Mayor Rob Ford should apologize to Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale for his “beyond the pale” comments in an interview with Conrad Black, Deputy Mayor Norm Kelly said.
“Again, it fits into a pattern that changes the focus from him to someone else and in this instance, it goes beyond the pale and I think there should be an apology for that,” Kelly told reporters in a city hall scrum on Tuesday.
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“Daniel Dale is in my backyard taking pictures. I have little kids,” Ford told Black on a taped interview that aired on Vision TV Monday night.
“He’s taking pictures of little kids. I don’t want to say that word but you start thinking what this guy is all about.”
The mayor laughed as he said, “Lucky he fled on foot because I was upset, because that’s just crossing the line.”
Ford called police and said surveillance cameras at his home captured Dale’s head “bobbing up and down” over his backyard fence. Ford and his brother, Councillor Doug Ford, said Dale was a “peeping Tom” who was “in my backyard,” “lurking in the bushes,” “standing on cinder blocks” and “taking pictures of my kids and family.”
After a week-long investigation which included a review of the surveillance camera footage, police filed no charges against Dale, saying there was no evidence the reporter was on the mayor’s property or looked over the fence.
Nor were there photos or videos on the BlackBerry Dale dropped as he ran from Ford, police said.