An angry Mayor Rob Ford has criticized Toronto police over the funds spent following him last fall, calling on Chief Bill Blair to 'come clean' about the cost of that investigation.
'If he's going to arrest me, arrest me. I have done nothing wrong and he's wasted millions of dollars,' Ford said Thursday afternoon during a scrum with reporters at Toronto City Hall.
'I want him to come clean and say how much money did it cost the taxpayers for surveillance on me and the planes that he had to rent - that is absolutely game-playing, it's politics and I am not apologizing.'
Ford had first been talking with reporters about the status of city skating rinks, but the talk quickly turned to his testy relationship with the city's police chief.
He expressed frustration Thursday that Blair had been offended by remarks Ford made about him. The public has had a chance to hear those remarks, as they are part of a bizarre video that was posted online last month that showed Ford speaking in a Jamaican patois.
'I have nothing to apologize [for] and he owes the taxpayers of this city, why won't he come clean and tell the taxpayers how much has he spent on surveilling me and obviously coming up with nothing? Coming up with me urinating in a parking lot? Coming up with an empty vodka bottle?' said Ford. Mayor defends Steak Queen video remarks
Ford also defended his behaviour in the patois video, which was recorded at Etobicoke's Steak Queen restaurant.
'There's nothing illegal, I can go out and if I chose to do that with my friends, I did nothing illegal at Steak Queen, OK?' Ford said.
'How I speak to my friends, as you know, and I am going to repeat what I've said before, I have a lot of Jamaican friends, if I speak that way in a private setting, which Steak Queen is, a private setting, and someone tapes me, I can't help it if someone tapes me, OK?' he added.
Ford's personal life has long made headlines since he was elected as mayor in 2010.
But when reports emerged last year that a video existed showing Ford using crack cocaine, the mayor found himself under a whole new level of media scrutiny.
For months, Ford denied both the existence of the video and using crack cocaine.
But days after Blair revealed that police had obtained a video file consistent with what the media had reported, Ford admitted that he had indeed smoked crack cocaine.
The police chief's Oct. 31 announcement also revealed the arrest of Sandro Lisi, the mayor's friend and occasional driver, who has been charged with extortion.
The extortion charge is related to alleged attempts to retrieve the video involving the mayor.
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