Speaking again for his silent brother, Councillor Doug Ford said Thursday that Mayor Rob Ford has not used heroin or associated with gang members since he was elected.

Intercepted conversations released by a judge on Wednesday suggested that the mayor spent time with, and possibly obtained drugs from, alleged members of the Dixon City Bloods gang. The mayor himself ignored questions on six occasions at city hall and another city facility on Thursday. None of the allegations against Ford have been proven in court.

“The mayor is not hanging out with gang members,” Doug Ford said. “He is focused, he is going to events, he’s doing everything he can to make sure this budget falls in line.”

Full Doug Ford transcript

Doug Ford made his comments during an acrimonious media scrum in which he offered a series of non-sequiturs in response to questions about his brother’s behaviour. Ford accused the media of “Stalin-era Pravda journalism,” praised his brother’s dieting efforts, attacked the provincial Liberals as “crooks,” claimed his brother is more popular with average police officers than Chief Bill Blair, and suggested that there was a conspiracy to ruin his brother’s career among judges, the police, and political opponents.

“Isn’t that amazing? How all this timing took place? In my opinion, folks, this is a clear, clear agenda, very well-organized agenda, from some of our competitors, and in my opinion, they don’t want Rob Ford here,” Doug Ford said.

He added: “What are they going to release next? What are they going to release next?”

Rob Ford answered only one question about the latest allegations. Appearing on a Washington, D.C. sports radio show on Thursday morning, he said it is an “outright lie” that he tried to purchase the video that appears to show him smoking crack, as an alleged gang member said in a conversation caught on wiretap.

Ford refused to address other allegations gleaned from the wiretap information. Among the questions posed to him: whether he has used heroin as mayor, whether he was smoking crack again in April, whether he has had relationships with alleged gang members, whether he was targeted for blackmail, and why he would not discuss the matter.

Ford appeared at a city works facility to speak about winter preparations. When he was asked whether he was smoking crack in April, his ally-turned-critic, public works committee chair Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, interjected.

“The mayor’s only (answering) questions as they relate to the snow that falls on the ground,” Minnan-Wong said.

Ford did not react visibly to the zinger. After a brief pause, he returned to a now-familiar refrain: “Anything else?”

The mayor took time later in the day to sign the city hall condolence book for Nelson Mandela. He wrote: "Thank-you for helping the world! You will be missed."

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