dismissal had been finalized prior to the video allegations. At a City Hall press conference, Doug Ford defends his brother's record and criticizes the media: "Never, never has a Canadian politician or his family, has been targeted by the media this way. They zealously, and I say zealously, stalk my mother, my children. The media hides in the bushes at our cottage. They did this weekend, that my kids couldn’t even enjoy the weekend 'cause they were in the bushes taking videos of them, and harasses our family at home." He also says that "the story wrongfully generalizes and tarnishes the reputation of Toronto’s Somalian community."


 * Thursday, May 23: Ford fires his chief of staff, Mark Towhey, who is escorted out of City Hall by security. Several reports state that Towhey was fired for telling Ford to get help at a rehab centre. Gawker says they have raised more than $165,000 toward buying the cellphone video, but have been unable to make contact with the video's owner since May 19.


 * Friday, May 24: After city council's executive committee publicly asks Ford to respond to the allegations, Ford reads a prepared statement to the press at City Hall, in which he says, "I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine...As for a video, I cannot comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist. It is most unfortunate, very unfortunate, that my colleagues and the great people of this city have been exposed to the fact that I have been judged by the media without evidence." Hanad Mohamed is arrested in Fort McMurray, Alberta, for the murder of Anthony Smith.


 * Sunday, May 26: The Fords returns to their Newstalk 1010 radio talk show. To a caller who asks if it is Ford in the video, Ford responds, “Number one, there's no video, so that's all I can say. You can't comment on something that doesn’t exist.” The Fords criticize the media and Rob calls reporters "a bunch of maggots." Ford also characterizes a caller as "racist" for asking if it is Ford in the photograph; Doug Ford adds, "Rob has taken thousands of pictures with young black men, with their hats on, with their little funny signs and everything else."


 * Monday, May 27: Ford's press secretary and deputy press secretary resign. Ford apologizes for calling reporters maggots. Gawker reaches their fundraising goal.  A poll of 1,400 Torontonians, released by the Toronto Star, shows support for Ford at 36% in a projected 2014 mayoral election against Olivia Chow, a result identical to a poll conducted before the stories about the alleged video were published.


 * Tuesday, May 28: The Toronto Sun reports that prior to May 16, they had also been offered the video, but had declined to pursue it.


 * Thursday, May 30: A policy advisor and an executive assistant resign from Ford's staff. A National Post reporter speaks to the current resident of the Dixon Road apartment where the video had allegedly been stored. The resident, who says his unit was previously rented to a drug dealer, says "that, while he does not know its current whereabouts, he has viewed the alleged video and believes it to be authentic; that he has seen other more innocuous footage of Mayor Ford 'hanging out' in the neighbourhood; that Somali gang members who support the mayor are angry at the video’s sellers; and that he and his friends briefly considered making a fraudulent crack video starring an acquaintance and Rob Ford lookalike nicknamed “Slurpy."


 * Friday, May 31: A special assistant resigned from Ford's staff. "Slurpy" becomes a trending term on Twitter.

June 2013

 * Saturday, June 1: Several hundred people protest at Nathan Phillips Square, demanding Ford's resignation.


 * Monday, June 3: A poll by CTV News and Ipsos Reid shows that slightly more than half of Torontonians believe that the video exists, while half of Torontonians agree with the Fords that the media has an agenda against Rob Ford.


 * Tuesday, June 4: Gawker reports that the person alleged to have had the cellphone video has sent the message, "It's gone. Leave me alone." According to Gawker, their intermediary claims a copy of the video still exists outside Toronto.


 * Wednesday, June 5: Gawker and the Toronto Star both report the Windsor Road location of the house where the photograph of Ford with Anthony Smith and two other men was taken. Both sources reported that the house was also where the cellphone video of Ford was filmed. One resident of the home was an acquaintance of Ford from high school. Two residents have criminal records: one for minor thefts, one for trafficking cocaine. A resident tells Star reporters at the house that “Rob Ford’s the greatest mayor ever. You guys are scavengers.”


 * Monday, June 10: A court in Fort McMurray grants media access to search warrant details related to the arrest of Hanad Mohamed; the details can be used by the media to request unsealing of court documents. Mohamed's lawyer objects that the media should be prevented from going on a "fishing expedition": "It seems to me, your honour, that the media is looking for some sort of information that would link my client to Rob Ford, or Rob Ford to my case, and then they're just going to use that for entertainment purposes."


 * Tuesday, June 11: The two campaign managers credited with Ford's election, Richard Ciano, president of the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario, and Nick Kouvalis, who are partners in Campaign Research, say they will not work on Ford's re-election unless he deals with his "health and well-being." They said they had asked Ford to address his health issues as early as February. Ford fires Councillor Jaye Robinson from the City Council's executive committee after she suggests he take a leave of absence to deal with his personal problems.


