Image created by former Torontoist editor Marc Lostracco.

It’s been an open secret at City Hall for well over a year that the Globe and Mail had researched, written, and then spiked a major story on the Ford family’s alleged history with drug dealing—a story that focuses primarily on Mayor Rob Ford’s two older brothers, Doug (councillor for Ward 2, Etobicoke) and Randy (who has stayed entirely out of the public eye). This morning, in the wake of last week’s allegations about Rob’s crack-smoking, the Globe finally decided to publish its piece.

Word started leaking out a few days ago that the story might be coming; by Friday night anticipation was at a fever pitch: the Globe started trending on Twitter even before the story came out. When it did many immediately said it fell flat, a decades’-old tale that didn’t have much to do with the mayor himself, and didn’t involve anything extraordinarily bad.

The story is far better understood as portraiture than exposé: it provides some detailed insight into the household Ford grew up in, more than anything else. It is also, of course, fodder for jokes. Doug Ford, meanwhile, has sworn at least one journalist—Sean O’Shea of Global News—this morning, and is also denying the allegations.

A sampling of the reaction to the Globe‘s story:

Earlier today Rob Ford broke eight days of silence regarding allegations that he’d been captured on video smoking what appears to be crack cocaine, convening a press conference to address the matter. He read from a prepared statement and took no questions, and as soon as he was done councillors from across the political spectrum began commenting. Their consensus: this isn’t over.

A round-up of some initial reactions from councillors and political observers:

“I think the mayor at this point should simply resign.”

“I don’t know what to believe.”

“I don’t think this is over.”

“Obviously this is not done. This is not going to go away today with this statement.”

“It was very open, it was very transparent… [But] is this over? Of course it isn’t.”

“Once I’ve completed writing this I will honestly be able to say that I am not writing this.”

“I believe him… [But] I think there’s still more to come on this.”

“Since we know that Rob Ford used to smoke crack cocaine, and in fact most certainly did smoke crack cocaine at some point within the last six months, we can only interpret his statement claiming not to currently smoke crack cocaine as an announcement that he has decided to kick the habit.”

“You know what helps keep people from diagramming your sentences? Taking questions and answering them.”

“Another q for Mayor Rob Ford: What is the story behind the photo of you with a man alleged to be Anthony Smith, later shot outside a club?

“Mayor Ford: I Did Not Have Smoking Relations with That Crack Pipe”

Eight days after two outlets, Gawker and the Toronto Star, published reports that they’d viewed a video that shows Toronto’s mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine, Rob Ford has finally broken his silence about the allegations. “I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,” a surprisingly jovial-seeming Ford said to dozens of journalists crowded inside his City Hall office. He maintained his stance that the story was the product of one outlet, the Toronto Star, which is out to get him, and failed to address Gawker’s role in the situation. Ford also declined to take questions from the press, leaving as soon as he was done reading his prepared remarks.

Rob Ford was flanked by Deputy Mayor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre), and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North), who was stony-faced throughout the mayor’s speech. Doug Ford remained after his brother and answered a few questions; video of that exchange follows.

Deputy mayor Doug Holyday speaking at council this week, with Doug Ford seated next to him.

For the second time this week someone other than the mayor held a major press conference in response to allegations that Rob Ford has been captured on video smoking crack cocaine and making racist and homophobic slurs. On Wednesday it was the mayor’s brother Doug Ford (Ward 2, Etobicoke North); today it was deputy mayor Doug Holyday (Ward 3, Etobicoke Centre). At times looking frustrated, Holyday spoke with reporters in an attempt to reassure the public that work continues at City Hall despite the controversy surrounding the mayor. He also confirmed that several members of council’s executive committee—a cabinet–like group that consists of the mayor’s closest allies—are drafting an open letter that will ask the mayor to address the allegations directly and clearly. That letter is expected later this afternoon.

Capturing a long week at City Hall, in which the mayor has been facing increasingly loud calls from all corners to speak publicly about substance abuse allegations, Holyday said: “Someone has to say something on behalf of the administration, and I guess that’s why I’m here.”

“We can do our business here,” Holyday emphasized. “If the mayor was hospitalized, or if the mayor went on vacation, or something else happened to take him away from the seat [of power] at City Hall here, we would still continue on with business—that’s the way this is set up. This operation doesn’t depend on any one person.”

“I don’t know if crisis is the right word,” Holyday said when asked if we were in the middle of one, “it’s certainly a situation we have to deal with.”

