Mayor Rob Ford was asked to leave a gala event celebrating the Canadian armed forces last month, because organizers were concerned he was impaired.

The request to leave the Toronto Garrison Ball came two weeks before Sarah Thomson, a Toronto businesswoman and former mayoral candidate, created a media storm when she accused Ford of groping her while acting “out of it” at a Jewish political group’s event.

It’s an open secret at city hall that the mayor has battled alcohol abuse. Those closest to him are concerned for his health and the impact it has on his job as mayor of Canada’s largest city. Current and former staff have told the Star of repeated attempts to persuade the mayor to get help for more than two years and as recently as November. All attempts have been rebuffed.

The Garrison Ball is an annual dinner, attended by 800 soldiers, sailors, airforce personnel and civilians. The ball raised money for the well known Wounded Warriors charity. Billed as an evening of “pageantry and camaraderie,” the dinner was held on Saturday, Feb. 23, at the Liberty Grand near Toronto’s waterfront.

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Guests at the event included Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay, Chief of Defence Staff Gen. Tom Lawson, and Vice-Admiral Paul Maddison, the commander of the Royal Canadian Navy.

Ford arrived late to the cocktail and dinner event. He was speaking in a rambling, incoherent manner that alarmed some of the guests, according to organizers, military reservists and a prominent Ottawa conservative who were interviewed for this story. Toronto Councillor Paul Ainslie, a strong Ford ally, confirmed to the Star that Ford was asked to leave.

“I urged the mayor’s chief of staff, Mark Towhey, to have the mayor leave the event,” Ainslie said in an interview. Ainslie refused to discuss why Ford was asked to leave.

Three members of the Garrison Ball organizing committee said Ford was asked to leave because he appeared impaired. One said, “he seemed either drunk, high or had a medical condition.”

Neither Ford nor his senior staff have responded to a detailed interview request related to the Garrison event and the longstanding concern of Ford staffers that the mayor has a substance abuse problem that is affecting his job. “No time today (to talk) sorry. I’m underwater,” Towhey told the Star in a text message Friday. He later added, “I am not qualified to comment on what wonderful things you may or may not be expecting.”

The Garrison Ball event — attended by military personnel in uniforms and civilians in black tie — began with cocktails and a silent auction at 5:30 p.m. Dinner was set for 7 p.m. Ford was invited to the previous year’s ball but did not show up. When he arrived this year, around the time salad was being served, organizers were initially pleased.

However, over the next hour, people in attendance noticed that the mayor seemed impaired. According to interviews, he was “incoherent,” “stumbling,” “rambling,” “intoxicated,” “slurring,” “seemed to be drunk,” “was nervous, excited, sweaty, out of it.”

Military guests were offended at the mayor’s behaviour, according to guests interviewed by the Star. “It felt disrespectful to the event,” said one organizer.

The six guests who provided accounts of the mayor’s condition spoke on condition of anonymity. The Star found that while these guests were concerned with the mayor’s condition, they did not want to be identified for two reasons. First, they did not want to be linked to a story that would cast a poor light on the annual Garrison Ball, which raises money for Wounded Warriors, a federally registered charity. Second, these guests, who all have prominent positions in the community, feared they would somehow be blacklisted for speaking out about the mayor.

The Star reached out to dozens of guests who attended the gala. Many did not respond to interview requests.

Asked about his interactions with the mayor that night, event co-chair Mark McQueen said via email, “I don’t traffic in gossip,” and later said he sees no reason why the mayor would have been asked to leave.

“When I saw him interacting with guests, albeit from a distance, people were cheerfully introducing themselves to him and posing for photographs,” wrote McQueen, chair of the Toronto Port Authority, who sat at the head table.

A real estate agent in attendance, Anita Springate-Renaud, said she spoke with Ford briefly and he did not seem impaired. “He wasn’t in any way intoxicated, he seemed fine to me.”

Ford was at the dinner for only about an hour. At one point, he stumbled and nearly fell on the stairs near the washrooms, according to people involved in organizing the event. Eventually, Ford made his way to his table, sponsored by the Port Authority, trailed by his chief of staff, Mark Towhey, a former Canadian forces infantry captain and crisis management consultant.

Guests told the Star the mayor at times stumbled as he walked and they believed he was drunk or otherwise impaired.

Councillor Ainslie, who is a member of both the mayor’s executive committee and the ball’s 13-member organizing committee, was approached by another organizer who had an encounter with the mayor. Ainslie was asked to “get him out of here.” The councillor went to investigate during the meal, then urged Towhey to have the mayor leave, according to a source on the committee. Ford sat briefly at his table during speeches, then left.

“This was a charity event… (some) on the organizing committee felt he was embarrassing the event,” said the source.

Those closest to Ford say the severity of the problem fluctuates. According to past and present staffers interviewed by the Star over the past year, discussions about getting Ford help for binge drinking have been going on for more than two years. While current and ex-staffers spoke privately to the Star, they did not want their names attached for fear of political retribution.

