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TORONTO — The Toronto Star is considering legal action against Rob Ford after the mayor alleged its city hall reporter is a pedophile.
In a Vision TV interview Monday night, Ford commented on media scrutiny during his Crackergate scandal by recalling a 2012 run-in with Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale on public land adjoining the mayor’s private home.
“I guess the worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures,” the mayor told Conrad Black, the disgraced media baron who was conducting the interview. “I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say that word, but you start thinking, what’s this guy all about?”
Dale told the Toronto Sun newspaper on Tuesday, “Our lawyers are reviewing the mayor’s comments,” also denying that he took photos of Ford’s home or family. He added that Toronto police inspected his smartphone and “found no photos whatsoever from that night.”
“Mr. Ford calling reporter Daniel Dale a pedophile tells you all you need to know about our mayor’s brain,” added Toronto Star editor Michael Cooke in his own response to Ford’s comments on Vision TV. “So sad for all of us.”
The Toronto mayor was recently stripped of his political powers after he admitted to smoking crack cocaine and binge drinking. The move was made after the U.S. gossip website Gawker and the Toronto Star newspaper revealed in May 2013 a phone video allegedly showing Ford inhaling from a glass pipe. That infamous video has since come into the hands of the Toronto police and courts, making Ford a worldwide media sensation and the butt of jokes on late night U.S. talk shows.
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