Metrolinx is investigating several incidents at the Georgetown GO station involving David Price, Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s director of operations and logistics, including one in which a transit employee was berated and a door to the station broken.

The incidents involving complaints of Price acting in an abusive manner date back to November 2012 and the provincial transit agency said it will work with police to determine whether criminal or provincial offences charges are warranted.

“The investigation is currently active and we will be working with the Halton Region police to determine if any charges will be laid in the incident,” said Judy Pfeifer, vice-president, strategic communications for Metrolinx. Pfeifer said she was unable to further discuss the matter or identify any of the people involved.

Related:

· Letter from Toronto Star to David Price

· Can Rob Ford catch Olivia Chow?

The most recent incident, and the one that sparked the investigation, took place on the morning of Aug. 27 after Price missed the 7:41 train to Union Station, swore at a GO employee and broke one of the station’s main doors, according to transit officials. The incident was caught on the video of a witness and station cameras. The Star has viewed a video taken by a witness.

Marc Surette, who owns a café inside the station, saw the Aug. 27 incident and said a visibly angry Price yelled at the GO employee on duty after missing his train.

“He told the attendant to f--- off. I had enough of that behaviour. You can’t run around treating people that way because of who you think you are,” said Surette, 39.

The attendant would not agree to be interviewed by the Star.

Price did not respond to multiple emails and calls from the Star concerning the incidents.

Price owns a home in Halton Hills that he shares with his wife and daughter. According to legal documents, Price’s wife filed divorce papers earlier this year after nearly 20 years of marriage, but the couple still live in the family home in separate areas.

The former high school football coach and longtime family friend of the Fords was hired by the mayor in April and given an estimated $130,000-a-year salary. His job currently entails monitoring how efficient the office is in responding to emails.

“You can’t teach loyalty,” Doug Ford, the mayor’s brother, told the Globe and Mail in April, explaining why Price was hired.

In May, Price waded into the controversy surrounding a video watched by two Star reporters appearing to show Mayor Ford smoking crack cocaine and making racial and homophobic remarks.

One day after it was revealed that drug dealers were shopping the video around, Price contacted Mark Towhey, the mayor’s then-chief of staff, and asked “hypothetically” what the mayor’s office would do if Price had been told where to find the video. The Star recently revealed that Toronto Police were investigating attempts by Price and another man to retrieve the video. Ford has said he cannot “comment on a video that I have never seen or does not exist.”

In June, Ford suspended Price for one week after he called a Toronto newspaper to complain about its headline on a story detailing the CBC’s revelation that Price made at least six supportive phone calls to the mayor’s weekly Newstalk 1010 radio show. The on-air calls, in which Price was identified as “Dave from Georgetown” and other names, were made before Ford hired Price.

In July, Price disappeared from City Hall for at least two weeks, after he uttered a homophobic slur to CBC reporter Jamie Strashin, who is not gay. It was Strashin who had broken the news that Price was phoning into Ford’s radio show. Strashin did not go public with what he heard, but did inform one of Ford’s staff members.

Price returned to City Hall recently.

Transit safety officers are probing the recent incident in which a station door was damaged to ascertain whether charges of mischief or causing wilful damage (provincial offences) or the criminal charge or vandalism should be laid.

Surette, the owner of the Trackside Café inside Georgetown GO station, witnessed the incident, and said Price came into the station and spoke to the GO employee on duty because his Presto card wouldn’t work.

He said the employee warned Price that he had less than a minute to get to the platform before the 7:41 a.m. train pulled out. Price then hurried to the platform but the train had already left, according to Surette.

Price then returned to the station and “freaked out,” according to Surette.

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

A Star reporter viewed a witness-shot mobile phone video of the incident five times and listened to the audio of the video.

The video shows Price, dressed in a dark suit, light shirt and white running shoes, standing in front of the ticket booth inside the station.

“Is there another train at 8:03?” he can be heard asking the female attendant behind the counter.

“Yeah, I made that announcement,” the GO employee can be heard saying, off camera.

“I was on time, you said I was on time for that one,” says Price, referring to the 7:41 train.

“Sir, you were in here at 7:40, less than a minute,” the employee says.

After saying something inaudible, Price turns and starts to walk out of the station, at which point the employee says, “Here’s your debit receipt, sir, if you want it back.”

“Yeah, f--- off,” Price can be heard saying as his right hand shoves open the station door, causing it to slam into a window ledge.

Surette said the outburst was not the first time Price had berated the station employee and lost his temper.

Fed up, Surette said he followed Price out into the station parking lot and confronted him.

“I told him that he can’t talk to the attendant like that,” Surette said, to which Price allegedly responded, “Yeah, f--- you, you little d---head.”

Surette said he told Price that he knew who he was and that if he was going to behave that way, he shouldn’t come back.

“This is not the first time. This is not the worst freak-out he’s had in here,” Surette said.

Kenyon Wallace can be reached at kwallace@thestar.ca or 416-558-0645.

Read more about: