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Money raised to buy alleged Rob Ford crack video donated to harm reduction orgs

Sitting on $200,000 it successfully fundraised six weeks ago to buy an alleged video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine, and presented with no evidence that video will surface anytime soon, U.S.-based gossip website Gawker has thrown in the towel and will donate the cash to Canadian health organizations, two of which offer harm reduction services.

"We are pursuing the Plan B we laid out when we began the project: donating the funds to Canadian organizations that address the fallout from substance abuse," wrote Gawker editor John Cook in a post today.

The money will be split between four Ontario-based groups, each receiving $46,195.65, Cook announced. They include:

- The Somali Canadian Association of Etobicoke's new youth leadership program, supporting youth in the west Toronto neighbourhood through sports and volunteerism;

- The Toronto-based South Riverdale Community Health Centre's drug programs, which include harm reduction needle exchanges;

- Unison Health and Community Services in northern Toronto, which also runs a harm reduction program aimed at "breaking the isolation" of drug users;

- The Ontario Regional Addictions Partnership Committee, which treats drug and alcohol abuse among members of the indigenous population through counselling.

Gawker first alleged the existence of a video in which Ford smokes crack cocaine on May 16, in a story written by Cook. Later that day, The Toronto Star published an account by two of its reporters who also claimed to have seen the video.

But despite intense public interest, and Gawker's success at raising the sum allegedly requested by the video's owners for its sale, it never materialized into public view. 

Mayor Ford has said he does not smoke crack cocaine and that the suggestion he was caught on tape smoking it is "ridiculous."

Robyn Smith reports for The Tyee.

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