He’s baaaaack.
Rob Ford returned to City Hall from rehab on Monday and delivered an 18-minute speech in which he issued a public apology and tried to position himself as a man ready to resume his duties as mayor.
In an speech that began as a mea culpa but ended as a re-election pitch, Ford said that before he decided to take a leave of absence two months ago he was “in complete denial” about his substance abuse problems.
“It soon became obvious that my alcohol and drug use was having a serious, serious impact on my family and on my health and on my job as mayor,” Ford said.
“I want to sincerely, sincerely apologize not just to the people of Toronto but every single person who was hurt by my words and my actions,” he continued, looking emotional at times. “It was never, never my intention to embarrass the city or offend my fellow members of council.”
The mayor singled out Councillor Karen Stintz, about whom he was recorded making crude sexual comments shortly before heading to rehab, offering her and the rest of council a “deep-felt apology” for “my hurtful and degrading remarks.”
The disgraced magistrate delivered the remarks in an invitation-only press conference in his office, where he read from a prepared statement and took no questions from the roughly 20 reporters and cameramen in attendance. Despite protests from the City Hall press gallery and the objections of city staff some members of the media, including NOW Magazine and Metroland Media Toronto, were not allowed entry and were forced to cover the speech on television.
Looking slimmer than when he left two months ago (at least from what we could tell on the video feed), the mayor claimed he had undergone hundreds of hours of intensive treatment in rehab. He claimed that the 60-day stint at the GreeneStone facility in Muskoka had “saved my life” but that he will require addiction treatment indefinitely to battle what he called a “chronic medical condition.”
His admission that his alcohol and drug use had affected his job was in stark contrast to his many denials before he took his leave, in which he claimed his drinking was a personal problem that didn’t impede his professional life. Despite admitting that his drinking had impaired his job, he did not offer to step down.
“Thankfully we live in a civilized society, a society that realizes that people do make mistakes. And that some people need help and those who seek that help can be given another chance,” he said.
Although the mayor’s speech was one of the longest of his term, for the most part he didn’t speak about what specifically he was apologizing for and didn’t address many of the serious questions still lingering over him him.
Those questions include:
– whether he played a role in attempts to retrieve the infamous video that showed him smoking crack cocaine
– whether he was blackmailed over the video
– what his relationship is to the Dixon City Bloods gang
– how often he has driven while drunk
– how he knew murder victim Anthony Smith
– numerous reports of him making homophobic, racist, and sexist comments
– why he has refused to cooperate with the police investigation into his office
– whether he threatened a City Hall security guard
– the identity of a woman who came to his on Easter Monday when City Hall was shut down
– recent reports that he and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, met with city staff on behalf of companies with ties to their family label business without revealing the relationship to city officials.
About 12 minutes into his speech, Ford pivoted sharply away from his addictions and began a campaign-style rundown of his supposed accomplishments while in office, including contracting out garbage, making the TTC an essential service, and “sav[ing] taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars.”
“When I was first elected in 2010, I promised to stop the gravy train and that’s exactly what I have done,” he said. He concluded by saying he “looked forward to serving you for many, many more years.”
Once he was finished he took a sip from a glass of water and slowly left the room, while ignoring questions shouted by reporters.
Ford had not been back at City Hall since he announced at the end of April he was taking a leave of absence from his job and re-election campaign to deal with an alcohol addiction he had been struggling with “for some time.” He received inpatient treatment at the GreeneStone clinic in Muskoka, but was photographed several times out and about in cottage country, including once at an upscale resort.
His decision to take a leave came on the heels of separate news reports in April of a second video allegedly showing him smoking crack cocaine, and an audio recording that captured him making homophobic remarks and crude sexual comments about Stintz.
Ford now resumes his role as mayor, but with severely limited powers. Council gave Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly most of the mayor’s authorities in November after Ford admitted to smoking crack. Kelly took over Ford’s remaining responsibilities, which are mostly symbolic, while the mayor was on leave. They will now return to Ford.
More to come.
