Doug Ford calls on Toronto police chief to step down

Toronto Coun. Doug Ford says police Chief Bill Blair is biased against his brother, Mayor Rob Ford, and should step down temporarily.

Doug Ford, who made the comments Tuesday on CBC's Metro Morning, said Blair "is the most political police chief we've ever had" and "needs to step down immediately."

It's the latest twist in the scandal surrounding Rob Ford and a video that is in police hands, and is alleged to show him smoking crack cocaine.

Toronto Coun. Doug Ford has called on Toronto police Chief Bill Blair to resign. (CBC)

The video has yet to be made public.

Reports of the existence of a video first emerged in the spring, with journalists from the Toronto Star and Gawker reporting they had viewed a video of the mayor smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.  

That prompted an extensive police investigation of the mayor.

Last week, police charged Rob Ford's friend and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, also known as Sandro or Alessandro, with extortion. At a news conference last Thursday, Blair confirmed that a tape exists that is "consistent" with what had been described in the media reports.

Blair also said he's "disappointed" at the contents of the tape, adding they're a "traumatic issue" for the city and its reputation. But Doug Ford says those comments show Blair has overstepped his role as police chief.

"He should not have made those comments," Ford told Metro Morning host Matt Galloway.

"He's created a bias towards the mayor," said Ford, who also said he and his brother support front-line police officers "100 per cent."

"He believes he's the judge, jury and executioner."

On his Sunday radio show, Rob Ford apologized without specifically stating what behaviour he's apologizing for. The mayor also called on Blair to make the tape public.

Meanwhile, many on council, including members of the mayor's own executive committee, say Ford's apology did not go far enough and are calling for him to step down.

Doug Ford's comments suggest a growing rift between the Fords and Blair.

On Monday, it was learned that Rob Ford will not be at Blair's Chief of Police Gala, an annual event that raises money for victims' services and where the mayor is usually a guest at the head table.

Both Ford and event organizers agreed the mayor should not attend the event, given the recent headlines.

When CBC News asked police spokesman Mark Pugash about Doug Ford's comments Tuesday, he said, "We do not respond to personal attacks. Our job is to investigate without fear or favour."

Alok Mukherjee, chair of the Police Services Board, which provides civilian oversight of the police department, says he received a text message from Doug Ford on Tuesday morning, saying the councillor wanted to meet with him to make a complaint about Blair being motivated by political considerations.

Mukherjee responded to Ford in writing, saying a meeting would be inappropriate and under the Police Services Act, he's prevented from following through on one.

Mukherjee said a meeting with Doug Ford would be viewed as interfering with a police investigation, and he advised Ford to file a complaint with the Ontario independent police review director.

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Mounties hunt for PMO-Duffy email chain in Senate probe

The RCMP are looking for a chain of emails and documents that support Mike Duffy's allegations that the Senate expenses scandal reaches right into the Prime Minister's Office, CBC News has learned.

"The existence of such documentation may potentially be evidence of criminal wrongdoing by others," says Supt. Biage Carrese from the RCMP National Division in a Nov. 1 letter obtained by CBC News.

The Mounties are particularly interested in Duffy's claim that his initial story about repaying his disputed expenses by taking out an RBC loan was concocted by senior advisers to Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

"Emails from the PMO specifically relating to a script for Senator Duffy to follow in advance of obtaining funds from a RBC loan to repay the Receiver General" may be material to the RCMP's investigation, Carrese wrote.

Duffy initially told Canadians that he and his wife had taken out a loan from RBC and repaid the $90,000 in ineligible expenses in March.

But last week, Duffy told the Senate, "On Feb. 21, after all of the threats and intimidation, I reluctantly agreed to go along with this dirty scheme."

Duffy alleged for the first time last week "that line" about the RBC loan was part of a plan fabricated by the PMO "to deceive Canadians as to the real source of the $90,000."

"That line about RBC was part of a script written for me and emailed to me by the PMO," Duffy said.

The former Conservative senator said the PMO seized on the fact that he and his wife were taking out a line of credit to renovate their home as cover for Nigel Wright's decision to give Duffy $90,000 out of his own pocket to repay the senator's inappropriate expenses. Wright was Harper's chief of staff until a media report revealed the deal.

"Senator Duffy intimated that he is in possession of emails and documents which may be material to our criminal investigations," said the officer in charge of sensitive and international investigations for the RCMP in the letter.

A spokesman for Harper said the office is working with the RCMP.

"We have received no such letter from the RCMP. As we have already stated, we are actively assisting the RCMP in their investigation," Jason MacDonald said in an email.

The other emails the RCMP are seeking relate to a Dec. 4, 2012, email from Wright to Duffy acknowledging the senator's expenses were in order, and an email dated Jan. 6, 2009, from Christopher McCreery, who worked in Senator Marjory LeBreton's office, about residency policy.

"My investigators are interested in gathering all evidence respecting this matter in order to conduct a thorough investigation," said Carrese in his letter obtained by CBC News.

Duffy tabled the Wright and McCreery emails in the Senate last week, but not the chain of emails from the PMO which he said included a script about the RBC loan to repay his ineligible expenses.

Reached about the letter on Monday, the RCMP told CBC News they had no comment.

The alleged coverup, according to Duffy, involved the Prime Minister's Office, former PMO lawyer Benjamin Perrin, the Conservative Party lawyer Arthur Hamilton, and Duffy's lawyer Donald Bayne.

"When you look at all those emails in that chain, it proves this was a setup from the start and that I am innocent," Duffy said in his speech to the Senate.

An email exchange between Duffy and former PMO issues manager Chris Woodcock also surfaced publicly last week, after Duffy spoke to the Senate on Monday.

