Video of the peculiar drink-throwing incident involving Mayor Rob Ford briefly surfaced online last week, only to be taken down a day later.
A demo reel put together by Ossington Creative and posted to the Toronto marketing company’s website on October 23 captured the moment when a woman lobbed a drink in the vicinity of the mayor during the Taste Of Little Italy street festival on June 15.
Ossington Creative’s Kent Plummer recorded the incident while shooting a short campaign-style video commissioned by the mayor’s office. Called The Summer Of Ford, it was released last month.
After NOW made inquiries to the mayor’s office and other parties, the footage of the drink-flinging was deleted from the company’s online demo reel sometime the next day (October 24). NOW retained a copy, however. (See it at nowtoronto.com)
The mayor and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, have given a different account of the bizarre summer episode than has the woman who now admits to tossing a cup of organic peach tea in the direction of the chief magistrate.
In an interview in the Toronto Star on October 18, Shannon Everett said she didn’t throw the beverage at the mayor, but rather in his direction, and that the peachy projectile landed several metres away from him.
For his part, Ford has made statements he was harmed in the incident. On his radio show the following day, he said, “That hurt, man. When it hits you in the face, you don’t expect it, right?”
In a scrum on June 17, Councillor Ford said that liquid from the drink had hit the mayor, and its acidic content had stung him. “Obviously the juice had acid in it, because it was burning his eyes.”
If the recently surfaced video, which lasts less than four seconds, is played at full speed, the cup is almost invisible. But in slow motion, the drink can be seen sailing behind the mayor as he speaks with a small crowd of people. It appears to land a short distance behind him.
The liquid does not appear to splash the mayor’s face or eyes. He does not immediately react as though he’s hurt. He points to something out of camera range then the video cuts to a shot of Ford and his staffers running through the College Street crowd.
Everett was confronted by the mayor’s entourage shortly after, arrested and charged with assault. The charge was withdrawn last month after Ford decided not to pursue the matter, and Everett agreed to make a $500 contribution to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health.
Ossington Creative’s Plummer told NOW he decided to post the footage after reading Everett’s interview in the Star, which he felt misrepresented how close the drink had come to hitting Ford. Plummer says the mayor’s staff did not ask him to take the video down but he did so because he didn’t want to give Ford’s office “a headache.”
When I asked the mayor on Tuesday, October 29, if he stood by his story in light of the video, he said, “Absolutely. She threw a drink at my face. It’s over. It’s water under the bridge now. It’s over and done with, so that’s it.”
NOW provided Everett with a copy of the footage, and she responded by email. “This video is proof that the dramatic claims Rob Ford made about me that day are false,” she wrote.
With files from John Semley and Jonathan Goldsbie.
bens@nowtoronto.com
