What he didn’t say revealed the most.

When Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair updated reporters Thursday on a series of raids targeting drug dealers in Toronto and Windsor, he was repeatedly asked an obvious question:

Was there any connection between these arrests and a video allegedly showing Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, given that the Toronto raids centred on the same Dixon Rd. tower complex where the video was supposedly made?

In every case, Blair gave a variation of the same answer: Wait until this gets to court.

“There’s a right way for the information of this investigation to come out . . . a right place for evidence,” he said. “To do otherwise places an important prosecution in jeopardy, and there is no public interest in that.”

But how could any prosecution be put in jeopardy simply by assuring people that there is no connection between the mayor of Toronto and 43 alleged drug dealers and gun smugglers charged in the operation dubbed Project Traveller?

Also raided was the Rexdale home of Muhammad Khattak, one of the young men shown in a photo partying with Ford outside an alleged crack house. Another of the men in that picture was later slain in a targeted shooting.

In light of all this, Blair’s silence on the question of Ford’s involvement speaks volumes.

Even before the chief finished his news conference, CTV News, citing “a highly placed source,” reported that police were investigating video footage, allegedly showing Ford smoking crack, weeks before existence of such a video was revealed by the Star and the Gawker website. Project Traveller wiretaps reportedly caught “persons of interest” discussing the cellphone video and the mayor’s depiction in it.

That gives rise to another question: Why would people under secret police surveillance talk about a video among themselves if — as Ford keeps insisting — no such video exists?

In responding to the raids and Blair’s statements, Ford again declined to comment on the video, at one point angrily chiding reporters for failing to get his refusal through their “thick skulls.”

Oblivious to the irony of his statement, should the video eventually emerge, Ford thanked officers “for doing a great job. This is why I support the police often and always . . . that’s what you call good police work.”

Ford’s strategy in response to allegations surrounding the video has been to issue a terse denial and then say as little as possible, breaking off news conferences when the matter surfaces and pretending that it’s “business as usual” at city hall. If he was hoping such stonewalling would eventually kill interest in the story, it should now be clear — even to Ford — that it won’t go away.

More revelations are expected. Blair, after all, did assure the public that “the evidence will come out in court, where it belongs.” And it may not be necessary to wait even that long for additional facts to emerge.

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The police clearly know more than they are saying. In a huge operation like Project Traveller, many officers are privy to sensitive information. Ford should expect a steady drip, drip, drip of damning leaks keeping this issue alive and eroding what remains of his reputation.

The problem is that, along the way, Toronto’s reputation suffers grievous harm, too. Ford has a choice. He can drag this out, clinging to office in the face of an ever-worsening scandal, until the weight of evidence against him becomes unendurable. Or he can step down now and spare the city — and himself — further insult. The correct path is obvious. But Ford, ever blind to reality, refuses to see it.

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