Ford Claims Reporter Trespassed On His Property

CBC  |  Posted: 05/02/2012 11:26 pm Updated: 05/03/2012 12:34 pm

Rob Ford
Mayor Rob Ford says he called police on a Toronto Star reporter to protect his family.

UPDATE: Mayor Rob Ford has threatened a media blackout if Star reporter Daniel Dale is not removed from the City Hall beat, the National Post is reporting.

“I will not be talking to any reporters if he’s part of that scrum. They have to take him out of City Hall,” Ford told AM640's The John Oakley Show.

SLIDESHOW: TWITTER ON ROB FORD'S CONFRONTATION WITH TORONTO STAR REPORTER

The Star has defended its writer, saying that he did nothing wrong.

"We stand by Daniel's story," said Toronto Star spokesman Bob Hepburn to CBC's Metro Morning.

---

Toronto Mayor Rob Ford called the police Wednesday after an altercation near his property with Toronto Star reporter Daniel Dale.

The Star published a web story written by Dale on Wednesday evening that said Ford has applied to purchase a parcel of wooded land adjacent to the back yard of his Etobicoke house. The parcel of land belongs to the Toronto Conservation Authority.

The Star reports that Ford filed the request as a private citizen and for the purpose of installing an upgraded security fence on his property.

Dale said he went out to see the land on Wednesday evening.

Ford said a neighbour alerted him to Dale's presence, which prompted Ford to go to the back of the house and confront him.

“Enough is enough. I have to protect my family," an upset Ford said. "It was unbelievable what the Star was doing. I’m not going to put up with it. If I have to press charges I will.”

Ford says Dale was taking pictures over the back of his fence.

In an online piece explaining his version of events, Dale denies that he stepped on private property but was instead on public land and conducting research for his story.

"I’m still not sure if the parcel I was standing on is the parcel Ford is looking to acquire, but I can say this with certainty: I never came close to entering his backyard," Dale wrote in the Star.

Dale wrote that Ford walked around to the back of the house, confronted him and was "extremely agitated."

"At some point, perhaps 10 or 15 seconds into the encounter, he cocked his fist near his head and began charging at me at a full run," Dale wrote. "I began pleading with him, as loud as I could, with my hands up, for him to stop."

In his version of events, Dale wrote that Ford stopped moving toward him at a distance of about two metres.

Dale said Ford insisted that he drop the phone, which Dale says he eventually did do. Dale says he then returned to his car and left.

Ford and the Star had a tense relationship even prior to Wednesday's incident. Upset over coverage during the 2010 mayoralty campaign, Ford has refused to grant interviews to the newspaper.

Ford has been the subject of death threats and his sister’s former boyfriend was charged with making death threats against the mayor earlier this year.

After that incident, the mayor's brother Coun. Doug Ford called for more security around his house.

Last fall, police were called to Ford's home after a crew from the CBC comedy show This Hour Has 22 Minutes went to his house for the purpose of conducting a surprise interview.

TWITTER ON ROB FORD'S CONFRONTATION WITH TORONTO STAR REPORTER


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22 MINUTES CONFRONTS ROB FORD

