One way to get a lot of publicity for Toronto is to have the mayor in a video that seems to show he is smoking crack cocaine.
There’s been lots of that since the Toronto Star and American blog Gawker both claimed they had viewed a video showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. The allegation is confirmed by two of The Star’s top investigative reporters.
Those reporters might be wrong — the video might be cooked, the person may be Ford’s doppelganger or it may be some other drug (we know that he was once charged with possession of marijuana). But The Star’s editors have clearly decided their reporters’ interpretation is correct, and it’s not clear that any of us would be any further ahead if we ourselves saw the video.
As for the publicity, it is news across Canada, across the USA — through CNN, Jon Stewart, Bill Maher and Jimmy Kimmel — and across the world through The Guardian.
One obligation of those who enter public life is responding to charges of wrongdoing or inappropriate behaviour. Rob Ford’s obligation is to respond to the allegations about this video, and also about the photo widely published of him standing with a young Toronto man who has since been murdered.
The longer he puts off an explanation, the more it seems that he has been caught out doing something far beyond the reasonable or something that cannot be explained away. The explanation has to deal with his private life and how he spends his time. We know already that he spends limited time on his public duties and that large parts of his day appear not to be occupied with public business. What else is he doing?
As for coaching a school football team — something the mayor has prided himself in doing — it is hard to believe that after these allegations any school will allow him to have that kind of access to young people. It is becoming increasingly difficult to view him as a good role model for young people.
But the most significant issue for me is that Ford seems unable to get beyond himself and his own private life in order to fulfill his public obligation of being the chief representative of the city of Toronto.
That limitation brings shame to us all. His behaviour belittles the city.
Post City Magazines’ columnist John Sewell is a former mayor of Toronto and the author of a number of urban planning books.