Daily BrewIs this home Mayor Rob Ford’s Fortress of Solitude?
Has the media tracked down Toronto Mayor Rob Ford's Fortress of Solitude?
Three separate reports have confirmed the location of a home where Ford was photographed with shooting victim Anthony Smith and two other young men, in a photo that has been tied to allegations he was recorded smoking from a crack pipe.
The picture was originally posted with reports from Gawker and the Toronto Star last month in which reporters claimed they saw the video of Ford lighting a crack pipe, inhaling and making off-colour comments about minorities and Justin Trudeau.
It is not entirely clear how the photograph is connected to the video, if at all. What we now know about the photo is that, according to the Star, Gawker and the Globe and Mail, it was taken at 15 Windsor Rd. in Etobicoke, a short hop and a walkway from the Dixon Rd. apartment complex at the heart of the search for the crack video.
[ Related: Alleged Ford crack video losing 'credibility,' deputy mayor says ]
The Star reports the home belongs to the Basso family. Mario Bassio, 40, Fabio Basso, 45 and Elena Basso, 51. Their mother Lina owns the house.
“Rob Ford’s the greatest mayor ever. You guys are scavengers,” Elena told the Toronto Star. “You come back to my house, I’ll call the police.”
It is also reported that the home is notorious to neighbours who have concerns about drug activity. Young men are said to be seen moving between the home and nearby housing complex at all hours of the day.
Smith was killed in March in a downtown shooting, and another man in the video was injured in the same shooting. Ford has never explained how he came to know Smith and the other men. His brother, Coun. Doug Ford, calls such questions racist.
The problem with all of this is that it relies heavily on inference. It is inferred the video was shot at the house. It is inferred that Ford is a frequent visitor. It is inferred that Ford is familiar with the men in the photo, and that is why he was able to reportedly tell staff he knew where to find the video.
[ More Brew: Gawker: Rob Ford crack tape ‘gone’; Ford: I will survive ]
The photograph of the mayor and young men has an uncertain link to the drug video, which itself has questionable ties to existence. And what the mayor was doing at the house the night he posed for a photo with Smith and two other men is also under question.
As Ford's lawyer Dennis Morris tells the Globe:
Say somebody says ‘here, take a picture’ and it’s in front of a certain location. You have no idea that location may be involved in something illegal or improper, allegedly, that type of thing.
The narrative that has been painted relies on inferences that come after suggestions the video will never come to light. With those holes in the narrative, this story simply says that a house exists and Ford was there once.
Ford’s Fortress of Solitude may have been uncovered, but it is no smoking gun.
