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Mayor Rob Ford did not attend an Ontario Press Council hearing Monday morning on the Toronto Star?s coverage of the crack cocaine video scandal.
The Star defended its reporting in the story published May 16 about a cellphone video that shows Rob Ford appearing to smoke crack cocaine and make homophobic and racist remarks.
The press council is not tasked with determining the truth of the news report ? only whether established journalistic standards were followed ? but Star editor Michael Cooke, in his opening remarks to the panel, defended the story?s accuracy.
?I tell you now, with great emphasis, that that story is true ? every word of it,? Cooke told the panel of three press council members.
The mayor was invited to file complaints with the press council so he could participate in the proceedings, but chose not to. The hearing would have been an opportunity for him to comprehensively refute the allegations in a public forum.
Following complaints by 41 readers ? at least 30 of them anonymous ? the press council announced last month that it would hold public hearings on the Star story and a report in the Globe and Mail that alleging that Councillor Doug Ford, the mayor?s brother, dealt hashish as a young man. The Globe hearing is set to get underway at 1 p.m.
The mayor has not addressed the allegations in the Star story in detail. ?I do not use crack cocaine, nor am I an addict of crack cocaine,? he said in a news conference a week after the story broke.
Darylle Donely, a member of the public, complained to the press council about the Ford crack story.
?The Ford brothers are being lied about, innuendos and allegations are being made against them. The news should be concrete and proven truth,? she wrote.
Donely also speculated on whether the drug dealer sources in the Star story were ?two real people? and, if so, whether they would have been ?capable of creative videography.?
Investigations editor and reporter Kevin Donovan defended his and Robyn Doolittle?s reporting methods on the story, citing numerous attempts at contacting the mayor for a response.
?We went to a lot of trouble to make sure (the mayor) knew exactly what we were asking,? Donovan said.
Asked by a panel of press council members about whether he was ever concerned that the video could be a fake, Donovan acknowledged that thought was on his mind until the night he and Doolittle saw the video.
My concern that it was fake vanished,? he said. ?It was clearly real.
With files from Laura Kane
Submissions to Ontario Press Council hearing
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