More information is trickling out from heavily redacted court documents that detail a relationship between Toronto’s mayor and an accused drug dealer.
Some of that information has to do with a court-authorized police wiretap where investigators heard Mayor Rob Ford being discussed. However, Ford’s voice was not heard on the intercepted phone calls.
Lawyers are expected back in court Monday to continue their argument to have the entire document released.
Investigators prepared the “information to obtain” (ITO) document to obtain a search warrant after Mayor Rob Ford’s friend, Alexander “Sandro” Lisi, and a second man were arrested on drug charges in October. The arrests followed weeks of police surveillance on Ford and Lisi, who was also charged with extortion for alleged attempts to retrieve a video showing the mayor smoking from a glass pipe.
So far, information on the ITO has been released in two parts. A few dozen pages remain blacked out, but on Wednesday Justice Ian Nordheimer agreed to let a limited portion of the redacted information be released to the media.
Among the new revelations are details on the police wiretap that was executed during Project Traveller – a months-long investigation into the alleged trafficking of drugs and guns.
The ITO says that police stopped tapping phones on June 13 but not before accessing thousands of intercepted calls. It was these intercepts that led police to believe that Lisi was a marijuana dealer.
Details on what was said in these phone calls and about Ford have not been released but the documents show there were 59 "principle known persons" involved in the wiretap project.
The documents also show that some of the mayor’s former staff members had heard Ford lost his cellphone, though they had few details about the incident. The ITO makes mention of media reports that suggested Lisi offered marijuana in exchange for the phone.
Media lawyers say the release of the blacked-out pages is in the public’s interest because the pages may contain information about Toronto’s mayor. The provincial Crown and Lisi's lawyer, Seth Weinstein, are arguing against the release.
In court, Weinstein said the information's release would be premature and it would jeopardize Lisi's right to a fair trial.
Weinstein reminded court that the allegations in the ITO have not been tested or proven in court before he requested a publication ban.
He said the wiretap information may even be ruled inadmissible if and when a trial occurs.
The wiretap information on Lisi accounts for about five per cent of the ITO, Bell Media lawyer Peter Jacobsen told CP24.
With files from CTV Toronto's Tamara Cherry
