Veteran Toronto Councillor Cesar Palacio has served a libel notice to a long-time political rival for allegedly distributing “defamatory” flyers in Ward 17 amid a heated election race.

The incumbent for Davenport claimed in a 13-page notice against Alejandra Bravo that her canvasser handed out the flyer and a copy of her campaign literature last Sunday near Caledonia Rd. and Innes Ave.

The two-page flyer purported to list the city councillors who voted for and against Mayor Rob Ford’s proposed 10 per cent cut from the Toronto Public Library budget in 2012, with Palacio listed in favour of the cuts.

The flyer also showed a photo of Mayor Ford and his brother, Doug, under the heading, “The quiet attack on our public library” and asked the question, “Isn’t it time city hall valued our public library like we do?”

“The flyer is false, defamatory and seriously damaging to Councillor Palacio’s reputation. The smear campaign also appears to be on a large scale, at your direction,” Palacio’s lawyer, Michael Fenrick, said the libel notice.

In an interview Sunday, Fenrick said his client just wanted to get the record straight and had no interest turning the libel proceeding into a public issue.

“The bottom line is that the statement made in the flyer is demonstratively false. Mr. Palacio did not vote for the 10 per cent cut,” he told the Star, adding that the councillor would only proceed with the libel after the election to avoid any distraction from his campaign.

It’s not the first time Palacio accused his opponent of a smear campaign. During the 2006 municipal election, he also made the same accusation against Bravo when he was under attack for renting a ward office in a building where the mortgage is paid by a charity he co-founded.

And the duo has had a long history that goes back to 2003 when the right-leaning Palacio beat Bravo by 791 votes, though the margin narrowed to just 281 votes in 2006.

Bravo, a community activist, said the flyers were distributed without authorization or knowledge of her campaign, citing that all her campaign materials are clearly marked and branded.

“This frivolous attempt to silence me is a clear sign that Mr. Palacio is scared of losing his job,” she told the Star in a statement Sunday.

“He’s hearing what we are at the door, an overwhelming desire for change in leadership in Ward 17. I will say I’m surprised that he would turn to this kind of legal bullying. I think he’s been spending too much time with the Ford brothers at city hall.”

Bravo said Palacio’s voting record on council speaks for itself: he is a “staunch ally” of the Fords as he voted with them over 85 per cent of the time, including library cuts and reduced service on local bus routes like Route 29 on Dufferin St.

However, Fenrick said the vote on the library budget referenced on the flyer was not a vote to cut $17 million or 10 per cent from the library budget.

“The vote cited was actually a vote on whether to transfer $3.89 million from the Tax Stabilization Reserve Fund, or whether to find the equivalent amount ‘from new revenue sources and services efficiencies,’ ” Fenrick pointed out in the libel notice.

Through his lawyer, Palacio issued a statement to the Star late Sunday that he is determined to pursue those “responsible for fabricating my record.”

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“I have always taken the high road and turned the other cheek when untrue or unfair things have been said about me, but some things are so untrue and hurtful that they cannot simply be ignored,” Palacio said.

Palacio has given Bravo 72 hours from Friday, when the libel notice was delivered, to “correct the record publicly” and immediately cease to publish any further defamatory material respecting him.