It's been exactly a week since Toronto woke up to the Rob Ford crack cocaine scandal, and so far the mayor has kept his mouth tightly sealed. This morning the Globe and Mail is reporting the mayor's executive committee - the closest thing he has to a cabinet - will release a statement urging him to seek help for his alleged drug addiction while reassuring the public someone is still in charge. "He has a problem, he needs to go get help with it," their source said.
Even the Toronto Sun is urging Ford to quit and seek assistance. Can Ford stay silent any longer?
Meanwhile, Coun. Paul Ainslie has admitted he was given a formal warning after being stopped at a RIDE checkpoint at Kingston Rd. and Midland Ave. earlier this month. No charges were laid, but Ainslie was required to hand over his license for three days as a result. The councillor admitted the incident at a press conference at City Hall yesterday morning, saying he was drinking wine with dinner.
Crackstarter, Gawker's attempt to crowdfund the money to purchase the alleged Rob Ford crack tape, has hit $160,000, just $40,000 shy of the goal amount. In the last day or so someone has pledged a whopping ten grand to the campaign, a donation that Gawker says it will reward with the iPhone that shot the video, if it gets it.
In an update on their site, Gawker said it hadn't been in contact with the person who holds possibly the most valuable few seconds of film in the city since Sunday. They say there's a chance the owner has gone to ground due to the intense interest in the story. Do you think the video, if there is one, will ever surface?
Presumably not wanting to be outdone in the controversy department, coun. Giorgio Mammoliti has run himself a nice deep bath of hot water. CBC News is reporting he organized a $5,000-a-table fundraiser in Woodbridge on Tuesday night, in apparent breach of city rules about fundraising outside election periods. The funds were sought so he could "keep up the good fight" at City Hall. Mammoliti denies the event was a fundraiser.
The light array on atop the Canada Life building on University Ave. is a convenient way of finding out what the weather is doing (or about to do) in Toronto. Most people know the about the weather vein but here's a beautiful old card published by Reddit user oneyeartrip that explains the entire thing.
Finally, a minor scuffle between a cellphone user and a moviegoer at Varsity Cinema near Bay and Bloor lead the police getting involved recently. Lani Selick says she told a texter sitting next to her to stop. When he didn't, she put her hand over the screen, an action that lead to the police being called. Neither party decided to press charges.
IN BRIEF:
- No charges as police identify woman who took purse from subway suicide [Toronto Star]
- Toronto police investigating sexual assault at York University [Toronto Star]
- Edwin Encarnacion hits grand slam as Toronto Blue Jays beat Orioles [Metro]
Chris Bateman is a staff writer at blogTO. Follow him on Twitter at @chrisbateman.
Image: Ramith_M/blogTO Flickr pool.