Rob Fordās mother and sister say the mayorās drug and alcohol use is ānot acceptable behaviour,ā but insisted that heās not an addict and will survive the scandal thatās making international headlines.
āRobbieās not a drug addict,ā the mayorās sister, Kathy Ford, told CP24's Stephen LeDrew Thursday in an interview at her mother Diane Fordās Etobicoke home.
āI know because Iām a former addict ā or an addict if youād want to say,ā she said, adding that the mayor ācouldnāt functionā if he were addicted.
āIf you want to consider binge drinking once every three months and you get totally plastered, which he just makes a fool out of himselfā¦fine,ā Kathy said.
She said her brother ādoes not drink every night,ā but when he does consume alcohol, he goes āfull tilt.ā
Fordās mother and sister were speaking out for the first time since the mayor admitted to smoking crack cocaine in a ādrunken stuporā about a year ago.
On Thursday, swearing and talking about killing someone was posted by The Toronto Star. Ford told reporters that he was "extremely inebriated" at the time.
āItās not acceptable behaviour. Heās the mayor of the city,ā his mother told CP24.
Later in the interview, Diane Ford said her son does have a problem -- but not a drug problem.
āHeās got a weight problem,ā she said, adding that the mayorās size affects his demeanour.
āHeās got a huge weight problem and he knows that. And I think that is the first thing he has to attack.ā
Diane Ford said she held a family meeting at her home last week, after Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair told reporters that police have recovered a video allegedly showing the mayor smoking crack.
The existence of that video was first reported by The Toronto Star and U.S. website Gawker in May.
āHe talked, we listened. I talked, they listened,ā Diane said of the family meeting.
āAnd we all had our say. It was a real outpouring of feelings.ā
Diane said she didnāt tell her son to āshape up or ship out,ā but she told him to get a driver, do something about his weight, get an alcohol detector in his car and watch the company heās keeping.
She also told Ford to see a counsellor or a psychologist to get help.
āI think he will do that, absolutely he will,ā she said.
āIf he was really, really in dire straitsā¦I would be the first one, Iād put him in my car and I would be taking himā¦He isnāt there.ā
Diane also said Fordās accomplishments have been overlooked in the wake of the ongoing scandal.
āItās just so hurtful to the family and itās just so hurtful to me as a mother.ā
She said everyone knows that Ford has hurt himself, and that heās just human ā āa little too human.
āBut thereās nothing that he canāt recover from.ā
