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Mayor Mel Lastman’s big mouth has been known to get him in trouble. But his comments to a Toronto Sun reporter following a police raid on a food bank back in April 99 may cost him some serious coin.Reverend Robert C. MacKenzie, the operator of the food bank at the Missionary Church of St. Francis of Assisi at the time, has filed a libel suit against the mayor seeking $15 million in damages. Suits have also been filed against police.
The reverend says in his statement of claim that the mayor libelled him when he called him “an imposter” in print and said that he “wanted to nail him.” At the time, the food bank MacKenzie operated was being investigated for reselling food donations at cut-rate prices.
He says he was doing nothing illegal and that the mayor’s statements to the press were “so totally rash, deliberate, false and unwarranted as to be slanderous.”
The mayor has yet to file a statement of defence. His spokesperson, Jim Warren, couldn’t shed any light on whether the mayor will defend the action. The moral of this story? Don’t mess with a missionary man. He’s got God on his side.ENZO Di MATTEO