In an email dated May 15, the morning after CTV News first reported that Wright and Duffy had come to a secret deal to help the senator repay his ineligible expenses, Woodcock asked Duffy: "Can you confirm whether you advised the Senate ethics officer of any loans/gifts involved in the March 25th repayment?"

"Trying to cover off all the angles," Woodcock wrote.

It is not clear from the email exchange whether Woodcock knew of the alleged scheme that would see Duffy say he used his own funds to repay ineligible expenses that had in fact been paid by Wright.

News of the RCMP seeking emails and documents from the PMO comes on the heels of another Conservative revealing what he knew about Wright's decision to repay Duffy's ineligible expenses.

In an update to party members gathered at the Conservative Party's annual convention in Calgary on Saturday, Senator Irving Gerstein conceded that he and Wright did discuss paying back Duffy's inappropriate expenses.

Gerstein said he told Wright the party would not pay for Duffy's disputed expenses and "it never did."

The Conservative Party fund was, however, used to repay Duffy's legal fees, Gerstein confirmed. Last Monday, Duffy alleged that Wright had arranged not one cheque, but two.

Harper has maintained all along he knew nothing about the $90,000 his right-hand man gave to Duffy, saying the one person responsible for this "deception" is Wright.

During the course of their investigation, the RCMP have said that Wright provided investigators with hundreds of pages of emails, as well as a binder labelled with Duffy's name.

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How Rob Ford could win re-election next year

When Toronto police Chief Bill Blair confirmed to reporters on Thursday that he had seen the controversial video of Mayor Rob Ford, in which the mayor is alleged to be smoking crack cocaine, many observers thought it marked the unofficial end of Ford's political career.

Yet a number of political strategists and public relations specialists say that the beleaguered, scandal-prone mayor has a good chance of winning a second term in 2014.

"I think he could easily get re-elected," says Nelson Wiseman, a politics professor at the University of Toronto.

"The attitude of a lot of people is that, 'Look, I didn't elect this guy because he doesn't sleep around or he doesn't do crack cocaine. I elected him because I think there's a gravy train at City Hall, and that's what I care about."

In fact, Ford has been a politically divisive figure since he was first elected in the fall of 2010.

His tenure has been marked by vitriolic debate on city council as well as a seemingly unending series of personal controversies, from distracted driving to allegations of public drunkenness and police investigations into his associates.

But he's been under close public scrutiny for the last half year, after the Toronto Star and the U.S. gossip site Gawker.com reported in May that they had been shown a cellphone video that appeared to show the Toronto mayor smoking crack cocaine. The people with the video wanted to sell it for $200,000.

Ford initially denied the video even existed and the allegation that he was "a crack addict."

But on Oct. 31, Blair held a news conference following the court-ordered release of police information in the case of the mayor's friend and sometimes driver, Alexander (Sandro) Lisi.

At the news conference, Blair confirmed that police had the video in question and that its contents were "consistent with what has been described in the media."

Yet when Forum Research conducted a poll among 1,032 Torontonians that night, they found that the mayor's approval rating had actually risen by five percentage points — from 39 to 44 per cent.

The majority of those polled, 60 per cent, said Ford should resign. Still, many observers were shocked that Ford could enjoy such support in light of the recent revelations.

But the approval rating confirms that he still has an unwavering base of support, says Myer Siemiatycki, a professor of politics at Ryerson University in Toronto.

"Mayor Ford could only have survived this long in office because he has tapped into a certain strain of support that does exist for him in this city," says Siemiatycki.

Toronto's divide

While Siemiatycki acknowledges that Ford's scandals are "tawdry," he says that Ford's tenure reflects some significant "realities" of Toronto society and politics.

The growing income inequality in Toronto in the last decade has created an appetite for "a mayor who says, 'I'm the guy who's going to be vigilant of your taxes and I'm going to be especially vigilant of people who I think are taking advantage of your taxes,'" Siemiatycki says.

Ford has also tapped into a feeling among many suburbanites that downtown "elites" had commandeered the agenda at City Hall, says Siemiatycki.

City of Toronto police Chief Bill Blair speaking to the media in Toronto on Thursday about the recovered Rob Ford video. (Nathan Denette / Canadian Press)

The mayor's mantra that left-wing councillors had been waging a "war on the car," as well as his dogged support for additional subway lines, speaks to a "suburban sense of having been put-upon and been taken advantage of by others in the central core."

The fact that Ford was able to secure funding for additional subways, in the face of staunch opposition at City Hall, is an "amazing" accomplishment and sure to win him votes in suburbia, adds public relations consultant Patrick Gossage.

Still, while the Forum Research numbers suggest that Ford's support has gone up, polls taken immediately after big political revelations can sometimes be misleading, says Chris Eby, a media consultant for communications firm Navigator.

Eby says that upon hearing the chief's speech, people who have supported Ford all along would reflexively defend the mayor.

"It's hard to accept for a lot of people who have been defending the mayor that they've been lied to. It takes a little while for that to sink in," he says.

"I think if you took another poll mid-week or next week, I think the numbers would be very different."

One sign the mayor had lost significant support was the fact that both the Toronto Sun and the National Post, two conservative-leaning papers that had long touted Ford's political achievements, wrote editorials suggesting he should take a leave of absence.

But the fact that all the major newspapers are against Ford "doesn't mean anything," says Gossage, who was a press secretary to former prime minister Pierre Trudeau.

"Pierre Trudeau won two elections when all of the editorials were against him, all across the country."

For politicians, having champions in the media has become less important "now that the traditional press is no longer the force it used to be in terms of informing public opinion," Gossage says.

