After being served with a libel notice, Mayor Rob Ford responded with silence on Thursday when asked if he continued to stand by the defamatory statements he recently made about a Star reporter.

Ford also ignored questions about whether he planned to apologize to Daniel Dale — the paper’s acting city hall bureau chief — for suggesting he was a pedophile.

The mayor’s new tight-lipped demeanour was a stark reversal from earlier this week, when Ford maintained that he stood “by every word” of his 35-minute interview with Conrad Black on The Zoomer current affairs show.

Both ZoomerMediaand Vision TV have also been served with libel notices, the first step in a lawsuit. Dale now has three months to file a statement of claim.

The notice calls on Ford and ZoomerMedia, which owns Vision TV, to immediately “retract the false and defamatory statements in their entirety” as well as apologize to Dale “publicly, abjectly, unreservedly and completely.”

In a statement released Friday, ZoomerMedia acknowledged the legal action.

“As there is now the threat of legal action, ZoomerMedia will not be making a statement until such time as we can consult with our attorneys to consider the allegations and determine next steps,” the statement said.

Councillor Doug Ford told reporters that Dale had “no grounds” to sue his brother and that he should be “embarrassed.”

Last week, Black and Ford met in the mayor’s office for their much-publicized interview. During the conversation, Black asked Ford to describe some of the most “offensive events” he’s experienced at the hands of the media.

“The worst one was Daniel Dale in my backyard taking pictures,” Ford told him. “I have little kids. When a guy’s taking pictures of little kids, I don’t want to say the word, but you start thinking, you know, what’s this guy all about?”

Ford went on to say that on the evening in question — May 2, 2012 — he “caught” Dale “on the bricks, over my fence, taking pictures. . . . He had cinder blocks that he had to step on to get over the fence.”

The interview aired at 9 p.m. Monday and again at midnight, although the footage was pulled off the website the next day.

The mayor made similar statements on Thursday morning to a Washington, D.C. sports radio show.

A police investigation at the time by Det. Tricia Johnston found no evidence to support the mayor’s claim. Dale was not in Ford’s backyard, not taking photos of the mayor’s children, and not looking over any fence. In fact, Dale was on public parkland near the mayor’s home — working on a story that Ford was hoping to purchase some parkland for his property — when he was accosted by the mayor.

After the notice was filed, several councillors expressed their support for Dale.

“I know Daniel Dale to be an honest, ethical and decent person. He has every right to stand up to slanderous and dishonest bullying. He has a good name and I’m proud to stand with him,” said Councillor Josh Matlow.

Councillor Janet Davis said she believes Dale, saying, “The mayor has to be held to account.”

“It is amazing the lengths that decent people have to go to to defend the principles of truth in public affairs,” said Councillor Gord Perks.

Councillor Paul Ainslie, who has himself been the target of the mayor’s ire, said he’s never believed the mayor’s version of events and supports Dale’s move.

“I think it’s the right thing to do. You have to stand up to bullies and liars, as I’ve said before,” he said.

Dale said he didn’t rush into legal action.

“I didn’t want to do this. I’m a nonconfrontational guy,” he said. “But the mayor left me with no choice. He made perhaps the most defamatory and vile insinuation possible, pointedly said days later that he stands by ‘every word,’ and then repeated his false and malicious claims in an interview today on American radio.”

Dale, who independently decided to file the notice, is pursuing the action with the full financial support of the Toronto Star.

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Star editor Michael Cooke said the paper will continue to support Dale.

“Through this entire upsetting ordeal, Daniel Dale has never once wavered in his professionalism. He of course will stay in his role at city hall. Why would he be punished because the mayor has chosen to make vile and baseless accusations against him?” Cooke said.

“Moving forward with legal action was Daniel’s decision alone. But I admit I look forward to the day where the mayor is made to swear on a Bible and tell the truth for once about what really happened that night.”