Brett Gundlock/Reuters
TORONTO – A court document suggests people close to Rob Ford were concerned about the Toronto mayor’s use of drugs, drunk driving and even the presence of suspected “prostitutes” in his office.
The previously redacted information comes from police interviews with former staffers of the mayor, in a document that contains allegations not proven in court.
Several of the staffers’ allegations centre around the night of St. Patrick’s Day last year, where a former staffer told police he saw Ford with another staffer, a friend and a young, blond woman named Alana who he thought was “an escort or a prostitute.”
The same woman had been seen with Ford at a stag party, ex-staffer Isaac Ransom told police.
Ransom told police Ford was drinking from a 40-ounce bottle of Smirnoff vodka and by the time he arrived at the mayor’s office that night around 9 p.m. half of it was gone.
“Mayor Ford was totally out of it and had obviously been drinking,” the police document quotes Ransom as saying. Ford wanted to “smoke narcotics” with Alana and his friend but his staffers stopped him, Ransom told police.
Ford went to a bar that night and a friend of Alana’s showed up, Ransom said.
“When he got up to leave he decided he wanted to go to the dance floor, so he went over, stumbled around the dance floor and fell down,” the police quote Ransom as saying.
Another staffer, Chris Fickel, told police he was not with the mayor that night, but heard that the mayor went back to city hall with three staffers, a friend and “two females that may have been prostitutes.”
The mayor then started “crying uncontrollably,” assaulted one staffer, pushed another and drove himself home, the documents say.
Ford’s former chief of staff Mark Towhey told police that Fickel confided in him that one time the mayor had stopped and drank a “mickey” of vodka while driving. After hearing this Towhey implemented a new rule that if a staff member was with the mayor they would be the one to drive, he told police.
The new revelations came hours after Ford admitted for the first time to buying illegal drugs while in office.
Despite the mounting pressure for him to resign or step aside, Ford repeated during an internationally televised council meeting Wednesday — the first since his shocking drug admission — that he is not going anywhere.