'Made mistakes'

Prior to Chief Blair's announcement on Thursday, Ford had said he was looking forward to the next mayoral campaign.

The emergence of a number of former Ford supporters who have announced their candidacy — most notably councillor Karen Stintz — suggests some fragmentation within Toronto's right-wing political scene.

But a crowded field could split the vote and put Ford back in office.

Siemiatycki, for one, estimates there's an "unshakeable" 20 to 25 per cent core of support for Ford that could help him recapture office.

Wiseman agrees that the numbers could be in Ford's favour.

"We had people elected to the federal Parliament in the last election with less than 30 per cent of the vote," he says.

This past weekend, Ford used a segment of his regular Sunday afternoon radio show on CFRB 1010 to address some of his recent controversies.

He admitted to making "mistakes" — like appearing drunk at the Taste of Danforth street festival in August — and asked citizens of Toronto for forgiveness.

Ford also made a plea to police to release the infamous video and let Torontonians judge its contents.

While many commentators have suggested Ford offered only a selective apology and did not address the veracity of the video, Gossage thinks it was a savvy PR manoeuvre meant to fortify his reputation as an average Joe.

"Who was the last politician who said, 'I've done wrong, I reach out to my family and my colleagues and ask for their forgiveness and apology'? It never happens."

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Call of Duty Ghosts adds spice to game's familiar recipe

If there's an uptick in work and school absences this week, there will be one clear culprit: the new Call of Duty game. Millions will be staying up late and calling in sick so they can spend time playing Activision's latest first-person shooter, Call of Duty: Ghosts, which hits stores Tuesday.

What is it about this violent game - in which players take on the role of machinegun-toting soldiers in a quest to obliterate each other in online virtual environments - that is so appealing?

For some it's the successful recipe of action, team-play and realism fans have come to expect from the Call of Duty franchise over the past decade.

For others, it's going to be the new features the game's developers have come up this time around to fend off increasingly innovative competitors.

Intensity, realism

About a fifth of Call of Duty's 40 million monthly players are female and that percentage is rising, according to Activision, which is why playable female characters are being added for the first time in Ghosts. (Courtesy Activision)

To hear the game's publisher explain the appeal, Call of Duty taps into some very primal aspects of the psyche.

"It's the intensity of the game, first and foremost," says Daniel Suarez, vice-president of production at Activision Publishing. "Unlike other games, the immersion that you get being in first-person [view], the detail of the environment, what's going on around you be it the sound or visual, just feels that much more realistic than any other type of genre out there."

Whether it's epic scenes of skyscrapers or aircraft blowing up, or enemy bullets zinging by, players get to experience everything first-hand because they are literally in the virtual shoes of the game's main character. It's a front-row ticket to a fast-paced adrenaline ride, pure and simple.

Clearly, gamers have been consistently lapping this stuff up. Last year's entry in the COD franchise, Black Ops 2, set a record for the most revenue made in 24 hours by any entertainment property, at $500 million. The previous record was $400 million, set by the 2011 instalment of the game, Modern Warfare 3.

FPS Greatest Hits

Wolfenstein 3D (1992)

Starring William "B.J." Blazkowicz, an Allied spy, in his effort to escape the Nazi prison of Castle Wolfenstein, the game popularized the first-person shooter genre and established World War II as its default genre for years to come. The game also set several genre traditions, including different weapons, hidden rooms and so-called boss battles (including an epic shoot-out with Hitler himself).

Doom (1993)

The follow-up to Wolfenstein from id Software was an even bigger hit and has since been enshrined as one of the most important and influential games ever made. Doom put players into the shoes of an unnamed space marine as he battled evil demons on Mars. The graphics were a relatively big jump up over Wolfenstein 3D, as was the over-the-top action.

Quake (1996)

Id Software continued its string of FPS hits with Quake which, like Doom, featured horror and science-fiction themes. Its big addition was a relatively deep online multiplayer mode that players could access on their computers. While most FPS games up till then focused on single-player missions, Quake set its sights squarely on multiplayer and established itself as one of the first e-sports games, with quasi-professional tournaments to go with it.

Half-Life (1998)

Created by Valve Corp. (a collection of former Microsoft employees), Half-Life revolutionized shooters with its emphasis on hyper-realistic graphics, an escalating high-water mark for the genre ever since. The game also helped launch Valve as a gaming force, with the company subsequently establishing Steam, an online distribution platform for PCs that now rivals consoles in terms of regular users.

Halo: Combat Evolved (2001)

The first Halo game's importance is hard to overstate. The game almost singlehandedly sold Microsoft's first Xbox console to the masses and represented the true crossing-over point of the FPS genre from computer to console. It did so with stunning cinematic graphics and a smooth incorporation of vehicles, with subsequent instalments adding online multiplayer. 

Call of Duty (2003)

As with many of its predecessors, the first Call of Duty game was set during World War II. Where the franchise differed from peers, however, was in taking players through a Hollywood-style, film-inspired spectacle – it effectively tried to let players live the movies. Each successive instalment has tried to raise this particular bar, an increasingly difficult task in an entertainment world that's chock full of spectacle. Yet somehow, even 10 years later, the series keeps earning record returns.

Ghosts is expected to earn mega-bucks too, although it's unlikely to eclipse this year's uber-blockbuster Grand Theft Auto V, which earned $1 billion in its first three days. Nevertheless, Call of Duty games are consistently among the biggest entertainment products of the year in any medium.

Battles of the sexes

First-person shooters like Call of Duty have tended to hold strong appeal for males in particular, because they relate to the make-believe games many played when they were young. Call of Duty is in some ways a virtual evolution and expression of cowboys and Indians, or cops and robbers, or army men, or any number of role-playing games that children concoct.