Members of the executive committee, which includes Rob Ford, are slated to gather later today for a briefing on the agenda for their next meeting, which is scheduled for this upcoming Tuesday. Holyday said that he expects the mayor will be in attendance this afternoon.

Reporters asked Holyday if he had any reason to believe that Ford has a substance abuse problem. His one-word answer: “No.”

Photoist is the first post we publish every weekday morning, featuring an image (or two) by a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Mark Towhey (left) with Rob Ford during Tuesday’s casino debate at City Hall.

For reasons that are not yet clear, Rob Ford has fired one of his closest advisors, chief of staff Mark Towhey. Reporters who were standing outside the mayor’s office at City Hall this afternoon were surprised to see Towhey departing unexpectedly, escorted by security. As he left he spoke very briefly, saying “I am no longer the chief of staff, I did not resign.” He was asked whether he gave the mayor any advice about how to handle the recent allegations he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine and making racist and homophobic slurs; Towhey said he did, but that advice would remain confidential.

Towhey was appointed chief of staff in August, 2012; before that he served as the mayor’s director of policy and strategic planning. During his time working with the mayor, Towhey was known for his strong small-government views (he advocated shutting down many TTC bus routes and auctioning off popular lines) and for his rough behind-the-scenes handling of councillors when trying to whip votes for the mayor.

A few minutes later the mayor’s office released a brief statement:

Effective immediately, Mark Towhey is no longer working in the Office of the Mayor. Mr. Towhey has been a intricate [sic] part of the Mayor’s Office and has made many valuable contributions. The Mayor thanks Mr. Towhey for his valuable service and wishes him the very best in his future endeavours. Earl Provost, Deputy Chief of Staff, will assume the role of Acting Chief of Staff until further notice.

UPDATE, FRIDAY MAY 24, 10:30 AM: According to multiple reports, sources inside the mayor’s office say that Ford fired Towhey out of frustration with the latter’s attempts to get the mayor to go into rehab.

Photoist is the first post we publish every weekday morning, featuring an image (or two) by a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

On Wednesday afternoon, six days after news first broke that two separate publications had reportedly seen video of what appears to be Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking out of a crack pipe, his brother and city councillor Doug Ford held a press conference to address the allegations.

Sort of.

In a bizarre, nine-minute appearance in which he read from prepared remarks and refused to answer any questions, Doug Ford spent most of his time giving a campaign-style speech extolling the administration’s economic accomplishments. Though the mayor has only devoted about three sentences in total to the allegations Doug proclaimed: “Never has the mayor been so accessible.” As for the allegations themselves, Doug said his brother told him they were untrue, and added that they were the result of questionable journalism. He targeted the Toronto Star for persistently targeting the mayor, and told Gawker its actions in starting a crowdfunding campaign to buy the video in question “disgusting.”

The full text of his remarks:

First off, I’m here today because you’ve been asking me for my comment. I’m here to give you my comments. I’m not speaking for the mayor. The mayor is my brother, I love him, and he’ll speak for himself.

He has already addressed these allegations three times on Friday; I don’t know how much more he can say.

My brother is an honest and hardworking man with integrity, a man who has dedicated his life to serving others. He is the people’s mayor. Never has the mayor been so accessible or cared so much for the issues facing residents. His attention to the needs of his constituents is what has made Rob Ford mayor of Toronto. Now our mayor faces yet another accusation, an accusation driven by questionable reporting from a news outlet that has proven they would do anything to stop the mayor’s agenda. Rob is telling me these are untrue, that these accusations are ridiculous, and I believe him.

I will always support my brother as the mayor of this city, because I believe in his track record. Under his leadership we have reined in out of control spending and turned the fiscal ship of this city around. We have successfully eliminated the budget gap. For a decade Toronto relied on prior year surpluses and one-time found money to balance its operating budgets. In 2013, that ended. Our 2013 budget was balanced for the first time ever, without using any prior year surplus.

We are the only government, the only government in North America, to pass a budget that spends less money year than it did the previous year. Because of our fiscal discipline, international bond rating agencies like Moody’s and DBRS have kept our credit rating strong—even while they lowered the rating of the province of Ontario.

