Rob Ford, Toronto mayor, refuses to resign over drug allegations

TORONTO – Embattled Toronto Mayor Rob Ford repeated Saturday that he won’t resign despite mounting pressure for him to step aside after police said they had obtained a copy of a video that appears to show him puffing on a crack pipe.

Meanwhile, a city spokeswoman released an incident report from City Hall security guards who said they witnessed a “very intoxicated” Ford having trouble walking and also swearing at aides after St. Patrick’s Day in 2012.

Ford reportedly met Saturday with his deputy mayor, who has said he wanted to express the concerns of City Council members after news of the video emerged. Police on Thursday announced that the video had been recovered from a computer hard drive during an investigation of an associate of the mayor’s suspected of providing him drugs.

Approached outside his office Saturday, Ford smiled and said, “No. As I told you before I’m not resigning.”

He is scheduled to host his weekly radio show this afternoon, and Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly told several media outlets Saturday that Ford would have an “announcement.” He did not elaborate.

All four major Toronto newspapers called on Ford to resign over the video, the latest example of his increasingly erratic behavior.