But while boys and men still make up the overwhelming majority of players, the communal nature of the games' online modes appeals to both genders, which makes them similar to social networks such as Facebook.  

About a fifth of Call of Duty's 40 million monthly players are female and that percentage is rising, according to Activision, which is why playable female characters are being added for the first time in Ghosts.

"We've seen so much growth come into the franchise from this area," Suarez says. "When you go to these midnight openings, it's not 100-per-cent male. I'd say it's 60-40."

Innovation

The COD franchise's massive success with both sexes has attracted competitors eager to get in on the action.  

While still far off from posting Call of Duty-type numbers, Electronic Arts' Battlefield series is the most serious competitor. Battlefield 4, the latest instalment that was released last week, is expected to sell 15 million units, or around half of what Black Ops 2 is estimated to have sold.

Call of Duty tends to focus on smaller, soldier-versus-soldier battles. EA's Battlefield games offer up a different take on the military shooter, with large online environments where players can drive all kinds of vehicles, from tanks to helicopters. Battlefield boasts millions of players online at any given time, and its growing success is pressuring Activision's developers to try new things to keep players from defecting.

For fans of the genre that's good news, because it's forcing innovation.

For example, the Call of Duty franchise has been taking heat from core gamers in recent years for offering up the same-old, same-old recipe – a theatrical single-player rollercoaster ride full of big explosions, supplemented by a slightly tweaked and updated online multiplayer mode. So Ghosts' creators have added some new experiences to broaden the audience appeal.

While there are the requisite jungle- and oil-rig settings, Ghosts' single-player campaign also launches players into space and sinks them to the bottom of the ocean. In both cases, different gravities affect the inevitable firefights in new and interesting ways.

Ghosts also offers up an intriguing story penned by Stephen Gaghan, the Academy Award-winning writer of Traffic, that features a South American enemy. It's a refreshing change for military shooters, which usually portray the same caricatured Middle Eastern or Russian terrorists as the bad guys.

Gaghan's script also has slightly more believable characters in the form of two brothers, Logan and Hesh, who may elicit more empathy from players (another rarity in shooters) than the usual generic soldiers.

Indeed, Riley –the brothers' highly capable canine sidekick, who players get to control – may be one of the most likeable characters in video games this year.

Online play

Beyond that, the series' bread and butter – online gameplay – is also seeing a host of new additions.

Ghosts features several new online game modes, such as "Cranked," where players spontaneously combust unless they shoot another player within a given time limit, and "Hunted," where new weapons must continually be sought out because of a severe lack of ammunition. (Courtesy Activision)

The most notable is Extinction, a co-operative mode in which up to four players battle escalating waves of aliens. While previous Call of Duty games featured zombie hordes, the addition of aliens is a big departure for a series that is otherwise rooted in military realism.

Ghosts also features several new online game modes, such as "Cranked," where players spontaneously combust unless they shoot another player within a given time limit, and "Hunted," where new weapons must continually be sought out because of a severe lack of ammunition.

The new game is being made available on the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, the respective next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony that are launching this month. Ghosts has better graphics on the new machines, but future instalments of the franchise are likely to incorporate even more of the new consoles' so-called next-gen features.

Both new consoles have better online-sharing and second-screen functions, for example, which respectively allow for uploading of gameplay videos and on-the-go gaming.

Ghosts is launching with a companion app for phones and tablets that will let players do some of that – they can manage their characters and teams when away from the home, for example – but future iterations will go even further, according to Suarez.

That said, although it has added new features in Ghosts, Activision isn't likely to deviate too much from Call of Duty's successful formula in future iterations of the series. The sales are still there, despite what critics say.

"We're always listening to fans, but at the end of the day we don't want to change the game into something they don't want," Suarez says. "This is what a Call of Duty game is, this is how we deliver the goods year in and year out."

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Nazi-looted art find includes unknown Marc Chagall, masters

A hoard of more than 1,400 artworks found by tax investigators in a German apartment includes a previously unknown piece by Marc Chagall and works by some of the masters of the 20th century, authorities said Tuesday.

Some of the works are believed to have been missing since they were seized by the Nazis.

Investigators searched the apartment in an upscale Munich district in February 2012, as part of a tax investigation that started with a routine check on a Zurich-Munich train in late 2010.

Authorities said they found 121 framed and 1,285 unframed works — including by 20th-century masters such as Pablo Picasso, Max Liebermann and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and earlier works by artists including Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Gustave Courbet, Auguste Renoir and Canaletto. The oldest work dates back to the 16th century.

Prosecutor Reinhard Nemetz told reporters in the Bavarian city of Augsburg that investigators have turned up "concrete evidence" that at least some of the works were seized by the Nazis from their owners or classed by them as "degenerate art" and seized from German museums in 1937 or shortly after.

"Degenerate art" was largely modern or abstract works by artists that the regime of Adolf Hitler believed to be a corruption influence on the German people. Their "deviant" characteristics were often attributed to Jewish corruption.

Officials are investigating whether the suspect in the case was in wrongful possession of the paintings. They wouldn't identify him and said they don't know where he is.

The paintings were found in one room at the apartment, where they were "professionally stored and in a very good condition," said Siegfried Kloeble, the head of the customs investigations office in Munich. He said it took a specialist company three days to remove the paintings from the apartment; officials refused to specify where they are being kept.

Kloeble said investigators "think it's unlikely that any more paintings were stored elsewhere" by the suspect.

Meike Hoffmann, an expert on "degenerate art" at Berlin's Free University who is helping the investigation, presented pictures of a selection of works from the collection.

They included a painting by Chagall that Hoffmann said isn't included in lists of the artist's work.

