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Rob Ford's lawyer urged police to release the video alleged to show the Toronto mayor smoking crack cocaine, and suggested Ford was smoking another substance, such as marijuana or tobacco.
Dennis Morris said in an interview with CBC News that Ford is "innocent of any allegations made about his smoking crack cocaine."
He also said neither police nor the Toronto Star reporters who say they have viewed the video can confirm the substance being smoked on the video is crack.
"No one is going to approach the media with a video saying he's smoking tobacco or marijuana — it's not salacious enough," said Morris. "It's not going to sell newspapers, it's not going to make headlines all over the world."
"In my view the reporters from The Toronto Star have probably never smoked crack cocaine as [have] probably 99 per cent of our citizenry," said Morris. "For someone to approach them asking a large sum of money, would it make more sense to say 'I have a video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine, or have a video of the mayor smoking perhaps tobacco, or marijuana? Which one would you be interested in if you're going to buy a video?"
Morris's comments come one day after Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said police have in their possession "a digital file that contains video images which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press."
Those statements are thought to confirm the existence of a video the two Star reporters say they've viewed, and that the newspaper has reported shows Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
Dennis Morris said in an interview with CBC News that Ford is "innocent of any allegations made about his smoking crack cocaine."
He also said neither police nor the Toronto Star reporters who say they have viewed the video can confirm the substance being smoked on the video is crack.
"No one is going to approach the media with a video saying he's smoking tobacco or marijuana — it's not salacious enough," said Morris. "It's not going to sell newspapers, it's not going to make headlines all over the world."
"In my view the reporters from The Toronto Star have probably never smoked crack cocaine as [have] probably 99 per cent of our citizenry," said Morris. "For someone to approach them asking a large sum of money, would it make more sense to say 'I have a video of the mayor smoking crack cocaine, or have a video of the mayor smoking perhaps tobacco, or marijuana? Which one would you be interested in if you're going to buy a video?"
Morris's comments come one day after Toronto police Chief Bill Blair said police have in their possession "a digital file that contains video images which appear to be those images which were previously reported in the press."
Those statements are thought to confirm the existence of a video the two Star reporters say they've viewed, and that the newspaper has reported shows Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.
I don't really know how well the "you don't know, man! you've never smoked crack!" defense works in the Canadian provinces, but I suspect that it doesn't work very well.
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