Neither Amused Nor Singing

• 

• Toronto Mayor Rob Ford appears in still images contained in a Toronto Police Service report released on Thursday that details hundreds of contacts between Ford and a friend, Alexander Lisi, who is facing drug and extortion charges. (Toronto Police Service/Reuters)

He has his defenders. Outside Toronto city centre there are ample voters who will still cast their ballots for Toronto Mayor Rob Ford. At least for the time being. Until and unless irrefutable evidence of criminal acts beyond endurance are brought forward. For the time being he can, will and does claim total innocence. He's just a nice guy, companion to others whom most people in the city wouldn't really consider to be 'nice' people; rather on the seamy side of the city's dark alleyways.

Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair is not anything but a straight-up type of person. It really does pain him to have to bring the situation to public notice. But the public, of course, has a right to know about a public figure who has placed his city in disrepute. How often does Toronto merit top billing in the BBC online news roundup? How often does Toronto hit the U.S. news circuit?

If and when it does, as a world-class city beloved by its residents, a heterogeneous mixture of ethnicity and culture, it should be to laud the city, not deride it for its unfortunate choice of mayor. But there it is, writ large and screamingly embarrassing. Somewhat like Marion Barry decades ago disporting himself and snorting cocaine, just another regular activity of a mayor in Washington, D.C.

The much-sought video that Mayor Rob Ford sneeringly declared non-existent was discovered, erased but recoverable, on a hard disk. And a man whom Mayor Ford consorted with as a friend upon whom he depended for various critical things, like driving him around in his official capacity, and like ushering him toward illegal drugs, appears to have been taken under arrest for extortion.

Some friend, that is. But then, Mayor Rob Ford did have unusual friends, apart from Alexander Lisi. One of those friends was murdered not long after the incriminating video depicted him standing alongside the mayor, another has since been arrested for nefarious criminal activities. That old axiom that we know a person by the company he keeps equates to Mayor Ford being rather squalidly-oriented.

"I think it's fair to say the mayor does appear in that video but I'm not going to get into the detail of what activities is depicted in that video. As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed. I know that this is a traumatic issue for the citizens of this city and for the reputation of this city and that concerns me. No one has been treated differently because of who they are or the position they hold."
Chief Bill Blair

Evidence gathered through an "information to obtain" has been voluminous. While it mostly targeted Alexander Lisi, Mayor Ford's indispensable friend, because their relations appear so inter-related and integrated professionally and non-professionally, the probe most certainly targeted the activities of Mayor Ford. And appears to find them grossly wanting.

The gathered evidence was certainly considered convincing enough to lead to the arrest of Mr. Lisi and of Jamshid Bahrami, an Etobicoke-area dry cleaning business owner both of whom it is alleged trafficked drugs. Marijuana was specifically mentioned.

Marijuana, now let's see, isn't that the stuff that the Leader of the Liberal Party of Canada, aspiring to be Prime Minister of the country and soon to get a crack at it, and given pretty good odds, admitted to using while an M.P.?

s Posted: Nov 01, 2013 1:28 PM ET Last Updated: Nov 01, 2013 6:20 PM ET

• 

• Project Brazen 2, a months-long Toronto police investigation triggered by reports of an alleged crack video featuring Rob Ford, included surveillance by land, from the air, and interviews with a series of ex-employees. Here, Ford appears in security camera images from inside a gas station in Etobicoke, near his home, where it is alleged Lisi placed an envelope in Ford's vehicle. (Toronto Police Service/Reuters)
•  

• Project Brazen 2, a months-long Toronto police investigation triggered by reports of an alleged crack video featuring Rob Ford, included surveillance by land, from the air, and interviews with a series of ex-employees. Here, Ford appears in security camera images from inside a gas station in Etobicoke, near his home, where it is alleged Lisi placed an envelope in Ford's vehicle. (Toronto Police Service/Reuters)

Like, man, howkum it's awright if Justin Trudeau -- soon-to-be Prime Minister -- smokes up, whereas the current Prime Minister wouldn't be caught dead or alive using Marijuana or for that matter any kind or manner of intoxicant, and we're ready to deep-six a political runt like Mayor Rob Ford?

Right; we don't know if he stopped at grass or went on to more potent stuff, and we sure don't like the company he keeps.

• 

• Ford is seen on security camera images obtained by Toronto police. (Toronto Police Service/Reuters)