"These cases are, of course, of particularly high art history significance for researchers," she said. Experts haven't yet been able to determine where the Chagall came from, she added, describing the research as "very, very difficult."

Hoffmann also presented an unlisted painting by Henri Matisse, apparently dating back to the 1920s.

"When you stand in front of the works, see the ones that were long thought to have been lost or destroyed and in a relatively good state — some of them dirty but not damaged — you have an incredible feeling of happiness," Hoffmann said.

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Mayor Rob Ford looks down field after weekend radio play

Mayor Rob Ford heads into work at Toronto City Hall on Monday morning following a dramatic weekend in which he apologized on the radio for "mistakes" he's made and demanded that the city's police chief release an alleged drug video that he long said didn't exist.

Last week, Toronto police Chief Bill Blair revealed investigators had seized electronic devices during a series of raids months ago and recently managed to restore a deleted video file, containing images of the mayor he said were "consistent" with widely-publicized reports.

The Toronto Star and the U.S. website Gawker had each reported in May that someone had been shopping a video that allegedly showed Ford using crack cocaine. The mayor denied both the video's existence and using crack cocaine.

On Sunday, Ford called upon the police chief to release the video so the public could see "whatever this video shows" and judge its meaning for themselves.

"I am asking you to release this video now," Ford said on his weekly radio show on Newstalk 1010.

But the police have said it is the courts that will decide if the video will be made public.

During Ford's two-hour Sunday afternoon show, the mayor also made vague apologies for his behaviour on selected occasions, including getting "hammered" at the Taste of the Danforth street festival and seeing things get "a little out of control" on St. Patrick's Day last year.

Ford answered calls on the radio show but ducked a direct question about whether he used drugs, as the reports about the video had previously alleged.

"I can't comment on a video I have not seen. I have asked Chief Blair to release this video immediately. I want to see it now," Ford said in response to a caller who asked the mayor "what drugs you've ingested through a glass pipe."

Bob Reid of Veritas Communications believes the strategy the mayor employed on his weekend radio program largely worked.

"Based on the political calculus, I would say it was an effective day for him," Reid told CBC News in an interview.

Reid said Ford's radio remarks were aimed squarely at his supporters to assure them that while he is sorry for his mistakes, he is not giving up.

"It's standard political math. You've got your core supporters who you need to maintain at any cost; you've got those that you'll never win in a million years, so there's no sense losing sleep over them; and then there's the bunch in the middle who might come your way, who might not," said Reid.

"[Sunday] was all about the first group, the Ford Nation supporters, stopping the bleeding, making sure that nobody else leaves the tent and we'll worry about the swing-voters down the road, it's a year out to the election, there's lots of time for that."

On the weekend, Ford once again said his name will be the first registered name on the ballot for next year's municipal election. The mayor has said he expects the campaign will be "a bloodbath."

Since being elected as mayor three years ago, Ford, 44, has found himself struggling at times to lead council on key issues.

"Even before this latest raft of serious allegations came up, the mayor was very isolated on council, it was very difficult for him to move forward substantial pieces of policy that kind of came from his office," the CBC's Jamie Strashin said Sunday.

With the video-related cloud hanging over his head and increasing pressure to take a leave of absence, Strashin said the mayor may find it even more difficult to make things happen at city hall.

"He's virtually been told by everyone with the exception of his brother and a couple of other people that he needs to go away and get help, [but] he's rejected that," said Strashin, predicting that Ford will counter that pressure by continuing to focus on individual constituent matters, rather than big-picture issues.

"In terms of his ability to get things done on the policy front at city hall, I think that's going to be very, very difficult going forward," Strashin said.

Ford spent years working as a city councillor for a ward in Etobicoke, the Toronto suburb where he lives with his family, before he was elected mayor in 2010.

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The nanny-state lie behind Obamacare: Neil Macdonald

By far the most boring, if newsworthy, aspect of Obamacare's politically disastrous rollout is the U.S. government's malfunctioning website, HealthCare.gov.

It should surprise no one that a government can fumble and stagger when it tries a radical shift. And this time the change was a big one: harmonizing entire departments with private-sector computer systems (as opposed to penetrating them and stealing their data, which Washington is extremely good at, but that's a different issue).

Either the Obama administration will fix its hissing, clanking, sputtering website, as Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius promised during her prolonged grovelling session on Capitol Hill this week — "Sorry. Debacle. Apologize. Yes. Sorry. Debacle" — or it won't.

I'm betting on the latter. The U.S. government has, after all, been collecting taxes for 150 years, and the IRS is still capable of losing your return and saying it's not the government's problem, even if you have proof of delivery. (Disclosure: Happened to me, twice.)

But the uproar over the website is obscuring what is probably the biggest reason for the blazingly divisive Obamacare fight.

Simply put, the question is whether the American government has the right to stop people from making stupid, self-destructive choices.

So Obama lied

Until now, the 15 million or so Americans who buy their own health insurance plans (as opposed to employer–provided benefits) have been at the mercy of the insurers, which are, after all, in the business of maximizing profits.

People who chose bargain plans would often find out at the worst moment just how worthless their plans were: The insurer would deploy a range of loopholes to minimize payout, or stick the patient with the entire bill.

In 2009, for example, Texas Republican Joe Barton told Congress about a constituent whose policy was cancelled just as she was about to undergo surgery for aggressive breast cancer.

A landing page on the not very well functioning Obamacare website. Long waits and error messages have bedevilled those who have been trying to sign up. (CBC)

The insurer, searching for a reason not to pay, had seized on a detail of her medical history. A doctor treating her earlier for acne had, wrongly it turned out, characterized it as possibly being a pre-cancerous skin condition. So the insurer refused to pay on the grounds that she had "a pre-existing condition."

