'I Have Smoked Crack Cocaine,' Toronto's Mayor Admits on Camera Video of Mr. Ford's admission, during an impromptu news conference, showed him asking reporters to repeat the question they first raised in May, when journalists for Gawker and The Toronto Star described seeing video that appeared to show the mayor using drugs. When one reporter complied, asking, "Do you smoke crack cocaine?" the mayor admitted that he had done so, but took issue with the way the question had been phrased. "Do I?" he said, "Am I an addict? Probably in one of my drunken stupors, probably, approximately a year ago. I answered your question. You ask the question properly, I'll answer it. Mr. Ford then said: "there's been times when I've been in a drunken stupor - that's why I want to see the tape. I want everyone in the city to see this tape. I'd like to see this tape. I don't even recall there being a tape or a video and I know that, so I want to see the state that I was in. He added: "So I wasn't lying. You didn't ask the correct questions. The Toronto Star's city hall bureau chief, Daniel Dale, took issue with the mayor's issue-taking. Robyn Doolittle, a Toronto Star journalist who viewed an excerpt from the recording in May, reported that the mayor's sudden reversal, after months of denials, surprised even his aides. As Don Peat, a Toronto Sun journalist, reported, the news conference ended abruptly when a reporter asked the mayor if he was high at that very moment. After the news broke, Mr. Peat shared an image on Twitter of protesters in Guy Fawkes masks calling on the mayor to resign outside Toronto's city hall. The mayor confronted the news media shortly after his brother Doug, a close adviser who also serves on the City Council, had suggested that the city's police chief, Bill Blair, should step aside for "bias" against Mr. Ford. Last week, the chief told reporters that he was "disappointed" when he first viewed the video of the mayor seen by reporters in May. After the mayor's reversal, another City Council member drafted a motion calling on him to cooperate fully with the police, apologize and take a leave of absence. The mayor told The Toronto Sun later, "I feel like I got 1,000 pounds off my back." He added that he has no intention of resigning or stepping aside: "I felt I had to say it. It is what is. I feel two inches high right now but I needed to deal with it. I am not going to quit or take a leave. I am not an addict or an alcoholic. I have work to do and I am moving on. The way I see it now, this is over. In the wake of Mr. Ford's admission on Tuesday, The Toronto Star drew attention to his firm denial of drug use in May, after the paper's journalists revealed that they had been shown a clip of the mayor appearing to smoke crack by someone who wanted to sell the video. Later on Tuesday afternoon, as support ebbed away from the mayor, reporters crammed into Mr. Ford's office for an expected announcement. When the mayor finally appeared, he made a short statement, in which he apologized for concealing his drug use, and promised to "never, ever, ever" do that again, but said that he intends to continue to do his job until next year's election. "For the sake of the taxpayers" he said, "we must get back to work."