 * Wednesday, June 12: Doug Ford says he will not run for council in 2014, but will work on his brother's mayoral campaign.


 * Thursday, June 13: As part of the year-long anti-gang operation dubbed "Project Traveller," police execute pre-dawn raids on multiple locations in Windsor and Toronto, including the Dixon Road apartment complex. Forty-three people are arrested, including Monir Kassim and Muhammad Khattak, the two men appearing in the photo with Ford and Smith. Police also arrest Mohamed Siad, who is identified in August as the man who showed the cellphone video to two Star reporters on May 3. CTV News reports that Toronto police became aware of the alleged Ford video while conducting surveillance activities during the investigation, several weeks before that story became public. At a press conference about the raids, Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair refuses to link the investigation and raids to Ford.  Ford is asked by reporters if he’s worried that the alleged video will be used as evidence in court, and responds: "I can’t comment on something that I've never seen or doesn’t exist, I don't know how many more times I've got to say this. I've answered so many questions, I don't know if you guys can’t get it through your thick skulls. Seriously?"


 * Friday, June 14 Hacker collective Anonymous announces via Twitter that it believes a copy of the video exists in Alberta.


 * Monday, June 17: Gawker requests suggestions for charities to receive the funds collected by their "Crackstarter" campaign, saying "it is time to make preparations for the likelihood" that they will be unable to acquire the video.


 * Wednesday, June 26: A special assistant in Ford's office resigns. Ontario Attorney General John Gerretsen says he does not know what laws are preventing Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair from answering press questions about whether Ford is or is not under investigation. The National Post identifies "Slurpy," the Ford lookalike who was mentioned by a Dixon Road complex resident; the Post describes the man, who says he refused to appear in a phony video, as "at best [bearing] a passing resemblance" to Ford.


 * Thursday, June 27: Nisar Hashimi pleads guilty to manslaughter in the death of Anthony Smith and aggravated assault in the shooting of Mohammad Khattak. Hanad Mohamed continues to await trial for first-degree murder in Smith's death.

July 2013

 * Tuesday, July 2: In response to media requests to unseal documents related to search warrants for the Project Traveller raids, a Toronto judge rules that the information be made available to the media's lawyers by August 27, with another hearing September 12 to determine what information will be released to the public. The Crown had requested a six-month adjournment to vet the documents.


 * Tuesday, July 9 Muhammad Khattak is released on bail.


 * Thursday, July 18 Gawker announces that it will divide the money from its "Crackstarter" campaign evenly between four charities: the Somali Canadian Association of Etobicoke, the South Riverdale Community Health Centre, Unison Health and Community Services, and the Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee. The gross amount raised was $201,199, which netted $184,782.61 after fees paid to Indiegogo and PayPal.


 * Friday, July 19: A judge unseals records related to Hanad Mohamed's arrest, including phone records showing Mohamed in frequent contact with Hashimi directly prior to Smith's shooting. The documents also show a connection between the shooting investigation and the Project Traveler operation.


 * Friday, July 26: Crown prosecutors drop first degree murder charges against Hanad Mohamed. He is now charged with accessory after the fact to manslaughter, accessory to discharging a firearm and accessory to aggravated assault on Muhammad Khattak.


 * Tuesday, July 30: Monir Kassim is released on bail.

August 2013

 * Friday, August 2 The Toronto Star reports that Mohamed Siad, the man who showed the cellphone video to the paper's reporters, was among the people arrested in the Project Traveller raids. The Toronto Sun reports that Siad had been stabbed while in custody by gang members who blamed him and the video for causing the raids. The Sun also reports that Siad had offered to turn the video over to police in return for dropping charges against him.


 * Wednesday, August 7: Siad, Kassim, and Khattak appear in court to set trial dates; all are scheduled to return to court on October 1.


 * Thursday, August 8: City Hall confirms that another "special assistant" has left Ford's staff; she is the eighth staff member to resign or be fired since mid-May.


 * Monday, August 12: The Globe and Mail reports that Ford had visited the Toronto West Detention Centre in March and attempted to visit an inmate, but was denied access because visiting hours had ended. The inmate's mother said her son and Ford had been friends since childhood; the inmate had attended secondary school with one of the residents of the Windsor Road house where Ford was photographed.


 * Thursday, August 15: Liberal commentator Warren Kinsella claims in a blog post that the crack video exists and "has been seen by many, many Toronto defence lawyers, following Crown disclosure arising out of June's Dixon Road 'Project Traveller' police raids."


 * Saturday, August 17: Multiple media sources report that Toronto police have been investigating attempts by Ford and his allies to acquire the alleged video, and that the investigation has focused in particular on the actions of David Price and a private driver for the mayor.


 * Tuesday, August 20 The Ontario Press Council announces it will hold public hearings in September to investigate 41 complaints about the Toronto Star's and Globe and Mail 's reporting during the scandal.