Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale is defending his decision to continue in his job at city hall despite launching a libel lawsuit against Mayor Rob Ford over comments he made in an interview with Conrad Black.
A process server delivered a notice of libel on behalf of Mr. Dale to Mayor Ford in his office on Thursday. The letter asks that the mayor retract and apologize for “defamatory statements,” according to Iris Fischer, Dale’s lawyer.
When asked on CBC’s Metro Morning whether he could continue doing his job as City Hall reporter after filing a suit against the mayor, Mr. Dale said his work wouldn’t change.
Toronto Star City Hall reporter and acting bureau chief Daniel Dale.
“This is purely defensive, I’m purely defending my name,” Mr. Dale said. “I think it would set an awful precedent if the mayor could effectively choose who covered him.”
“So if we don’t want to let him go around and say, well, this CBC reporter is a murderer of babies or something like that because he doesn’t like the CBC reporter and then therefore the CBC reporter will either have to let it go, this awful thing, or fight him and leave, we have to have the option of defending ourselves against foul personal attacks without being bullied out of our jobs,” Mr. Dale added.