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TORONTO – A swaying and swearing Toronto mayor Rob Ford has admitted to drinking again after previously insisting he had sworn off alcohol during a “come-to-Jesus” moment.
The admission from the crack cocaine-smoking politician followed yet another YouTube video making the rounds on Tuesday. In the video, a rambling Ford is seen standing in a Steak Queen fast-food diner in suburban Toronto, using foul language as he speaks in a faux Jamaican patois.
The mayor disparages Toronto police chief Bill Blair at the start of the video for ordering surveillance on Ford as part of a wider criminal investigation into city drug gangs. “They chase me around for five months man … bumbaclot … You know how much money that costs? I said, ‘Why don’t you just cut something … ‘No, man. No money, man.’ Bumbaclot man,” Ford said on the video.
Asked by reporters on Tuesday whether he’d been drinking on Monday night, Ford responded: “A little bit, yeah.” In November 2013, the mayor told the CBC network that he had quit drinking and drug use after reaching a “come-to-Jesus” moment.
A second video from the Monday night diner appearance appears to place Ford sitting alongside Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, a former driver for the mayor whom the police have charged with extortion. Lisi is alleged to have threatened drug dealers that were shopping to the media an infamous video that reportedly shows Ford inhaling from a glass pipe. That video was subsequently obtained by the Toronto police as part of their drug trade investigation and led Ford to admit to having smoked crack cocaine.
Ford’s latest woes started in May 2013, when Gawker and The Toronto Star first revealed the existence of a smartphone video that apparently shows him smoking crack cocaine. Other video tirades by Ford that have surfaced show the mayor uttering death threats.
The latest video spectacle from the Toronto mayor led late night comic Jimmy Kimmel to feature the video on his show, calling it “another nugget out of his (Ford’s) bag of crazy.” “When you’re the best, that’s what you do,” Kimmel added.
Despite the series of jaw-dropping videos that have come to light, Ford is campaigning for re-election.
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