Obamacare puts an end to that sort of scam by setting minimum standards for health-care coverage. As a result, millions of Americans have been notified that their plans are now legally substandard and are being cancelled.

The government says they can now find a better plan for less money (if the HealthCare.gov website ever comes back to life).

The trouble is, Barack Obama famously sold Obamacare by assuring Americans, repeatedly, that "if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. Period."

It was a politically expedient thing to say — health-care reform has failed in the past because people fear the government taking their coverage away. But it was nonetheless false, and the president almost certainly knew it.

The Washington Post's respected fact-checking section ranks his guarantee as a "four-Pinocchio" untruth.

Put less politely — which is exactly how Republicans are choosing to put it — the president lied, repeatedly, to the American people.

The right to buy crap

Obama and his Democrats are responding that these new rules are to protect people from "crappy" or "lousy" policies.

But this is America. A lot of people treasure their right to buy lousy crap.

"Why do you get to decide what's lousy?" Fox News's Megyn Kelly asked a Democratic member of Congress recently. "Why can't the American people say 'It's lousy for you. To me, I like it?'"

And there it is. The great American question. Should the government protect people, nanny-like, from their own bad judgment?

The conservative view here is no. Republicans despise anything they see as interfering with the free market, from industrial inspections to bank reforms to President Obama's Consumer Protection Bureau, with its powers to get between citizens and debt collectors, banks and credit card companies.

If someone wants to pay 30-per-cent-plus interest, basically for life, to a credit card company based in a state with no anti-usury laws, that's his or her right. No one's forcing them to borrow the money, right?

True believers

With Obamacare, though, the resentment goes deeper; even deeper, it seems, than the resentment many Americans feel about anything bearing this particular president's name.

The core premise of Obamacare is collective responsibility, a notion that underpins laws in most Western countries to one extent or another, but which is regarded with great suspicion by American conservatives.

Obamacare forces nearly everyone to carry some sort of medical coverage.

Texas Senator Ted Cruz, one of the leading lights of the Tea Party movement within the Republican party, has been one of those leading the fight to dismantle the Democrat's health care plan. (Michael Ainsworth / Associated Press)

If you aren't over 65 and eligible for Medicare, or indigent and eligible for Medicaid, or if you don't have employer-provided medical insurance, you have to buy a plan, beginning when you're young and healthy.

The quid pro quo for the expanded customer base is supposed to be lower premiums (although so far, that hasn't worked in some states). Companies must also provide coverage to everyone, regardless of "pre-conditions," and can't concoct reasons not to pay.

This, to American conservatives, is socialism, even though the principles behind Obamacare are essentially a lift from earlier conservative thinking. But conservatives here have moved far to the right in recent years.

As today's U.S. conservatives see it, if you want to take the risk of not buying health-care coverage, and use the money to take the family to Dolly Parton's theme park in Nashville, that's your right.

As the libertarian Republican Ron Paul once said when confronted with the hypothetical question of what should be done with an uninsured patient who needs months of intensive care: "That's what freedom is all about, taking your own risks."

What that view ignores, of course, is that eventually, society has to pick up the cost when the uninsured get sick.

Either people lose their jobs and start collecting Medicaid, or they just turn up at the emergency wards and have no means of paying the bills.

In real-world America, hospitals are not permitted to withhold treatment for any reason, including lack of coverage or inability to pay. (Which is part of the reason for those wildly skewed fee schedules for those who do have insurance, to offset those who don't.)

In every civilized country, including this one, governments do, to a certain extent, protect society from the actions of individuals. Certain drugs require a prescription. Auto insurance is mandatory. As is mortgage insurance and deposit insurance.

In America, though, freedom is more a religion than a concept. And there's no arguing with true believers.

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Family business goes bust after Health Canada crackdown

A Manitoba entrepreneur is accusing the federal government of putting her family out of business — without justification — leaving them devastated by huge losses.

"For seven years, we've tried to get somebody to listen. There was a mistake made," said Cheryl Swarath, of Gonor, Man., who is suing the federal government over the ordeal.

"I got screwed by my own government. And I know that my government doesn't care."

The Swarath family company, NorthRegentRx, was licensed to import and sell a natural, non-prescription alternative to Viagra called Libidus. At its peak in 2005, annual sales were well over a million dollars and growing fast.

Libidus was the company's marquee product until the crackdown by Health Canada. (CBC)

"This was something we built from nothing and it meant everything to us," said Swarath, who stressed the product she imported was tested to meet the highest international standards.

"We were going to bring in only the best, highest, safest quality stuff that we could find on the market."

Sparked by U.S. action

Swarath said everything soured the following year, after the U.S. Food and Drug Administration cracked down on similar products sold online in that country.

She believes the sweep was sparked by complaints from the pharmaceutical industry, which didn't like shady operators moving in on its market share.

"The [natural products] industry does need regulation. There are a lot of basement bandits out there," said Swarath.

The FDA tested a product also marketed as "Libidus" that was sold online and found it was spiked with real Viagra, making it illegal to be sold as a natural supplement.

Health Canada's Winnipeg branch initiated recalls, despite not having definitive proof the product was tainted. (CBC)

Swarath said those products were cheap knock-offs — different coloured pills sold in different boxes — not from the Malaysian manufacturer she purchased from.

"We weren't putting junk out on the market. We take this stuff. My father-in-law was taking it at the time," said Swarath.

When the FDA told Health Canada about its crackdown, the regulator tested the product NorthRegentRX was selling.

