Mayor Rob Ford speaks with the media after police were called to his home this week.
The man charged with threatening the life of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has been in a relationship with the mayor's older sister on and off for at least six years, and at one time the pair lived on the grounds of the family home where the mayor and his siblings were raised in Etobicoke.
An apartment was specially built on the property for Kathy Ford, 51, who has had a long struggle with drug addiction. She and the accused, Scott MacIntyre, have been together since at least 2005, according to court documents.
Ms. Ford had filed for bankruptcy more than a year earlier, in February of 2004, claiming assets of $3,000 and more than $26,000 in debts. Credit card companies and a Toronto defence lawyer were among her creditors.
Documents filed with the federal Office of the Superintendent of Bankruptcy listed her monthly income as $2,000, earnings from a job as an office worker at Deco Labels and Tags, the successful business co-founded by her father, Doug Ford Sr.
It was at her parents' home that Ms. Ford was wounded in 2005, shot accidentally in the face. Mr. MacIntyre and another man were charged with a variety of gun offences. All charges were later withdrawn against Mr. MacIntyre.
The apartment, which was built nearly a decade earlier to assist Ms. Ford in maintaining custody of her daughter, was not the only example of help she received from her family.
A month before he died of cancer in September of 2006, Doug Ford Sr. updated his will. His wife, Diane, and his sons Randy, Doug Jr. and Rob were named as executors of his estate, according to documents filed in Ontario Superior Court. Included among their duties was to administer a $1-million trust fund for Kathy. She was discharged from bankruptcy less than a month after the will was signed and just three days before her father passed away.
The reason given in the 2004 bankruptcy documents by Kathy Ford for her financial difficulties was "the death of my husband as a result of my ex-husband." This was a reference to the 1998 fatal shooting of Michael Kiklas (her boyfriend at the time) by her former common-law partner Ennio Stirpe, who was later convicted of manslaughter.
The troubled life of the mayor's sister was thrust again into the public spotlight this week when Mr. MacIntyre, 45, was arrested and charged with uttering death threats, forcible entry on the property of Mr. Ford, as well as cocaine and heroin possession. A neighbour called police Wednesday morning after they said they saw someone they didn't know outside the mayor's house.
Mr. MacIntyre made a brief court appearance Thursday. When told by a justice of the peace he was to have no contact with Mr. Ford or his immediate family, he said, "That is fine by me" from the prisoner's box.
Defence lawyer Sam Boutzouvis asked that his client receive "immediate medical treatment" while in custody awaiting a bail hearing in two weeks, although the nature of the treatment was not specified.
Mr. MacIntyre appeared agitated and there were no friends or family in court.
The status of his relationship with Kathy Ford is unclear. Ms. Ford declined comment when contacted Thursday. She described herself as Mr. MacIntyre's "ex-common-law wife" in a brief phone conversation with The Globe and Mail after his arrest this week.
Ms. Ford and Mr. MacIntyre have been living most recently in a rented bungalow, a few blocks from where she grew up.
The Crown indicated Thursday that it will be opposing the release of Mr. MacIntyre when he is scheduled to have a bail hearing in two weeks. The court has not yet been presented with evidence as to why Mr. MacIntyre would allegedly utter death threats against the mayor.
Special to The Globe and Mail