Over the next 10 years we’re reducing our debt by $804 million that we inherited, while spending $1.2 billion more on infrastructure needs. We are investing $2.3 billion over 10 years to maintain our hard infrastructure. We have privatized garbage collection east of Yonge, saving the taxpayers $88 million while improving service to our residents. This mayor negotiated historic labour deals—and I say historic, that’s never been done—that are helping us improve efficiencies and save hundreds of millions of dollars without a single day of labour disruptions. We have changed the culture of entitlement and improved efficiencies and services for our residents. We have seen record years of development. We have more cranes in the air today, more than New York, L.A., Chicago, Dallas, Atlanta, Miami combined—that is combined, 184 cranes, in our city. We’ve had three consecutive years of job growth. Folks, that’s three consecutive years of job growth. And Toronto is currently seeing the highest employment numbers since 1990. I’ll repeat that: we have seen the highest employment numbers since 1990. We’ve almost created…40,000 jobs have been created since this mayor took office.

As mayor of Toronto Rob Ford has put more funding into arts than any other mayor, Toronto is a vibrant and beautiful city were people want to live, work, and play. We are seeing tourism in Toronto with over nine million hotel rooms sold last year—again, another record broken with 9 million hotels rooms sold last year. This mayor is fighting for the little guy, to keep taxes affordable and low. 136,000 in Toronto will get rent reductions this year ’cause we reduced property taxes for their landlords last year, and we are holding the line on their taxes this year as well.

We have come a long way in the past two years, we are turning the corner, and we are now on the right path.

All of this is overshadowed, of course, by the constant stream of accusations coming forward against this mayor. This situation reminds me of a story the Toronto Star, during the election—a story written based on credible sources—that the mayor hit his football players. What could be worse than abusing an innocent child? It turned out that there credible source was disgraced as a serial plagiarizer. The young man himself came forward and said these accusations were completely fabricated and false. Never, never has a Canadian politician or his family 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 my cottage as they did this weekend [so] that my kids couldn’t even enjoy the weekend cause they were in the bushes taking video of them, and harasses our family at home. They have shown that they have no regard, absolutely no regard, for what they are doing to our family, who should have no part of all of this.

I am asking all of you today: please stop. Please stop harassing my children, please stop harassing my mother. Please leave them out of this.

People ask me why did I get into politics? I got into politics to give back my time, donate my salary, and do what I thought was right for Toronto. I never, ever expected that these were the rules of engagement, that we would go through this abuse and my family would suffer.

To the folks at Gawker: what you are doing is disgusting and morally wrong. Giving away prizes to try to give away money to drug dealers and extortionists is disgraceful. When the mayor faces serious accusations, by no means will we be pressured by the Toronto Star to answer their questions on their timeframe. We spoke to our family and our lawyers before deciding how to proceed. If the mayor stopped and held a press conference every time the media made up a story about him, we would never have accomplished anything that we have. If the mayor wants to make a statement his press secretary will notify the media. There is no reason for you to be staking out his house and following him around town.

I also want to say that the story wrongfully generalizes and tarnishes the reputation of Toronto’s Somalian community, a hardworking community of good people, thousands of whom I represent in Etobicoke North.

Lastly, I want to thank the thousands of supporters out there who believe in the job Mayor Rob Ford and this administration is doing. Without your support, encouragement, and kind words, this would be even more difficult than it already is.

Folks, please remember that we will continue fighting for the taxpayers, and remember one thing: we’re down here to work for you.

Photoist is the first post we publish every weekday morning, featuring an image (or two) by a photographer in the Torontoist Flickr Pool.

Mayor Rob Ford at the final council debate.

City council rejected all proposals for expanded gaming in Toronto today. By a resounding vote of 40–4 they opposed the establishment of any new downtown casino (the dissenters were Rob Ford, Norm Kelly, Vincent Crisanti, and Giorgio Mammoliti). This was widely expected, in the wake of a concerted grassroots campaign opposing a new facility, and news that the provincial government would be giving Toronto much less in hosting fees than casino advocates were hoping. Much more surprising was the rejection also of any expanded gaming at Woodbine, which already has slot machines—that was by a much closer margin of 24-20. Woodbine officials have maintained that they need to expand in order to stay alive at all. Even though Toronto has rejected a casino, neighbouring municipalities such as Vaughan might permit one; Woodbine representatives say this competitive pressure will put them out of business.

In the middle of it all was Rob Ford, who surprised everyone by moving a motion to reject casinos even though he has been one of their strongest proponents.

Proponents of expansion at Woodbine waiting for council to vote.

Ford’s move didn’t actually reflect a change of heart on the casino issue; rather, it was a calculated attempt to try and embarrass Premier Kathleen Wynne. The mayor blames her for reducing the hosting fee Toronto initially expected, and thus for killing the proposal entirely. From his speech today:

One year ago, the government of Ontario asked Toronto to host a new casino in this great city.

