Toronto alt-weekly paper The Grid has an article that makes the same point I’ve been making in conversations about Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, and the video allegedly showing His Worship smoking crack. While the video has not surfaced, both a reputable news organization and Gawker will attest to its existence, and there’s still too much suspicious evidence that Ford’s ties to drugs are a little too close for comfort.
In the article, appropriately titled The Photo That Gets More Incriminating All the Time, Edward Keenan explains who and what are in the now world-famous photo of the Mayor. While it warms the heart-cockles to see Ford making nice with minorities, there are a number of disturbing things in the photo, which I’ve taken the liberty of annotating. Consider:
- Anthony Smith, on the left, was gunned down in what appears to be a targeted killing. The guy who shot him “was offered and accepted a highly unusual plea deal to manslaughter before Crown discovery even took place”.
- Muhammad Khattak, in the red laces on the right, was shot on the same night as Smith, but survived. He was arrested in the Project Traveller drug raids that took place shortly after news of the video was announced and faces gang and drug-trafficking charges. He’s out on bail and awaiting trial.
- Monir Kassim, second from the right, was also arrested in Project Traveller and faces charges of gun- and drug-trafficking, illegal gun possession, theft and more. He too is out on bail and awaiting trial.
- A guy who doesn’t appear in the photo, but took it, Mohamed Siad, was also arrested in Project Traveller, charged with gun- and drug-trafficking and gang offences. While in Don Jail, he was stabbed, apparently because he provided the photo to the media and is believed to be the person who showed the “crack video” to the Star and Gawker.
- Even the inanimate objects in the photo are suspicious! The house, 15 Windsor Road, is known to the police for all sorts of druggy things, and was subject to a warrant in Project Traveller. One of its occupants is Fabio Basso, a “good friend” of Ford’s back in high school.
Read more in The Grid.
As for the most suspicious-looking photo foursome of all time? It’s these guys:
View Comments
You left out the part where gangsters beat the occupants of the house with a pipe attempting to get ahold of the video the Mayor tells us doesn't exist, never existed, and if it does exist, is a fabrication.