Crazy Town: The Rob Ford Story (23 page)

“We’ve got a problem,” Towhey told him.

“Okay. Where’s the mayor?” Ainslie asked.

“Well, he’s on his way. But he’s not quite himself …”

Indeed, when Towhey connected with Ford before the gala, the mayor had been muttering incoherently, flushed, and breathing heavily. More perplexing, he had his two young children with him, as well as two friends. One of them was Bruno Bellissimo, a crack addict who had met Ford in high school. The other was Alexander “Sandro” Lisi. He was the one driving the whole group to the Liberty Grand in his Range Rover.

Towhey was suspicious of Lisi. He’d been told that Lisi was a friend of the Ford family, but he suspected there was more to it. He was right, although he wouldn’t learn just how toxic the relationship was for several more months. On the night of the Garrison Ball, Towhey was just trying to get in and out without causing a scene.

Lisi pulled up to the Liberty Grand shortly after 7
P.M
. One of the mayor’s young staff members, who was also at the event, took the two Ford children to McDonald’s while Towhey tried to figure out what to do. Ford insisted on going inside. So, as eight hundred guests in ball gowns and tuxedos were being served salad, Ford stumbled through the front doors. Towhey directed the mayor to the downstairs coat check. Ford tripped on the stairs, and one of the event staff caught him. He was heaving and disoriented.

Around this time, one of the ball’s thirteen organizers decided to make a washroom run. The organizer spotted the mayor and Towhey hanging around at the bottom of the stairs. Upon
getting closer, the organizer noticed something was wrong. Ford, tie askew, sweaty and red-faced, seemed to be high or having some sort of medical emergency.

“We know each other, and he stopped me to say hello,” the organizer said. “He was babbling. I couldn’t understand him. He was talking really fast, something about flooding issues in Etobicoke. It was totally incoherent. He was making no sense. But I never smelled any booze.… He wasn’t even really looking at me. He would giggle.”

The organizer approached the mayor’s staff and Councillor Ainslie several times to see about “helping the mayor to make a dignified but early exit.” According to the organizer, the staff said, “‘No, no, it’s okay.’ … It was bizarre.”

Rather than leave, Ford and his small entourage went to sit at their table. At that point, Ainslie went to speak with Towhey himself, urging the chief of staff to get the mayor out of there. (Towhey denies this.) Ford left about an hour later.

For a few weeks, news of the mayor’s bizarre appearance at the Garrison Ball stayed within a tight group of organizers and military personnel. But after the Sarah Thomson incident, people began to whisper about a developing pattern.

The Garrison gossip made it to my desk the second week of March 2013. The first person I called, one of the organizers, confirmed it. My questions seemed to reignite some frustration about the night. “It felt disrespectful to the event,” the organizer said. “Several high-level military officials were quite upset.”

According to this individual, the mayor already looked “hammered” when he arrived. No one could smell alcohol, but he was definitely “out of it.” Paul Ainslie was reasonably close with both Rob and Doug Ford. He was a member of the mayor’s
executive committee, but I was pretty sure he wouldn’t lie to me if I asked him directly about it. I decided to call him next.

“I’m really sorry,” I said. “I know this puts you in a difficult position …”

“Oh, no,” Ainslie chuckled nervously.

“… I know that you asked the mayor to leave the Garrison Ball two weeks ago. I hear some of the military guests were really offended.”

Silence.

“… And I know that you were the one who lobbied for him to come and you felt guilty. So I have to ask, why did you ask him to leave?”

“I really can’t comment on that.”

“Are you saying you didn’t ask him to leave?”

“… No.”

“No, what?”

Silence.

“I’m told the mayor seemed impaired.”

We went back and forth a few more times, over a couple days. After some soul-searching, Ainslie called.

“You can say I urged the mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, to have the mayor leave the event. I’m not going to comment on why.”

Meanwhile, the
Star
’s Kevin Donovan worked his contacts and brought in two other sources on the ball’s organizing committee, as well as a military reservist. Said one organizer, “He seemed either drunk, high, or had a medical condition.” A prominent Ottawa conservative confirmed that the mayor seemed impaired.

In a front-page story on March 26, 2013—under the headline “‘Intoxicated’ Ford Asked to Leave Gala: Inner Circle Repeatedly Urged Mayor to Enter Rehab”—the
Toronto Star
made public something already widely known in political, media, and law enforcement circles: Rob Ford appeared to have a drinking problem, and it was impacting his mayoralty.

Five sources confirmed the mayor’s struggle with alcohol and attempts to get him help. Three organizers and a few other guests confirmed the mayor’s erratic state at the Garrison Ball. Our story included details about the Bier Markt (minus the alleged cocaine use), the LCBO sightings on Twitter, a brief mention of Sarah Thomson’s allegation, and a rundown of earlier hints of trouble: the domestic calls, the 1999 drunk driving charge, and the hockey game incident. None of our main sources could be named. Some were affiliated with the police and military and were thereby constrained from taking a stance on such a controversial issue. Others were working in politics, where sharing dirty laundry about your boss, even to save his life, isn’t a wise career move.

Paul Ainslie was the only primary source named in the investigation. For telling the truth, he was vilified. And so was the
Toronto Star
.

The three Ford brothers, Randy, Rob, and Doug, pose in front of a portrait of their late father, Doug Sr., at the family business, Deco Labels & Tags. March 22, 2010. © David Rider/
Toronto Star
.

Mayoral candidate Rob Ford and his brother (and campaign manager) Doug Ford meet with Dieter Doneit-Henderson (left)— an HIV-positive gay man—and his husband, Colville (right), during the 2010 campaign. Ford was there to apologize for comments he had made about people who contract the virus.

© Rick Madonik/
Toronto Star
.

Mayor-elect Rob Ford celebrates his landslide victory alongside his mother, Diane, and wife, Renata. October 25, 2010.

© Lucas Oleniuk/
Toronto Star
.

Controversial hockey commentator Don Cherry poses with Rob Ford on inauguration day at City Hall. December 7, 2010.

© Tannis Toohey/
Toronto Star
.

Nick Kouvalis, the architect of Rob Ford’s winning campaign and later his chief of staff, during an executive committee meeting at City Hall. December 8, 2010. © Carlos Osorio/
Toronto Star
.

Mayor Rob Ford talks with his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, during a compliance audit committee meeting. The committee opted not to prosecute Ford for campaign spending violations. February 25, 2013. © David Cooper/
Toronto Star
.