Tests never proved contamination

Those tests found no trace of Viagra or similar pharmaceuticals, but because of other anomalies in the results, Health Canada wanted to do further testing.

It suspected a pharmaceutical was being masked, but documents show it never did prove that.

"It's like saying, 'I've got a white powder here — and it's cocaine.' And it could be baby powder," said Swarath.

Soon afterward, Health Canada asked Swarath to contact all 700 of her retail customers and tell them to remove the product from their shelves.

Swarath said she bent over backward to comply, but the results were devastating.

"Once Health Canada accuses you of being the bad guy nobody wants to touch you. Stores are not interested in purchasing from you," said Swarath.

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In the meantime, she said, months went by without Health Canada producing conclusive test results to justify its actions.

Sawarth switched to a Canadian manufacturer licensed by Health Canada, but still the agency wasn't satisfied with the product.

"We felt like that game at the fair, you know, 'Whack-a-Mole.' Every time you stuck your head up to do something you got whacked. And that's how we felt with Health Canada," she said.

"We didn't realize until we were a few years in that it was never going to get fixed," she said.

"You can't fight the government. They made a decision. They are sticking by it. They don't care if they were right or wrong."

Firm collapses under pressure

The company struggled with more bureaucratic delays, recalls and seized shipments. In 2010, crippled and out of money, NorthRegentRx closed its doors.

"We couldn't do it anymore. We were hemorrhaging money," said Swarath.

Swarath hired a former Health Canada chemist to test the products independently. He found no trace of pharmaceuticals and concluded Health Canada's testing was flawed. Another expert agreed.

"We called them on it and we followed up on it. We didn't just drop off the face of the planet like they figured we would," said Swarath.

Conservative MP James Bezan called the action taken against NorthRegentRx a 'serious injustice' and asked the prime minister to intervene. (CBC)

Manitoba Conservative MP James Bezan then wrote to the prime minister on the company's behalf, telling Stephen Harper, "there is irrefutable evidence errors were made."

Bezan then wrote, "I believe a serious injustice has been brought upon NorthRegentRx by Health Canada. I am requesting your assistance to immediately address this long outstanding issue."

Swarath said nothing came of that.

Government memo flags its mistakes

An internal government memo she has obtained since suggests Health Canada knew it made a number of mistakes.

"This investigation is likely to identify a number of weaknesses in the branch," wrote Julie Desrosiers in a 2007 email about the NorthRegentRx case.

"These weaknesses are impeding our ability to exercise the departmental principles of transparency and fairness, not to mention putting the branch at risk for litigation."

An internal email by a Health Canada official flags 'a number of weaknesses' in its handling of this case. (CBC)

NorthRegentRx is now suing the government for $102 million, which Swarath said represents the family's past and future losses.

That puts taxpayers potentially on the hook. Swarath said she simply wants a fair settlement.

"It's extremely expensive to take the government to task. I'm taking on a giant. They have endless resources. I've got one lawyer they've got what, 50?"

Bezan told Go Public he still supports the Swarath family and suggested he hopes they win.

"Cheryl and their family are good hard-working people. I believe in them explicitly and I would hope that they come to a good conclusion through the court case," said Bezan.

"I want to make sure that Health Canada does treat all companies and all individuals fairly."

Similar products still on shelves

Meanwhile, Go Public found very similar natural health products still for sale in Canada — with Health Canada's blessing — including one which was found to contain Cialis, a pharmaceutical product similar to Viagra.  

"Durazest for Men" was recalled twice because of that, in 2010 and 2011, but its distributor is still in business.

"What makes [their product] safe and mine not safe, when [Health Canada] failed to prove that mine was actually contaminated?" said Swarath.

"Tests did prove these other guys were contaminated, but they allowed them to work through the process and get licensed anyway."

Go Public found a similar product, Durazest for Men, still for sale in Canada, with Health Canada's blessing. (CBC)

Go Public asked Health Canada to explain that and to give its position on this case. The department said it would reply, but never did.

"I have no doubt that there is stuff on the market that Health Canada has licensed that isn't safe," said Swarath.

"If part of [Health Canada's] mandate is to protect Canadians, who protects me? I am a Canadian. And nobody protected me from them."

Submit your story ideas to Kathy Tomlinson at Go Public

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Senate scandal response shows Harper's unflinching brand of politics: Chris Hall

Stephen Harper showed Canadians once again this weekend that he doesn't flinch when challenged or alter course to avoid an obstacle.

Facing a political scandal that reaches directly into his own office, the prime minister hit back at his critics before a receptive audience of a few thousand party supporters. He told them exactly what's he told his political opponents for weeks now — that the blame for the Senate expenses fiasco lies everywhere but with him.

It's the fault of the trio of senators he appointed who misused taxpayers' money by claiming expenses they weren't entitled to, he said, the same senators who must now be suspended without pay.

It's the fault of his former chief of staff, Nigel Wright, who deceived him.

Harper blamed Liberal senators who blocked every effort he's made to reform the upper chamber, as well as the courts that, apparently, haven't already answered yes to the government's reference questions on whether Ottawa has the power to change the Senate or abolish it.

"So friends," the prime minister thundered during his speech at the Conservative Party convention in Calgary. "It's time for the Senate to reform itself."

Limited options

What was missing in that sentence was the, "Or else!" And for Harper, that's the itch he can't scratch as he returns to Ottawa for what will surely be another difficult week in the Commons.

Sen. Patrick Brazeau, (left to right) Sen. Pamela Wallin and Sen. Mike Duffy are seen in this combination of three file photos. The Conservative drive to suspend the three senators without pay is sputtering amid an apparent difference of opinion between the prime minister and his leader in the Senate. (The Canadian Press)

Short of expelling Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin and Patrick Brazeau from the Senate, there's not much else the prime minister can do to bury the Senate as an issue.

