Toronto Mayor Rob Ford said he suffered a setback this week after a video posted on social media showed him babbling about the city’s police chief Monday night while he was at a fast-food restaurant.
The mayor, who became infamous for admitting he had smoked crack and drank too much in the past, has said he only had a small amount to drink and didn’t take drugs Monday.
As you know, I’m a human being — the same as every one of you. And I’m entitled to a personal life, and my personal life does not interfere with the work I do, day-in and day-out, for the taxpayers of this great city, he told reporters Wednesday.
Monday was unfortunate. I had a minor setback. We all experience these difficult bumps in life. I am telling the Toronto residents that I’m still working hard every day to improve my health and my well-being. But again, this is completely a private matter.
The mayor, who has pledged to refrain from alcohol, stopped briefly to talk to reporters Tuesday when he was asked about the video that shows him incoherently talking to customers at a Steak Queen in Rexdale.
I was with some friends and what I do with my personal life, and with my personal friends, that’s up to me, he said then.
In the video, which lasts 66 seconds, Ford speaks at times in Creole with a Jamaican accent. He is dressed in a suit and tie, with his back to the counter. He uses a profanity at the beginning of the clip to describe Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair.
It’s the latest embarrassment for Ford.
His saga began in May, when allegations emerged that he appeared to be smoking crack cocaine on a pipe on cell phone video taken months earlier, in winter 2012.
After initially denying that he had smoked the drug, he admitted in November that he had. The city council later voted to strip him of most of his power as mayor, reducing him to primarily a figurehead.
Ford has ignored calls for him to resign or enter rehab and has said he will run for re-election in October.