Star reporter won’t take legal action against Mayor Ford, Zoomer

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford has issued another apology and retracted comments he made about Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale in a televised interview.

“I wholly retract my statements and apologize to Mr. Dale without reservation for what I said,” Ford said in a statement Wednesday night.

Dale said he accepts Ford’s apology, which he demanded last week in a libel notice that called on Ford to retract statements that the reporter said amounted to accusing him of pedophilia.

The notice also called for the mayor to issue an “unreserved, abject, complete apology” of all false claims about what happened during an incident near Ford’s house in May 2012.

“I won’t be taking legal action against the mayor, and I’m looking forward to getting back to work,” Dale said on Twitter.

 

“I sincerely appreciate Mayor Ford’s complete retraction and unqualified apology, and I’m very glad the truth is no longer in dispute,” Dale tweeted.

Dale also decided late Wednesday to drop any legal action against ZoomerMedia after it issued an apology for the interview conducted by Black.

ZoomerMedia said in a statement that it ‘‘sincerely regrets‘‘ the part it played in broadcasting the offending words spoken by Mr. Ford and apologize for that.‘‘

‘‘We can confirm that those words will never again be broadcast on any of our television outlets or websites,” the statement added.

Dale wrote on Twitter that he appreciate Zoomer’s statement and won‘t be taking legal action, adding that it is ‘‘hard to understand how the mayor’s comments made it to air.‘‘

 

 

During an interview with Conrad Black, which aired Dec. 9 on VisionTV, Ford claimed that Dale was in his backyard, “taking pictures of little kids.”

“I am unaware of any pictures Mr. Dale took with his phone of land near my property, and therefore I apologize to Mr. Dale if the words I spoke to Mr. Black left the impression that Mr. Dale had taken pictures of my backyard,” Ford said in his apology.

“Accordingly, I once again apologize to Mr. Dale for the imprecise and inaccurate manner in which I described the events which followed our encounter in May 2012.”

In the interview with Black, Ford also said he caught Dale standing on cinderblocks taking pictures over his fence.

“This recollection of the incident is inaccurate in that I never saw Mr. Dale standing on bricks or cinderblocks, never saw Mr. Dale looking over my fence and never saw Mr. Dale taking any pictures,” Ford’s statement said.

“There was no basis for saying as I did on Dec. 17 and in the past that Mr. Dale was ‘lurking’ or ‘leering’ near or over my fence or behaving surreptitiously,” Ford said in reference to an apology he made Tuesday in Toronto city council.

Dale had said Tuesday’s apology didn’t even come close to what he sought as it “blamed the media for its reasonable interpretation of his (Ford’s) words.”

The reporter has said he was writing a story about a plot of public land adjacent to Ford’s house that the mayor wanted to buy, so he went to take a look when the mayor emerged from his home to confront him. Dale has said that at no time was he on the mayor’s property nor did he take any pictures.

Text of Mayor Rob Ford’s apology to Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale issued on Wednesday night:

“Further to my public apology to Daniel Dale yesterday, I want to be as clear as possible with respect to the extent of the apology and ensure that it addresses Mr. Dale’s concerns about comments which aired during my interview with Conrad Black on ZoomerMedia.

“An incident involving Mr. Dale occurred near my residence in May 2012, more than 1 1/2 years ago.

“In my interview with Mr. Black, I recounted that I caught the individual, ‘on the bricks, over the fence, taking pictures’ and that he ‘dropped his phone, dropped his camera and everything.’ Also I stated ‘it was on my property, on the fence. And he had cinderblocks that he had to step on to get over the fence. And he started taking pictures.’

“This recollection of the incident is inaccurate in that I never saw Mr. Dale standing on bricks or cinderblocks, never saw Mr. Dale looking over my fence and never saw Mr. Dale taking any pictures. There is no basis for saying as I did on December 17 and in the past that Mr. Dale was ‘lurking’ or ‘leering’ near or over my fence or behaving surreptitiously and I should not have said that. In the interview with Mr. Black I was recounting what I had initially been told by a neighbour. There was a police investigation at the time and no charges were laid against Mr. Dale, who I understand told police that he never stood on cinderblocks, never looked over my fence and never took photographs of my backyard. There was no basis for me to say that Mr. Dale was ever in my backyard or on my property and I should not have said that. Accordingly, I apologize to Mr. Dale for the inaccurate manner in which I described the incident of May 2012.

“With respect to my recollection that Mr. Dale at the time of the incident dropped his phone, dropped his camera and everything. I apologize to Mr. Dale for the impression that these words suggest Mr. Dale was at the time carrying a separate camera. Mr. Dale was carrying a cell phone, with photograph capabilities, and this is what I meant during my conversation with Mr. Black. I am unaware of any pictures Mr. Dale took with his phone of land near my property, and therefore I apologize to Mr. Dale if the words I spoke to Mr. Black left the impression that Mr. Dale had taken photographs of my backyard. I understand from Mr. Dale that while he had attempted to take a photograph of land adjacent to my actual property, the battery power on his phone died at the time of taking a photograph and therefore no photograph of adjacent land was ever saved onto the phone. Accordingly, I once again apologize to Mr. Dale for the imprecise and inaccurate manner in which I described the events which followed our encounter in May 2012.

“Finally there was absolutely no basis for the statement I made about Mr. Dale taking pictures of children, or for any insinuations I made. I should not have said what I did and I wholly retract my statements and apologize to Mr. Dale without reservation for what I said.

“I sincerely hope that Mr. Dale will accept my personal apology for my comments and all harm my words may have caused him.”

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