By ROB GILLIES
Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, left, confronts Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong at City Council in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Almost every member of Toronto’s City Council stood up and asked Ford to take a leave of absence during the meeting after he admitted smoking crack last week.”Together we stand to ask you to step aside and take a leave of absence,” Councilor Jaye Robinson said, reading open letter to Ford in City Council. The council voted 41-2 to accept the letter Wednesday, with the embattled mayor casting one of the opposing votes. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Canada Toronto Mayor
Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti, left, speaks as Toronto Mayor Rob Ford, center, and his brother Councilor Doug Ford listen during a council meeting in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. A motion being debated Wednesday would call on the mayor to take a leave of absence, apologize to Toronto residents for misleading them and cooperate with police. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Canada Toronto Mayor
Mayor Rob Ford speaks at city council in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. A motion at council is expected to demand he take a leave of absence to deal with his admitted crack cocaine use and binge drinking. Ford’s refusal to resign has confounded Toronto’s City Council, where many members agree that his erratic behavior has consumed Toronto’s politics and undermined efforts to tackle other challenges. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Rob Ford
Mayor Rob Ford speaks at a City Council debate in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Toronto Mayor Rob Ford admitted Wednesday that he bought illegal drugs in the past two years and that he will not step down. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Rob Ford
Mayor Rob Ford speaks on a cell phone at city council in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Almost every member of Toronto’s City Council stood up and asked Mayor Rob Ford to take a leave of absence during a city council meeting Wednesday after he admitted smoking crack last week.”Together we stand to ask you to step aside and take a leave of absence,” Councilor Jaye Robinson said, reading open letter to Ford in City Council. The council voted 41-2 to accept the letter Wednesday, with the embattled mayor casting one of the opposing votes. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Rob Ford
Mayor Rob Ford speaks at city council in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Almost every member of Toronto’s City Council stood up and asked Mayor Rob Ford to take a leave of absence during a city council meeting Wednesday after he admitted smoking crack last week.”Together we stand to ask you to step aside and take a leave of absence,” Councilor Jaye Robinson said, reading open letter to Ford in City Council. The council voted 41-2 to accept the letter Wednesday, with the embattled mayor casting one of the opposing votes. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
Rob Ford, Doug Ford
Mayor Rob Ford and his brother Councillor Doug Ford, left, attend city council in Toronto on Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2013. Almost every member of Toronto’s City Council stood up and asked Mayor Rob Ford to take a leave of absence during a city council meeting Wednesday after he admitted smoking crack last week.”Together we stand to ask you to step aside and take a leave of absence,” Councilor Jaye Robinson said, reading open letter to Ford in City Council. The council voted 41-2 to accept the letter Wednesday, with the embattled mayor casting one of the opposing votes. (AP Photo/The Canadian Press, Nathan Denette)
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TORONTO (AP) — Toronto Mayor Rob Ford threatened Thursday to take legal action against former aides who spoke to police about their concerns about his drug use, and he denied making sexual advances toward a female staffer.
Ford was reacting to details in newly released court documents that revealed more allegations of his bad behavior from drunken driving to verbal abuse, ramping up a political storm that has consumed Toronto for months.
Outraged City Councilors — who voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to call on Ford to take a leave of absence — turned their backs on the mayor as he addressed the council later Thursday. Ford has resisted mounting pressure to resign since admitting last week to smoking crack.
Speaking to reporters before addressing the council, Ford used coarse language to deny he once told a female staffer he wanted to have oral sex with her. The choice of words — made on live television — drew gasps from shocked reporter.
“I’ve never said that in my life to her, I would never do that,” Ford said.
The father of two school-age children said is “happily married” and used more crude language say he gets enough satisfaction at home.
The court documents released Thursday are part of a drug case against Ford’s friend and occasional driver. Police interviews with Ford’s ex-staffers revealed their concerns about his drug use and drunk driving, with one staffer alleging he saw Ford “impaired, driving very fast,” and frightening a female staffer who was in the car with him.
In another incident, Ford was described by his former chief of staff as being “very inebriated, verbally abusive and inappropriate with” a female staff member on St. Patrick’s Day. Another former staffer reported seeing the mayor drunk in his office about 15 to 20 times in the year he worked for him.
Ford acknowledged that he might have consumed alcohol while driving.
But he said he would take legal action against his former chief of staff, Mark Towhey and two other aides over their interviews with police. Ford did not specify what the aides might have said that was untrue. He did say he would take action against a waiter who said he believed Ford and a woman were snorting cocaine in a private room at a restaurant.
“I have to take legal action against the waiter who said I was doing lines,” he said. “Outright lies, that is not true.”
Later, nearly half of Toronto’s 44-member City Council turned their backs as the mayor, wearing a football jersey and cowboy boots, spoke about routine city affairs.
Denzil Minnan-Wong, a former Ford ally, is now calling on the mayor to resign in light of the latest court documents and comments.
“This is beyond a leave of absence. He needs to resign,” said councilor Denzil Minnan-Wong. “This mayor thinks he is above the law, he is not.”
Councilor Giorgio Mammoliti, a Ford ally, said if Ford doesn’t agree to go for treatment by the end of the day he’s lost his support.
Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly, also a Ford ally, said he’s increasingly sad that “Canada’s biggest and most important city had been reduced to that squalid context.”
