Threatening someone with violence and demanding they give you their phone - while on public property - is certainly a chargeable offence.
Dale has said he has no interest in pressing charges, however. Which is nice of him.
Its very disappointing that Dale does not plan to lay charges if police won't (and we know the police are not going to charge Ford).
Dale says he just wants to get on with his job but how can he do that if the Mayor ignores his questions and threatens to blackball all City Hall media at any scrum where Dale appears (a promise Ford made good on with the latest weigh-in) ?
Worse than the initial encounter in the park - which can be considered an assault (and possession of stolen property if Ford made the call from the phone) is what happened afterwards.
Rob and Doug accused Dale of peeping over the fence and taking pictures. They made ugly insinuations essentially accusing Dale of being a deviant with interest in Rob Fords young children.
Rob Ford claimed that his neighbors saw Dale perched on cinder blocks taking pictures over the fence.
To reinforce this claim Rob Ford brought reporters to a spot behind his property to show off a stack of cinder blocks (re-arranged from the night before as caught on camera!)
Based on this claim by Rob Ford of illegality on the part of Daniel Dale, the police conducted what was essentially a peeping tom investigation. The Police investigator confirmed to Dale that if there had been evidence that Dale peered over the fence and took pictures
he would have been charged !
According to the latest from the STAR the neighbors now refuse to confirm Fords allegations.
Did the neighbors actually see Dale perched on cinder blocks peering over the fence taking pictures or did Rob Ford make this up?
This is no trivial question. The claim that Dale took pictures over the fence is essentially a claim that Dale committed a crime.
Police have reviewed the video and blackberry and have concluded that there is no evidence of a crime (the video in particular would be very conclusive).
In essence the Police have concluded that the allegations against Dale is false. It is a
very serious criminal offense to falsely report a crime to police when no such crime has taken place. It is called public mischief and punishment can include up to
five years imprisonment . Either Rob Ford or his neighbor MUST be charged with this offense.
From the criminal code of Canada:
Public mischief
140. (1) Every one commits public mischief who, with intent to mislead, causes a peace officer to enter on or continue an investigation by
(a) making a false statement that accuses some other person of having committed an offence;
(b) doing anything intended to cause some other person to be suspected of having committed an offence that the other person has not committed, or to divert suspicion from himself;
(c) reporting that an offence has been committed when it has not been committed; or
(d) reporting or in any other way making it known or causing it to be made known that he or some other person has died when he or that other person has not died.
Punishment
(
2) Every one who commits public mischief
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
R.S., 1985, c. C-46, s. 140; R.S., 1985, c. 27 (1st Supp.), s. 19.