A new video has emerged that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford stumbling and swearing outside of city hall.
The video was filmed around 10:30 p.m. Saturday night and sent to CP24 on Sunday.
A Mississauga woman who didn’t want to be identified told CTV Toronto she noticed Ford on the sidewalk outside of city hall as she drove south on Bay Street.
The woman pulled over and asked the mayor if he would pose for a photo with her son as the 13-year-old recorded the encounter on his iPod.
Wearing green beads, the mayor posed for a picture and then set about trying to get a cab.
“I need a taxi van. Bro, I need to get, I need a taxi van to take us home. I know bro, but I got to take me home,” Ford says to an unidentified male on the video, appearing to have difficulty with his words.
Appearing unsteady on his feet, he then makes his way over to a waiting cab, where he turns around and suddenly swears, garnering laughs from some onlookers.
Asked about the incident Sunday as he appeared at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Ford refused to say whether or not he had been drinking Saturday night.
“Give me a break, guys,” Ford said when asked if he had been drinking.
“We were good, but I’m here, right,” he said when asked once more.
The new video comes almost two years to the day after Ford was allegedly intoxicated at a party with some of his staff members at city hall after spending a night out for St. Patrick’s Day.
In November last year, the city released an email from city hall security saying the mayor was “very intoxicated” on the night in question.
Dated March 18, 2012, the email described what city hall security saw overnight.
The email claimed Ford was intoxicated, sweating, having trouble walking and swearing at staff after coming to city hall around 2 a.m.
Ford has since admitted things “got a little out of control” that night.
In November, at the height of a crack video scandal involving the mayor, Ford told CP24 that he would stop using drugs and alcohol altogether. He also refused to take a leave of absence, despite pleas from colleagues to get help.
Since then a video emerged in January showing him apparently intoxicated at the Steak Queen Restaurant on Rexdale Boulevard. In that video, he appears to be swearing in Jamaican Patois and using an expletive to refer to Toronto police Chief Bill Blair.
After the video surfaced, Ford admitted he had been drinking, but insisted that it was no one else’s business.
"What I do in my personal life with my personal friends is up to me," he told reporters at the time.
The mayor’s brother, Coun. Doug Ford, was also at the St. Patrick’s Day Parade Sunday and told reporters he has no idea what the mayor was doing Saturday night.
- With a report from CTV Toronto’s Natalie Johnson
