Rob Ford has addressed speculation that he was publicly intoxicated at the Taste of the Danforth festival on Friday night.
Videos of the mayor walking alone, slurring his speech and appearing woozy as he greeted residents near the event were widely circulated late Friday evening, and come months after separate newspaper reports alleged that Ford has long battled alcohol addiction, and that he was caught on video smoking crack cocaine.
Ford has denied both those allegations.
On his radio show Sunday, Mayor Ford admitted that he was drinking on Friday night.
“Did I have a couple of beers? Absolutely I had a couple of beers,” said Ford. “But you know what? I had a good time, I think things are getting blown out of proportion. I met a lot of people, took hundreds of pictures.”
“And if I offended anyone, you know what, I apologize. I don’t believe I did offend anyone,” he continued. “I just had a good time, and let my hair down a bit. You know what, a lot of people called me the next day – a lot of people have my home phone number – and said, Rob don’t worry about it.'”
The mayor’s brother and co-host Doug Ford also chimed in, saying that he arrived at the street festival about an hour after Rob did, and to his eyes the mayor “seemed alright.”
“Rob and I are average guys, we go down to a festival, we have a couple of beers,” said Doug Ford, who is also the councillor for Etobicoke North. “You got everyone on ya, but when I was there, there was people lined up from here to Timbuktu, non-stop, wanting to take pictures. Everything was good, everyone was having a good time.”
The Ford brothers’ statements mark a significant shift from the messaging that came out of the mayor’s camp following a March article in the Toronto Star that alleged he was asked to leave a military ball because he was intoxicated and some guests became alarmed. According to the article, the mayor’s drinking problem was an “open secret” at City Hall.
At the time, many of the mayor’s allies, including Councillor Ford, said that they had never seen Rob take a drink.
A caller into the show on Sunday, who gave his name as Harrison, pointed out the discrepancy.
“You said you’d never seen your brother drinking at an event, ever,” the caller said. “You said that a couple of months ago and then today you said you and your brother go to festivals and drink a couple of beers.”
“Hold on, I didn’t say that,” interjected Doug. The councillor then said that he quit drinking alcohol years ago, a claim he has often repeated to media. He went on to admit that the mayor does sometimes take a drink, but that it was not a big deal.
“Have I seen my brother hammered in his life? Yeah I have,” he said.
“Have I seen him with a couple of drinks? Yeah. But you ask anyone in his staff, in our family, you know, Rob doesn’t sit there in public and start hammering away on drinks. It just never happened.”
When the caller expressed concern that someone else should be driving the mayor if he plans to drink at an event, the Fords protested.
“I drove myself down there, I was not drinking,” said Mayor Ford. “I went out, I had a few beers, and I did not drive home.”
The mayor said that he met up with his staffers and one of them drove him home when the night was done.
But the man who posted several of the videos from Friday night said that Mayor Ford already appeared intoxicated before he began making his way through the festival. The man – who only gave his first name in an interview with NOW but has since been identified by other news outlets as Mala Turay – encountered Ford at around 9:30 pm near Greenwood and Oakville, just south of the Danforth, and said the mayor was alone by his car.
According to Turay, he was swaying from side to side and slurring his words, and telling people he encountered that he was eager to get to the street party. Turay did not see whether the mayor had been driving, however.