Since then, Toronto has spent a year grappling with this issue. We made significant progress with the previous premier and his finance minister, as well as the OLG. Those positive discussions continued with the new minister of finance. But when the matter reached the premier’s office it had fallen apart.

Despite the fact that this was the government’s idea from the very beginning, we carried the load. We did all the hard work. Despite the fact [that] a lot of progress was made to find a formula that worked for Toronto and other host cities, and for the rest of the province, it now appears Premier Wynne has chosen to go in a different direction. Which direction that is, we’re not quite sure.

I don’t know why the government has changed its mind. I don’t know why it will not support a fair share for Toronto—and not just for Toronto, Madam Speaker, but every other host in this great province. I don’t know why the premier doesn’t support 10,000 good-paying union jobs.

What I do know, what I do know, Madam Speaker, is that I will not support a casino that is not in the best interests of Toronto. I never campaigned on this, Madam Speaker. I thought that if we could create 10,000 good-paying jobs, and bring in $100 million or more in revenue to help transit and to help people in Toronto community housing, that I believed that was the right move—and I still do.

Hosting a casino in Toronto that does little to address Toronto’s financial needs, that simply makes the provincial government richer, is not in the best interests of Toronto. The province wants money for nothing. They are not going to put out one red cent into the development of a new convention or entertainment complex. The financial risk will be entirely on the private sector. They are not willing to accept a single drop of political risk. Once again, they have asked the council to battle it out, so the premier doesn’t get her hands dirty.

Inconveniently for the mayor, well before today’s meeting, a majority of councillors had already announced they were opposed to a casino, regardless of what the hosting fee might be, citing concerns ranging from increased addiction to cannibalizing local businesses to an unmanageable increase in traffic. Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) has been leading the charge against a downtown casino, which likely would have been in his ward. After the vote he told reporters: “This wasn’t just about a hosting fee, this was about the impact on the citizens of Toronto and the people of Ontario that don’t want us to put forward a policy that encourages more people to get addicted to gambling and raise money in that fashion.”

Nick Eaves, CEO of Woodbine Entertainment Group, said he was very disappointed in the vote against an expansion at Woodbine and called the decision “a real shock,” but also tried to put a brave face on things. Though he and others from Woodbine said that without an expansion of gaming there, the site would eventually die, today he said, “We’re confident this isn’t the end.” He is now, he said, pinning his hopes on the premier: “She’s made clear that she supports an ongoing and sustainable horse-racing and horse-breeding industry in the province. She’s made clear that in her view, in order for that to happen, there needs to be an integration of the industry back with the province’s provincial gaming strategy.”

It was only yesterday that Mayor Rob Ford proclaimed proposals for a Toronto casino “dead.” In the wake of the province’s foot-dragging on the issue, and reluctance to commit to giving the city the $100 million Ford thought was a “fair share” of the gambling revenue any new facility would bring in, the mayor abruptly cancelled the special city council meeting that had been scheduled to debate the issue on Tuesday, May 21.

Twenty-four hours later, a majority of councillors have signed a petition that will overturn the mayor and reinstate the meeting, ensuring that council holds its debate after all. The goal: clearly vote the casino proposal down, rather than follow the mayor’s preferred course and hold off on making any decision at all. Councillor Mike Layton (Ward 19, Trinity-Spadina) called reporters together to announce the news late this afternoon. We haven’t seen the list of signatories, but he said the councillors on the list represent a range of political views on council, united by the desire to have a clear decision on the issue.

City council will meet as originally scheduled on Tuesday, starting at 9:30 a.m. The full text of Layton’s letter announcing the petition follows.

Councillor Reinstate Casino Meeting by Torontoist

Toronto mayor Rob Ford is denying allegations that a video seen by reporters at two outlets—Gawker and the Toronto Star—shows him smoking crack cocaine. After brief encounters with reporters outside his home and his office earlier this morning, Ford held a scrum at City Hall at about 12:25 p.m. that lasted no more than a few seconds. His remarks in full: “Anyways, like I said this morning these allegations are ridiculous. It’s another story with respect to the Toronto Star going after me. That’s all I have to say.”

Flanked by security, Ford then got into the elevator outside his office and went down to the City Hall roof, for an appearance at the rainbow flag raising to mark International Day Against Homophobia and Transphobia.