In the summer of 2011, there was talk about orchestrating an extended faux vacation for Ford and his wife, so the mayor could enroll in a rehabilitation centre. Ford refused. With formal treatment off the table, staff tried to connect Ford with a prominent individual who has also suffered from addiction. The mayor would not meet with him.

In an interview with one of his senior staff a year ago, the Star was told “maybe the mayor needs a wake-up call, something to convince him he has a problem and needs help.”

The mayor’s erratic personal life swung close to bottom around this time last year. First a domestic incident at his home, then another close call at a downtown bar last year, St. Patrick’s Day 2012.

Ford has a small, intensely loyal staff that is concerned for his well being. His behaviour, including a habit of purchasing mickeys of Russian Prince Vodka at LCBOs (photographs have surfaced on Twitter) has been a constant source of irritation.

According to a source currently within the Ford administration, the mayor’s drinking has largely been under control during his recent court battles. Ford was genuinely fearful about the conflict of interest case against him. And city councillors within Ford’s circle were pressuring the mayor to clean up.

The Twitter LCBO sightings stopped. Now, these two most recent incidents — the Garrison Ball and the Sarah Thomson incident two weeks later — have those closest with him fearing he’s “fallen off the wagon.”

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In the case of the alleged groping of Thomson at the Canadian Jewish Political Affairs Committee party at Arcadian Court, Ford has denied the allegation and questioned on a radio program whether Sarah Thomson is “playing with a full deck.”

For well over a year, Ford’s staff has been encouraging the mayor to seek help. According to one former staffer, high-ranking members of his team reached out to Ford on numerous occasions, but whenever confronted, Ford would only say: “‘I’m good. Don’t worry about it.’”

Five sources who have worked closely with Ford say alcohol has been a problem with the mayor for years. They point to the impaired driving conviction in Florida in 1999 and the infamous Maple Leafs Game in 2006, where Ford — then a councillor — launched into a drunken tirade at a Durham Region couple. Ford initially denied ever being at the game, but eventually apologized.

“He does go through periods where he’s got it under control,” said a former staffer.

As a mayoral candidate, Ford “was good. He was on. He was there when we needed him to be.”

Shortly after taking office, the concerns over drinking became more frequent, though perplexed staffers have said they rarely catch him drinking, fuelling suspicion that he binge drinks prior to events. According to current and former staff, the situation worsened as his administration lost control of the agenda at council in the fall of 2011. That’s also when he began withdrawing.

His workload dropped off dramatically. Documents obtained by the Star through freedom of information suggest that by late 2011 and early last year, Ford was doing about half the amount of work as the same period a year earlier.

On Christmas Day 2011, police came to his Etobicoke home after Ford’s in-laws called 911 to report the mayor had been drinking and was taking the children to the airport. The incident was filed as a domestic dispute and no charges were laid. Doug Ford later told the Toronto Sun that Ford had not been drinking and that the incident was “blown out of proportion … a minor disagreement and some misunderstandings.”

Sources close to Ford explained the mayor’s behaviour by citing say the stress of budget discussions and the subway debate.

Then on March 17, St. Patrick’s Day, Ford and a small entourage including at least two staff headed to a private room before midnight in the Bier Markt on the Esplanade.

On the way to the bar a fellow reveler, Jennifer Gordon, said she saw Ford “stumbling down the street” and she walked up to him.

“He was inebriated and sweaty but in a jovial way,” Gordon recalled shortly after the incident. “Me being me, I said: ‘You’re the worst mayor ever.’”

She said Ford walked over, kissed her on the forehead, and said: “I know, but I try.”

What happened next sounded alarm bells for Ford’s staff. The following morning, senior Ford staff interviewed junior staff who were with Ford at the Bier Markt and asked tough questions about the mayor’s behaviour and whether he had driven drunk. Senior staff were assured Ford did not drive.

Inside the Bier Markt, according to restaurant staff and a Ford staffer, Ford and his small group went into a private room. They appeared intoxicated and were rambunctious. The restaurant staffer told the Star Ford was “incoherent” and “hammered.” Bier Markt owner Robert Medal said this was untrue and called Ford “an exemplary guest.”

At one point, Ford ventured onto the dance floor. The DJ who worked that night told the Dean Blundell radio show the mayor was fighting and carrying on "like an idiot.” He was then escorted out by security. Restaurant staff say he was asked to leave after “storming the dance floor.”

A senior staffer with Ford told the Star that Ford was escorted out by his own staff and some restaurant staff. The staffer said the mayor made another leap for the dance floor, then was told to leave and he walked out.

In view of the Bier Markt night, the Sarah Thomson incident and the Garrison Ball, several of Ford’s closest allies and supporters say they are supportive of this information being made public.

“I’m not against you writing this story. You need to do it… I want this story to come out soon so Rob is forced into getting help,” said one former staffer, adding that, politically, Ford’s re-election machine believes coming forward publicly and seeking treatment wouldn’t hurt him.

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