Ever since the stills of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford allegedly smoking crack cocaine hit the mainstream, the mayor’s denials and the house itself are still a topic of conversation, especially to the Canadian news cycle. Take, for instance, the latest story to hit trend status. While the mayor doesn’t make this particular new cycle, the house the pictures were apparently taken at is, which gives them an opportunity to bring the Ford connection back into the mix, like so:

CBC News has confirmed that an assault occurred at the Windsor Road house, just days after news broke that two news outlets had been approached about buying a video purporting to show Ford smoking what appears to be crack cocaine.

The details of the crime are, largely, meaningless–two people in the house were assaulted by an intruder–because it allowed the Ford angle to be reintroduced, which quickly became the focus of the “Police visited house linked to Rob Ford…” article. For those who may not have all the details, this refresher will help. The still that leads this post was apparently taken from a video that featured the mayor smoking crack, which, of course, Ford denied. The video, which has not been released, was allegedly viewed by members of Gawker.com and the Toronto Star.

The following video will help clear up any confusion:

On Wednesday, John Cook, the editor of the U.S. gossip website Gawker which has led an online campaign to purchase the alleged video, said his main contact fears the footage is “gone” and that the media attention may have scared the owner away.

Gawker has raised over $200,000, the alleged asking price that the so-called drug dealers wanted for the video.

If these entities don’t produce the video, does that mean they, in their effort to generate the appropriate buzz, committed something similar to slander? If you are going to accuse someone like Ford of smoking crack, and you are claiming to have seen video evidence of the act, you might want to have said footage in hand before you tell the world what it is you think you saw.