Daily BrewLatest Project Brazen 2 documents detail notorious Rob Ford drug video
An Ontario court released more documents from a police investigation involving Toronto Mayor Rob Ford on Tuesday, including a detailed account from a police officer who watched the notorious video of the mayor smoking what appeared to be crack cocaine.
The new details are from just the latest batch of documents related to Project Brazen 2, a Toronto police investigation involving Ford and his friend and former driver, Alexander Lisi, launched after the mayor’s name was connected to a separate investigation into an Etobicoke drug investigation.
Previous documents have detailed police surveillance of the mayor and contained information collected through interviews with city hall employees. Lawyer Peter Jacobsen told reporters on Wednesday that the latest batch contains a police account of what is contained in a notorious video purportedly showing Ford smoking from a crack pipe.
"A lot of the material relates to the extortion issue and some of that is subject to the publication ban," Jacobsen told reporters. "The the major highlight is for the first time we see an official description of what is in the video."
The video is a now-infamous cellphone recording first reported by the Toronto Star and Gawker in May, the existence of which was later confirmed by Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair. Ford previously denied the existence of the video but later confessed to smoking crack cocaine during one of his “drunken stupors.”
The question of extortion relates to Lisi, who has been charged with drug trafficking offenses as well as extortion in an alleged attempt to recover Ford's lost cell phone from those who reportedly sought to sell the video.
Global News reporter Jackson Proskow tweeted out an image of the portion of document related to the video.
It reads:
The video appears to have been filmed surreptitiously showing Mayor Ford consuming what appears to be a narcotic while inside a residence.
Mayor Ford is holding what appears to be a glass cylinder in one hand and a lighter in the other hand while engaging in conversation with individuals off camera. At one point I hear Mayor Ford say the name Liban.
At one point Mayor Ford holds the glass cylinder to his mouth. Lights the lighter and applies to flame to the tip of the glass cylinder in a circular motion.
After several seconds Mayor Ford appears to inhale the vapour which is produced, then exhale vapour.
At the end of the video, Mayor Ford's attention is drawn toward an illuminated electronic device (looks like a cellphone) which briefly passes in front of the recording device.
Mayor Ford appears to look into the recording device. He then drops the glass cylinder and lighter on the table next to him; he briefly points at the camera and asks if it's on.
From the new documents. Detailed description of the "crack video" pic.twitter.com/kHFwIyeEYt
— Jackson Proskow (@JProskowGlobal) March 19, 2014
While it is not made apparent in the video what Ford was referring to when he said "Liban," the man Lisi was allegedly negotiating with for the return of Ford's cell phone was Liban Siyad – an alleged member of the Dixon City Bloods.
Previous court documents have indicated Siyad was one of two men allegedly involved in attempts to sell the video to the Star and Gawker.
If Ford is concerned about any new bombshells from the video, he was doing his best not to show it. Ford was seen chatting and laughing during a committee meeting as the documents were being released, Wednesday morning.
His brother, Coun. Doug Ford sidestepped questions about the video on Tuesday, telling reporters, "I'm not even paying attention to that."
More to come…
