Rob Ford, Mayor of Toronto, Ontario in Canada, responded yesterday — with an apology which was not accepted — to libel proceedings served to him by lawyers for Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale on Thursday.
The proceedings were filed in response to comments made in a televised discussion with Conrad Black on the VisionTV program "theZoomer" on December 9, in which Ford allegedly insinuated pedophilia by Dale.  On Monday, Dale announced he intended to proceed with a statement of claim after Ford failed to respond to the libel notice in a timely manner.
In his apology, delivered at a Toronto city council meeting yesterday, Ford stated it was never his intention to suggest Dale was a pedophile, and he never personally witnessed the reporter in his backyard or peering over his fence, as alleged in the television program.  He said the allegations were based upon the word of a long-time neighbour, that someone had been "lurking" near the Mayor's backyard.
Dale was not present in the council chambers at the time of the Mayor's statement, and has indicated he deemed the apology insufficient, and will be proceeding with a defamation action in an Ontario court.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!
Share this: 






This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.
Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.
Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.
Toronto Mayor responds to libel notice from Toronto Star reporter