Toronto Mayor Rob Ford took a brief and still unexplained flight to Chicago last week, but he never officially made it to U.S. soil, and his current whereabouts remain a mystery.
Shortly after he announced that he was taking a leave of absence to treat his substance abuse problem, Ford boarded a plane bound for Chicago on Thursday. The plane landed shortly before 11:30 a.m. ET., but Ford promptly turned around before officially entering the United States.
The Consul General of Canada in Chicago told the Globe and Mail that Ford “voluntarily withdrew his application to enter the USA,” and “was not denied entry, per se.”
The mayor said he was “ready to take a break” following the Globe and Mail’s report of a new video tape showing him smoking what is believed to be crack cocaine and after The Toronto Sun posted audio of Ford ranting and raving at a bar.
His lawyer, Dennis Morris, insisted that Ford is in rehab and will be there “for a number of weeks.” Morris said it was his “understanding” that the mayor was going to Chicago to enter a rehab program, but the Globe and Mail said he was “never definitive with the media about Mr. Ford’s whereabouts and destination.”
