Pubdate: Thu, 23 May 2013
Source: StarPhoenix, The (CN SN)
Copyright: 2013 The StarPhoenix
Contact: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/letters.html
Website: http://www.canada.com/saskatoonstarphoenix/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/400
Author: Les MacPherson
Page: 3

SORTING EVIDENCE AND INNUENDO OVER MAYORS WITH CRACK PIPES

Fascinated though I am by the scandals unfolding in Ottawa, the more
compelling Canadian train wreck is in Toronto, where the city's
cartoonish mayor now stands accused of smoking crack cocaine.

At least three reputable reporters claim to have seen Rob Ford's
monumental indiscretion on a smartphone video being shopped around by
Somali drug dealers. You normally have to go to California or Florida
to find this level of civic craziness. It's un-Canadian, and all the
more jarring in a city that regards itself as the beating heart of
Canada.

Of course, the video is seriously suspect, given its disreputable
source and its clandestine, limited run on a two-inch screen. Still,
the reporters insist that it looked and sounded genuine.

After draws on a glass pipe, the mayor supposedly looks into the phone
camera and says, "That better not be on."

To fabricate a convincing video likely is beyond the powers of Somali
drug dealers. Not even Lucasfilm could produce a fake that would stand
up to forensic examination. This could explain why the video has been
in the news for a whole week without being posted on YouTube. As a
general rule, if you can't find it on YouTube, it didn't happen.

The mayor's duck and cover reaction, however, suggests otherwise. He
dismissed reports of the video as a ridiculous smear job by the
Toronto Star, which openly hates him, but he did not deny smoking
crack. The Star has received no letter from Ford's lawyers threatening
a libel suit and demanding a front-page retraction and apology, while
Ford, instead of confronting the allegations, went to ground for a
week.

No one, however, is disputing the authenticity of a recent photo of
the mayor, dishevelled, flushed and apparently zoned out at a public
event. The crack allegations fuel what already was
smouldering.

Ford's brother Doug, also a city councillor, issued a more categorical
denial on Wednesday, but the wording still was careful. Doug Ford said
the mayor denies the allegation and that he believes him. Doug Ford
also said that the mayor is under no obligation to personally refute
every false allegation from the Toronto Star.

That's true, but you'd think the mayor would have some obligation,
though, to discourage Jay Leno, Jimmy Kimmel and Jon Stewart from
joking on network television about Toronto's crack-smoking mayor.

Leno said Ford now is qualified to serve as mayor of Washington D.C.,
where, in 1990, the mayor of that city was caught by the FBI on video
smoking crack.

What was in doubt were the FBI's methods. The agency used a former
model turned informant to lure then-mayor Marion Barry into a hotel
room rigged with hidden cameras where she offered him sex, but only if
he smoked crack with her first.

If that's not entrapment, what is? The courts, however, reacting to
what looked like a runaway crack epidemic then at its height, found
otherwise and sentenced Barry to six months in prison.

Like Ford, the charming, bombastic Barry was and is a cartoonish
figure, loved by his supporters, despised by his critics. The first
civil rights leader to be elected mayor of a major American city, he
remains enormously popular in Washington, where some call him mayor
for life. In spite of his criminal conviction, his unsavoury
associates and his oversight of civic spending out of control, Barry
after completing his sentence was re-elected as mayor.

This time he steered the city into bankruptcy. He would have run yet
again, and probably won, but chose not to. Federal authorities would
never restore local control over civic finances as long as he was
mayor, he said.

Barry later would run for and win a seat on Washington city council
that he has held ever since. Now, as before, he always seems to be in
trouble for something; not paying his taxes, irresponsible driving,
allegations of stalking a former girlfriend and on and on. As with
Ford, it always is something with that guy.

Asked by a Washington reporter about the similarity between his
experience and that of Rob Ford, Barry said there is none.

"Unless he was entrapped by the government, it's not
similar."

There is one other important difference between the two cases: The
grainy video of Barry smoking crack in a hotel room more than 20 years
ago is on the record. We have not seen any evidence yet against Rob
Ford.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Matt