I'm surprised by the number of people on Twitter - including fierce critics of Ford - who opposed releasing the video.
I think this is mostly attributable to the fact that the video is pathetic - in the literal sense of eliciting pathos. Ford doesn't come across as a rager or a party animal, just as the worst of skid row. Totally off his head, doing just about anything for a high, dishevelled and unwell in a shitty house surrounded by shitty people who aren't his friends.
In that light, pathos is certainly understandable.
When you consider, though, that he was the mayor when this happened, things change. We were paying for him to get high, and paying for him to both recklessly endanger his life and to massively compromise the office of the mayor. By doing what he did while mayor, he squandered whatever moral high ground the mayoralty might have, shattered its credibility for policymaking, and seriously damaged the city's reputation worldwide.
In this light, the pathos diminishes.
One way to make sure the people you care about don't see a video of you smoking crack is to not smoke crack. And though I do agree that addiction is more a mental health issue than a moral one, Ford inflicted his disease on Toronto when he and his enablers consistently failed to address it and instead allowed it to take over more and more of the city's affairs.
