"I Bought Hash From Doug Ford"

Editor's note: The decision to publish this piece was not taken lightly.

When the author first approached me about posting a personal essay regarding his recollections about buying hash from Doug Ford in Etobicoke in the 1980s while his brother, current Toronto mayor Rob Ford, was present, I was both incredibly excited and instantly terrified.  The Globe & Mail's in depth report on Ford's drug dealing past had just been printed, and obviously the atmosphere around the Ford brothers right now is extremely heavy.  It's no secret that they're both powerful and vindictive.

I don't have the deep pockets that a media entity like the Globe has.  Even if I'm on the right side of a libel suit (which I firmly believe I am, but we'll get to that shortly), it would be next to impossible for me to foot the bill to defend against one.

Beyond that, the author and his friend who participated in comparing memories for the story have both requested to remain anonymous.  One friend of the author's that was originally going to participate in this "saunter down memory lane" as the author puts it, a friend who was present at some of the events mentioned, went so far as to suddenly develop amnesia about ever having met the Fords at all.  People are that skittish about crossing them.  So my name is the only one that's appearing on the byline, even if it's only as the editor and publisher.  To be blunt, that scares the shit out of me.

I also wrestled with my personal beliefs regarding drug use.  I don't really have an issue in and of itself with the fact that Doug Ford sold hash.  I've smoked hash (and done a lot worse).  I know lots of people who both smoke and deal hash.  I even sold a dimebag or two myself back when I was a teenager.  I'm also personally for the complete legalization of all drugs.  I believe that what we do to or put in our bodies should be our own decision.  I also believe that the ancillary crime and violence involved in the illegal drug trade would be severely lowered if not eliminated if drugs were decriminalized and their sale controlled.

But the Fords are anti-drug and anti-drug trade.  Rob routinely points to how his football coaching has saved teenagers from drugs, and Doug has always backed him up.  Beyond that, Doug has spent every second since the story of his alleged hash dealing broke denying he was ever involved with that.  Strenuously denying.  Vociferously denying.  Considering the preponderance of testimony to the contrary, I think telling this story is fair game in order to impeach his credibility as a civic leader and as a person.  If he had simply said "yes, I sold some hash when I was younger, but that was decades ago and people grow up," I would not be publishing this piece.  But I believe he's lying.  I believe he's lying because I believe my friend and I believe in the reporting in the Globe & Mail's story.  And leaders who lie should be called out for doing so.

Now, to the potential legal ramifications.  First, I want to say that I'm not trying to get ahead of myself.  This is a tiny blog that's read by very few people, and there's every reason to believe that nothing will ever become of this at all.  That being said, it is read by some people, and the material is both fairly explosive and very relevant right now.  So there's also every chance this gets passed around and eventually comes to the attention of the Fords.  I'm also not in the country at the moment.  I'm on a temporary work assignment in Mexico.  But that doesn't protect me - I'm here as a consultant, I work for a Canadian company, I pay taxes in Canada, my residence is in Toronto, I vote in Toronto, etc.  I'm a Torontonian.  I'm certainly not immune to a lawsuit just because I'm on foreign soil for a few months.  The question then becomes: am I defaming the Fords in a legal sense by publishing this story?

In attempting to answer that question, I've spoken with three lawyers, three senior Toronto reporters, and a television producer.  I've received varying degrees of encouragement.  Most felt that at the very least I need to disclaim that this is the decades-old personal recollection of one person who was around at that place and time. This isn't an exposé. No new allegations are being made. These are just stories from the memory of the author and the friend he conversed with to compare and clarify reminiscences.

What finally pushed me firmly into the "I'm going to publish this" camp was a former Parliament Hill lawyer who explained to me that while the onus of proving truth is on the defendant in a libel suit, because Doug Ford is a public figure and there is no intentional falsity in the publishing of the story, coupled with the fact that these allegations are already in the public mind and information about them is in the public interest, I was safe to go ahead and post it.  The other potential pitfall is being found to have acted with reckless disregard for the truth.  It is my personal belief as publisher and editor of this blog that, since these allegations have already been publicly made, with several witnesses quoted, it would be hard to argue that the claims in this story of drug dealing by Doug Ford while Rob Ford hung around are unsubstantiated.  They've been substantiated pretty openly, thoroughly and publicly in one of the largest papers in the country.

There's also the fact that at this point, this is basically old news.  The stories might be new, and they might add to the stuff that's already out there.  But no new ground is being broken here.  I'm publishing it for the reasons stated above, and also because it's a great tale about an important person who's in the news a hell of a lot right now.  It's a hazy pot-fueled trip into the past, so take it for what it is.

Finally, I trust the author.  We go back nearly 20 years and I have absolute faith that what he's written is the truth as he remembers it.  When it comes down to it, I'll put my trust in an old friend's memory over the frenzied denials of a man like Doug Ford.

So without further ado (since the disclaimer is now twice as long as the story itself):

I BOUGHT HASH FROM DOUG FORD
By Anonymous
Every so often I get together with my buddy, “Bill” I’ll call him, to attempt to figure out the world and all its delectable nuances. We have a few beers, a few joints, and a few meandering conversations. Just like back in the day—except back then we did it just about every day. There were dozens of us, probably hundreds, the teenage heads of south-central Etobicoke in the 80s, with money in our pockets and time on our hands, all of us seeking a regular fix. Together we comprised the stoned constituency of a drug nation. We all have a story to tell of buying hash back then.

So when the Globe story came out about Doug Ford and his “alleged” drug dealing, Bill and I each elbowed people out of the way to meet as soon as possible. Mainly to laugh at the fact that Doug Ford was our go-to guy when we wanted hash. We rehashed old stories, tales in the purest sense, constructed and construed by memory. Little details bubbled up from the swamp of memory and invaded our conversation. We reflected on all the times we’d lined up behind a handful of teenagers and guys in their twenties at the picnic table where the Ford brothers (Rob was often present) sat while Doug conducted business, in the shade to the side of James Gardens’ small, easternmost parking lot. For a while we both simply enjoyed repeating the words: “I bought hash from Doug Ford.” They sounded nostalgic and subversive at the same time.

While Bill rolled a nice hash joint, I evoked my favourite memory: One time I asked for a quarter, and Doug picked his brick of hash up off the table, bit off a chunk and offered it to me. Shouldn’t you weigh that? I asked him. So he weighed it, shaved off some of the count and gave it to me. Never again did I question his measure-by-feel tactics.

Bill countered with his favourite story, about the time the cops showed up and the Ford brothers jumped up from the picnic table and hightailed it, and Doug threw a giant ball of hash into the Humber River. Bill recalled how that incident triggered a great hash hunt, as south-central Etobicoke’s in-the-know teenage heads—us included—dragged that river over and over. Yeah, I nodded, I remember. We violated that riverbed ecosystem every day for months. Did anyone ever find the hash? Bill conceded he didn’t know.

Eventually we exhausted our stories of Doug Ford selling hash—simple, nostalgic tales sensationalizing the adventures of teenage substance abuse—and went on to other things: the Rob Ford crack scandal (not exactly “other things”), the Harper Senate-spending scandal, the NHL playoffs, the Phish tour schedule … conversations that meandered into adulthood, y’know? The world’s delectable nuances offer plenty of distractions. Bill eventually got too high and had to take a cab home, and I was left with the thought that I was a part—however small—of the biggest news in recent Hogtown history.