Is Smitherman also implicated in the Ford “Set-up” Tape?

( UPDATED JUNE 21 7:44 pm)

Dieter Doneit-Henderson, a former supporter of Rob Ford, whose desperation for drugs made him sound like an addict, continues to call and hassle the candidate. He begs for help in getting medication to manage his pain. Ford agrees to try to help him and to end the lengthy call, says he'll try to get him something on the street.

It's a 50 minute phone call for a front-running mayoral candidate who has far better and more important things to do. Was he planning to actually buy drugs or was he trying to get off the call?

Here is the controversial call in its entirety.

http://twitlens.com/?Mn4

You can decide for yourself. It's pretty long (52 minutes).

The caller repeatedly harasses Ford and begs him for help. It seems obvious to me that Ford was trying to pacify a pathetic individual and is actually putting himself out to help a desperate human being.

If Ford was “set up”, I doubt it would have been by George Smitherman, because at 39:28 in the call, when Ford suggests buying OxyContin on the streets, the fellow taping the call says, “the last time I bought a street drug, Rob, was in 2001 with George Smitherman.”

This claim on tape is obviously just heresay and has no support other than the statement of the person who made it. But it is interesting, both in of itself, and that this part of the incident has largely escaped media attention.

According to The Globe and Mail, a spokesperson for the Smitherman campaign denied that he had ever met Mr. Doneit-Henderson.

I don’t actually think Ford was set up by anyone other than the man who taped the call. One thing about situations like this is that you always have to ask yourself, who is the person who would gain the most from harming Ford?

Now, who would be furious enough at Rob Ford to do something like that? It all looks pretty rocky to me.