With files from The Huffington Post Canada

FOLLOW CANADA POLITICS

UPDATE: Mayor Rob Ford has threatened a media blackout if Star reporter Daniel Dale is not removed from the City Hall beat, the National Post is reporting. “I will not be talking to any reporters...
UPDATE: Mayor Rob Ford has threatened a media blackout if Star reporter Daniel Dale is not removed from the City Hall beat, the National Post is reporting. “I will not be talking to any reporters...
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07:36 AM on 05/04/2012
But wait --- if Rob Ford decides to black out all media, um, to whom will he announce that fact?
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Eileen Warren
01:54 AM on 05/04/2012
With his size ,I can't picture him being intimidated by,let alone fearfulof anyone.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Eileen Warren
01:53 AM on 05/04/2012
I couldn't get the cops to even make a visit when underaged drunks were fighting on my property.Is this a perk of being a mayor?
10:19 AM on 05/04/2012
Not a perk, the local cops know his home very well from the repeated 911 calls there over many years. Such an embarrassment.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Eileen Warren
01:27 PM on 05/04/2012
So the cops get in the car and it automatically heads for his address at this point?Can't wait for Toronto's next municipal election.
This user has chosen to opt out of the Badges program
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11:31 PM on 05/03/2012
You just stop feeling sorry for someone who gets into fights with everyone, everywhere, all the time. At some point, even with your best friend you start to wonder if it isn't them that is the problem. You don't need to be a body language expert to see something in Rob's story doesn't add up. It sure doesn't pass the "mom test". Any Jersey Shore fans? Rob reminds me of Mike "The Situation" when he is telling tales and setting one roommate up against the other while saying, what, who, me, I'm the real victim here?
07:00 PM on 05/03/2012
BREAKING NEWS Ford has announced he will not take questions in the press scrum if "the" reporter is in the scrum. I guess his daughter might be afraid.
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Spanky McFarlane
ILLEGITIMUS NON CARBORUNDUM.
05:16 PM on 05/03/2012
I thought bluster, false accusations & lies to cover ones misdeeds only worked in Ottawa? I guess time will tell....
01:57 PM on 05/03/2012
What a surprise! The Huff & Puff post taking their usual leftist stance and siding with the most yellow of Toronto's journalistic endeavours, The Star. The negative comments about the first decent mayor in decades reflects more on the idiocy of the posters here than on Ford.
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Another Pesky Canadian
Talk - action = 0
03:16 PM on 05/03/2012
Georgio Mammolitti, is that you?
03:18 PM on 05/03/2012
yeah, us lefties and our "facts"...so annoying...
paintitblacker
shit happens life goes on
01:48 PM on 05/03/2012
yes please stop talking to the media , your idiocy shows every time you open your mouth, and for the rest of the general public ,please keep children and small pets away from this guy ,he's on a diet and could easily be halfway through a shepherd's pie before the missing posters are up
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William Muller
01:12 PM on 05/03/2012
Just the fact that this Mayor is in the news all the time with negative connotations gives you an idea what kind of man the Toronto citizens voted into office.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
14Kestrel
01:12 PM on 05/03/2012
para·noid
adj \ˈper-ə-ˌnȯid, ˌpa-rə-\
Definition of PARANOID
1

: characterized by or resembling paranoia
2

: characterized by suspiciousness, persecutory trends, or megalomania
3

: extremely fearful

— paranoidnoun

Look familiar people?
12:51 PM on 05/03/2012
i believe the jew have a great word for ford; "putz"
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Rusty Bucket
Intensely interested in the human condition!
01:46 PM on 05/03/2012
Actually schmuck is more like it!
12:40 PM on 05/03/2012
The Toronto voters deserve everything they have got with their elected choice for Mayor.

If you vote in a clown show... that's what you're going to get. I hope the entertainment has been worth it, because your city is now suffering as a result.
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Another Pesky Canadian
Talk - action = 0
03:20 PM on 05/03/2012
Trouble is: those of us (me included) who didn't vote for him are forced to suffer as well.

That's just one of the weaknesses of our First Past the Post electoral system.
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12:32 PM on 05/03/2012
I don't like Rob Ford's politcs and I would be the first with the high-fives if he was impeached for incompetence. But I must agree with him on the CBC reporter issue. She should not have stepped on his property and definately not approached him wihin arm's length at his vehicle. He is right, they crossed a line.
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fromdnorth
OK I checked my micro-bio (didn't know I had one
12:19 PM on 05/03/2012
We now know what his back yard looks like.

No wonder he get voted in. His neighbours are just as silly...

8pm is not dark at this time of the year.

Front door or back, Edsel is a phoney...
cdnman
Still a free spirit...
12:11 PM on 05/03/2012
Wobbie the Wimp.