The Toronto Star’s Daniel Dale will not pursue a libel lawsuit against Toronto’s mayor, Rob Ford, the Star reported Wednesday, after Ford issued “a second, more complete, public apology.” Ford had implied Dale was a pedophile; Dale rejected an earlier apology in which Ford blamed the media for ascribing to him a “word I did not say.”
The new apology, by contrast, includes pretty much full retractions of everything Ford has said about Dale so far, and words he implied.
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.
Dale tweeted about the apology Wednesday night.
I sincerely appreciate Mayor Ford’s complete retraction and unqualified apology, and I’m very glad the truth is no longer in dispute.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 19, 2013
I won’t be taking legal action against the mayor, and I’m looking forward to getting back to work.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 19, 2013
I won’t be commenting further. Thanks again for your support, everyone – people have been so terrific to me through all this.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 19, 2013
Dale also planned to pursue a libel case against Zoomer Media, which aired the interview where Ford reasserted complaints about Dale. On Wednesday night, Zoomer media also issued a full apology.
https://twitter.com/timalamenciak/status/413508522207232000
https://twitter.com/timalamenciak/status/413508657867812864
https://twitter.com/timalamenciak/status/413508734749388801
Later, Dale tweeted that he wouldn’t be pursuing a suit against Zoomer Media, either.
I appreciate Zoomer's statement. While it's hard to understand how the mayor's comments made it to air, I won't be taking legal action.
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) December 19, 2013
Comments