The RCMP continue to investigate, and Harper's reference to the Supreme Court of Canada will be heard later this month but a decision is unlikely before next spring.

It's led some cabinet ministers to openly float the idea of a national referendum to ask Canadians if the Senate should be abolished. Maxime Bernier and others believe Canadians would say yes, forcing provincial governments to play along.

But even that plan is out of the hands of the government.

A referendum question would first have to be approved by the Commons and the Senate, and the view inside the prime minister's office is that the likelihood of senators saying yes to a question that would put them out of work is, well, like convincing NDP Leader Tom Mulcair to shave off his beard.

So Harper is blocked by a criminal investigation that is still under way, and by senators who seem unwilling in advance of an expected vote this Tuesday to even go along with his demands to strip Duffy, Wallin and Brazeau of their livelihoods.

That might explain the defiant tone Harper struck in Calgary in the dozen or so paragraphs he devoted to the Senate, and why so much of the focus was on promoting the government's record and the plans outlined in last month's throne speech that went all but unnoticed in the Senate frenzy.

Sticking to his record

Harper ran through a list of accomplishments, proclaiming each policies the Conservatives — alone — support: lowering taxes, scrapping the long-gun registry and the Canadian Wheat Board, longer prison sentences for violent criminals and a child care system that recognizes two people named Mom and Dad as the real experts.

All of it done, Harper said, over the objections of the Liberals and New Democrats. All of it accomplished without bowing to academics, bureaucrats and lobbyists.

It was a speech tailored to party supporters who, like Harper, still see themselves as political outsiders even as the Conservatives approach eight years in power.

"We didn't go to Ottawa to join private clubs or become part of some elite,'' Harper said. ''That's not who you are. It's not who we are. We are in Ottawa only so the Government of Canada can serve you.''

But that service does not include shedding any more light on the Senate scandal, or why the prime minister's own answers about who knew what, and when, has changed so many times. It did not include sharing any blame or accepting responsibility.

There is a danger in being so unflinching.

The latest Nanos Research poll released by CBC News suggests many Canadians are dissatisfied with the prime minister's explanations. More than half of respondents question his credibility. The poll also suggested Canadians consider Harper's judgment in the handling of the Senate scandal more important than his handling of the economy — a reversal of the findings reported in a Nanos poll taken in June.

In other words, if this trend continues the Conservative brand could be under threat. And the most important feature of that brand is Stephen Harper — the architect of three straight election wins and the first Conservative majority in more than two decades.

One is tied to the other. And if what he said in Calgary is any indication, Harper's strategy in the weeks ahead is to stick doggedly to his message, reassuring Canadians he will continue doing more of the same: focusing on the economy, negotiating trade deals, protecting families and balancing the books.

Harper believes the Conservative brand is resilient, while the Senate scandal promoted by his political opponents will prove merely a passing fad.

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BlackBerry sale halted, Thorsten Heins out as CEO

Fairfax Financial's $4.7-billion deal to purchase BlackBerry is on hold, but the company has agreed to invest in the troubled smartphone maker as it restructures. 

BlackBerry plans to raise $1 billion US in capital to see it over a restructuring and to replace its chief executive and some directors, it said in a release this morning.​

BlackBerry plans a private placement of convertible debentures, with Fairfax to invest $250 million US and unnamed institutional investors subscribing to the rest.

The new deal with Fairfax involves CEO Thorsten Heins stepping down and Fairfax CEO Prem Watsa taking on a new title of lead director and chair of compensation.

The title indicates that Watsa, a former member of the BlackBerry board who stepped away this summer when it announced it was looking for buyers, intends to take an active role in restructuring the company. Fairfax subsequently made a $4.7-billion tentative offer for BlackBerry, with due diligence on the offer to be completed by today.

Thorsten Heins to leave

Heins was named CEO of the company — then called RIM — in January 2012, but hopes that he could restore its dominance in the smartphone market were short-lived. He presided over the botched launch of the Z10 phone, which BlackBerry revealed sold poorly.

The company took a writedown of close to $1 billion on the phones this quarter and has laid off close to 4,500 people. Heins is said to be in line for a $55.6-million severance package.

The BlackBerry board welcomed today's Fairfax offer as a significant vote of confidence in the company and Watsa agreed. 

"Fairfax is a long-time supporter, investor and partner to BlackBerry and, with this investment, reinforces its deep commitment to the future success of this company," Watsa said in a statement.

The extent of that commitment is revealed in the valuation of the company at $10 a share, a 28.7 per cent premium to the closing price of BlackBerry common shares on Nov. 1, 2013, that is mentioned in the terms of the debenture.

Former Sybase CEO to lead restructuring

Leadership in the restructuring is being passed to John S. Chen, former CEO of Sybase Inc., who is to be appointed executive chair of the BlackBerry board

"BlackBerry is an iconic brand with enormous potential — but it's going to take time, discipline and tough decisions to reclaim our success. I look forward to leading BlackBerry in its turnaround and business model transformation for the benefit of all of its constituencies, including its customers, shareholders and employees," Chen said in a statement.

BlackBerry had been shopping for other potential buyers, scouring the technology and investment communities for any other interest.

Companies who have considered a bid run the gamut, with reports claiming Facebook, Microsoft and Chinese computer maker Lenovo have all taken a peek at BlackBerry's finances.

One group of potential bidders was BlackBerry co-founder Mike Lazaridis, who filed documents with regulators outlining an interest in trying to rescue the company. Lazaridis was working with former company CFO Doug Fregin and is reported to have backing from Qualcomm and Cerberus Capital.

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