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Mayor Rob Ford says Project Brazen 2 investigators can have his phone

Mayor Rob Ford says Project Brazen 2 investigators can have his phone

When Toronto Mayor Rob Ford was ticketed for jaywalking in Vancouver last weekend and immediately suggested it was part of some police vendetta against him, surely even some of his closest supporters started to question the veracity of his conspiratorial claims.

Regardless, the embattled mayor seems set on throwing shade on Canadian police forces as Toronto detectives continue an active investigation into his affairs.

Allegations about Ford’s behaviour and connections with alleged drug dealers have been the focus of a police investigation known as Project Brazen 2. The investigation culminated with drug trafficking and extortion charges against Ford’s friend and former driver, Alexander Lisi. Ford has not been charged in the investigation and has publicly called it a politically-motivated witch hunt.

Police involved in an investigation into allegations involving the mayor have said, however, that their work is far from over. Toronto Det.-Sgt. Gary Giroux told CP24 this week that Project Brazen 2 is active and ongoing.

The Toronto Star reported on Wednesday that detectives have asked the court for a search warrant for Rogers cellphone records.

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The newspaper reports that key dates in the requested information include Jan. 14 and Nov. 29. (Of interest, a judicial pre-trial was set in Lisi's case on Jan. 14, and Ford gave a public update on ice storm cleanup efforts on that date. On Nov. 29, Ford attended a Don Bosco football game in Etobicoke.)

The Star did not confirm that the search warrants specifically targeted Ford's cellphone, but the mayor appears to believe they do.

In an interview with Ford-friendly Joe Warmington, of the Toronto Sun, Ford say police "can take" his cellphone because he has nothing to hide.

"I will just give them my cellphone. They can take it .... They are going to need an army to go through them because I call a lot of constituents," he said.

Ford, who may believe phone records are comprised solely of what hasn't been deleted from your phone's call history, seems to have lost track of his own plot. Is he willing to help in the investigation, or isn’t he?

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Toronto police would love for him to surrender his phone. He can bring it to the station when he agrees to be interviewed as part of the investigation. Thus far, Ford has declined to participate.

If the ongoing investigation is an unfounded police vendetta, a politically-motivated hatchet job, then wouldn't it be best to nip it in the bud?

Ford of course as the legal right not to surrender himself to police for a voluntary interview, and were I his lawyer I would likely urge against it. But if that is his private decision, he should keep on message in his public comments.

His words, his actions, and his other words don't line up. Either he has nothing to hide or he has no reason to participate. Either it is a baseless attack against his character or an investigation from which he needs to shield himself.

The investigation apparently isn't finished. The only person playing politics over the affair is Ford. Don't paint a picture of cooperation and act otherwise. The word you're looking for is duplicitous.

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