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Fact-Checking Rob Ford And How He Bends The Truth In Interviews

Rob Ford Is Wrong About Rob Ford In Interviews

Rob Ford has done a lot of talking in the last 24 hours, after a whirlwind of media interviews ranging from CNN to CP24. He's talked to everyone from Matt Lauer to Peter Mansbridge, but Ford sticks to the same talking points time and time again.

And he is as confident as ever in his own abilities, despite the controversy around him. "Nobody has helped more people in this city than Rob Ford," he told Mansbridge.

Here are some of his recent statements to interviewers that have raised eyebrows.

The Crack Video

The mayor told Mansbridge the last time he did drugs was "a year ago some time" when he smoked crack cocaine while caught on video. That video is now in the hands of Toronto Police, and Ford maintains that was the only time he has used crack in his life.

Not surprisingly, Ford's memory is off. The Toronto Star says the video was made in February of this year, according to police records.

In a later interview with CP24's Stephen LeDrew on Tuesday, Ford was even more vague about smoking crack.

"Maybe once. I can't even remember, show me the video."

Police have not yet made the video public, and there are varying opinions about whether or not they can legally release it.

Alcohol

Doug Ford said in March he had never seen his brother drink at any event. In a the Monday interview with Mansbridge, Doug Ford said: "When I said I don't see Rob drink, Rob does his thing at night and on the weekends... Does it criss-cross sometimes? Yes. But when I saw the videos, yeah that was one too many. If you want to call it binge-drinking the odd time, yes."

Doug Ford is presumably referring to the videos that have popped up on social media after his inebriated brother attended the Taste of the Danforth festival in August. At the time, Doug Ford said publicly he saw nothing wrong with his brother's actions.

For his part, Rob Ford says he's now given up drinking completely.

"I haven't touched a drop of alcohol in three weeks and I don't do drugs... Finished. I've had a come-to-Jesus moment if you can call it that."

It's a big change from chugging a mickey of vodka. Former Ford staffer Chris Fickel told police in an interview that he was in the mayor's car with him when Ford pulled to the side of the road and downed a mickey of vodka in less than two minutes. That's eight 1.5 ounce shots in two minutes, if you're counting.

After hearing this, Ford's former chief of staff Mark Towhey implemented a new rule that if a staff member was with the mayor they would be the one to drive, he told police.

Drunk driving

"I've never ever been drunk and driven," Ford told Mansbridge.

See above.

City Council Attendance

"I've never missed one day of council and I've been straight as an arrow every day for thirteen years down there," Ford told Stephen LeDrew.

But according to City Hall's official attendance records, he has missed 73 of the 341 city council meetings since he became mayor.

Just to compare, Councillor Pam McConnell (whom Ford knocked over in council this week) has missed 52 meetings and his brother, Doug, has missed 53 meetings.

Support

Rob Ford told Mansbridge “The people elected me with the largest mandate in Canada’s history.”

William Wolfe-Wylie at Canada.com points out that's just not true either.

The title actually belongs to Mel Lastman, Wolfe-Wylie says. Lastman had approximately 100,000 more votes in 2000 than Ford did in the 2010 election and a bigger share of the vote too.

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