Before the ice storm changed the channel and the mayor’s sit down interview with Conrad Black was all the rage, I got to thinking about Daniel Dale. And what I might have done if I was confronted, like Dale was, by our 330-pound gorilla of a mayor with a fist half-cocked and ready to clock me.
I guess I would have done like Dale did and ran for my life. Who knows? Trying to defuse the situation obviously didn’t work for the Star reporter. And knowing what we know now about the mayor’s substance abuse issues, who is to say Ford wasn’t hopped up on something at the time, or experiencing the rage that sometimes comes when coke addicts are jonesing for a fix.
What I do know for sure is that Daniel Dale is a bigger man than I because if I were Daniel Dale I would have taken Ford to the cleaners, and sued his mangia cake ass for everything I could get.
Because, unlike Dale, I wouldn’t have accepted the mayor’s recent apology for suggesting the Star reporter is a pedophile – pervert, deviant, peeping Tom, all those things – in that “conversation” with Black earlier this month, even if it is in writing. Because unlike Dale I can’t see anything sincere in it.
The mayor’s letter corrects the record about what really happened out behind the his house when Dale was investigating Ford’s attempted purchase of some park land back in 2012.
There was no peering over the fence by Dale, the mayor now admits. There was no “lurking” or “leering” or “behaving surreptitiously,” as the mayor had suggested at different times in the past. There was no taking pictures of the mayor’s kids. In fact, there was no camera, period.
In other words, there was not an ounce of truth in anything the mayor had ever said about the entire incident.
The mayor’s letter has been described as an abject apology. It’s more a legal apology, words on a piece of paper obviously written by the mayor’s lawyer to get him out of a potentially costly jam. It’s not an apology in the sense that Ford is actually sorry. The mayor hasn’t actually uttered a sincere word of regret on the matter.
There was no presser called by Ford to offer a mea culpa. There was no public act of contrition. There was only the letter, handed out by the mayor’s chief of staff Dan Jacobs (at 8 pm on the third day of a council meeting) with the message delivered by Jacobs that the mayor “considers the matter closed,” as if it was for the mayor to decide the ifs and whens of the matter, period.
When Ford was given the chance to clear the air the day after the Black interview, he tried to make political hay. He said he stood by every word.
When he rose to apologize at council the first time after he was served with a notice of libel by Dale, he tried to slip the controversy, get away with the bare minimum, by blaming the media for allegedly twisting his words. He never meant to suggest Dale is a pedophile, he said, before offering a qualified apology “if my actual words have caused him any harm or personal offence.”
And now there’s the letter, in which Ford is still trying to pawn off some of the responsibility for the Dale controversy, claiming that his version of events, the one he has been repeating for almost two years, was “merely recounting what I had initially been told by a neighbour.”
Clearly, the mayor was happy to embellish what really happened when it suited his purposes, even after Dale had been cleared of any wrongdoing by police.
We don’t know all the reasons why Dale decided not to pursue his libel suit. He has said all he’s going to say on the subject. He would just as soon forget it and get on with his life, it seems. The last thing any reporter wants is to become the story. That’s understandable.
It might not have been worth the time or effort, either. Ford could conceivably be gone from elected office by the time the matter gets to court.
The mayor, though, hasn’t really been held to account. Losing a few grand in damages might not have caused Ford to feel sorry only for himself – unfortunately he seems incapable of introspection. But since money is the only language Ford seems to understand, taking him to court would seem the only real hope of teachable moment – especially for those among his supporters who still believe the truth is in dispute.
Dale and the Star could have chosen to play hardball with the mayor. Ford had missed his deadline to apologize. And Dale could have argued that the letter was a case of too little too late.
In libel law an apology is almost as good as an admission of guilt. While it mitigates some of the damages, it wouldn’t completely absolve the mayor. Unlike the U.S., protections against slander here are far more stringent. The onus of proof would be on the mayor to prove he did not slander Dale, not the other way around.
No doubt political considerations, not to be seen as pursuing a vendetta against the mayor, had a bearing on Dale’s and the Star’s decision not to push the issue. (The Star was paying Dale’s legal bills).
Still, it’s a surprise considering the hateful nature of mayor’s remarks. Ad a shame, really, given how much Ford’s reign has debased political discourse. Dale’s libel suit would have been a legal fight worth having, if only to turn the clock back on the succor Ford’s tenure has given fringe elements in our midst.
In the ongoing public pissing match between the Star and the mayor, Ford’s capitulation is a pyrrhic victory for the Star. But given the history of lies, how much is an apology from the mayor really worth? In Dale’s case, not much more than the paper it’s written on.
enzom@nowtoronto.com | @enzodimatteo
