Daniel Dale rejects Rob Ford’s apology, will proceed with his defamation suit

Earlier today, we wondered if Rob Ford’s surprise apology to Star reporter Daniel Dale would be enough to head off the defamation lawsuit that Dale began pursuing late last week. Now, we have our answer. In a series of tweets posted this afternoon, Dale says Ford‘s remarks weren’t enough to fully make amends for the mayor’s suggestion, during an interview with Conrad Black, that Dale is a pedophile. The lawsuit will proceed.

In his apology, delivered during a city council meeting this morning, Ford tried to offer a rationale for what he said about Dale on Black’s TV show. It was a somewhat convoluted explanation, and it laid a portion of the blame on Ford’s neighbour, who (at least according to Ford) set off a now-legendary chain of events in May 2012 by alerting the mayor to Dale’s presence on a piece of public land adjacent to the Ford family backyard. Dale was investigating a story about the mayor’s attempt to buy a portion of that same public land.

Ford said his neighbour told him that a person was “peering over his fence,” taking pictures—which Dale was cleared of doing after a subsequent police investigation. “At that moment,” Ford said this morning as part of his apology, “I honestly believed my neighbour’s account of the events. I had no idea, at the time, who the person was my neighbour told me was leering over my fence.” He added that although he seemed to accuse Dale of spying on his children during the Black interview, it wasn’t his intention to suggest that the reporter was a pedophile.

Here’s what Dale had to say about that:

I asked Mayor Ford to 1) retract all of his false claims about my conduct and 2) issue an unreserved, abject, complete apology.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

His statement today didn't come close. I'm proceeding with a defamation lawsuit.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

In his "apology," the mayor didn't retract anything at all. Instead, he blamed the media for its reasonable interpretation of his words.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

He also blamed his neighbour. He used the words "lurking" and "leering."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

And, crucially, he didn't retract or specifically apologize for the categorically false, malicious, and in-itself-defamatory claim about

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

me taking pictures of his young kids.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

I didn't ask for an "I apologize if." I asked for an "I apologize because I said false, damaging, and unfounded things, and here they are."

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013

So: while I appreciate the mayor's first step, no dad or teacher would accept that apology as sufficient. I would appreciate another try.

— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 17, 2013