Mayor Rob Ford became “upset” after he was refused entrance into a lounge at the Air Canada Centre on Saturday night, Coun. Frank Di Giorgio tells CP24.
Ford was attending a Toronto Maple Leafs game with Di Giorgio when he was refused access to the Director’s Lounge between periods, an area he had been granted access to in the past.
According to Di Giorgio, Ford then stood against a wall and refused to move, suggesting to others that he was being punished for his vote against granting Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment a $10 million loan to expand BMO Field.
One video posted to Tumblr late Saturday night does appear to show a visibly agitated Ford leaning against a wall and saying “it’s bull****,” to an ACC security guard, though there is no way to verify when the video was taken.
The Toronto Star reported that Ford recieved a warning by security, though Di Giorgio made no mention of that step being taken.
“He did become upset and he essentially went in behind the seats (on the concourse) and stationed himself against a wall and would just not move while in the meantime people continued to take pictures with him,” Di Giorgio said. “He thought it was a direct consequence of the way he voted and that may have been the reason but the security people did come to see me in the third period to explain that in fact there was a special function going on in the Director’s Lounge and that was the reason.”
There were rumours that Ford was intoxicated during the game and some on Twitter even suggested that the mayor may have been kicked out of the ACC, however Di Giorgio told CP24 that he believes the mayor was not drinking.
“In my view he was not. I could speak with him and he understood exactly what I was saying and most of the time I was able to keep him walking along but he did keep going back to not being able to understand why he would not able to attend the Directors Lounge,” he said.
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