By Khang Nguyen

P.A. Daily Herald apologizes to Mayor

Sep 24, 2015 | 6:10 AM

The Prince Albert Daily Herald has apologized to Mayor Greg Dionne, but it hasn’t stopped him from going ahead with legal action.

The apology was published on Sept.23 and reads, “The Daily Herald regrets publishing such a column and retracts the statements and negative innuendos found there regarding the mayor.”

The column also goes on to apologize to the mayor for “allowing something that unfairly reflects him in a poor light make it on the pages of (the) paper.”

“I feel very good about it,” Dionne said. “It’s one of the stronger apologies that I’ve seen the newspaper give, but it just shows that the editorial was wrong – (it) was misleading and not factual.”

The original column, written on Sept. 15 by former Herald Editor Barb Gustafson, claimed Dionne was behind the sale of the Margo Fournier Centre.

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She also insinuated the Gateway Mall, which Dionne formerly managed, was the “interested party” in the purchase of the property.

Dionne took legal action against both the Herald and Gustafson, claiming the article was defamatory.

Since then, the Gateway Mall has denied having any connection with the sale of the Margo Fournier Centre.

Dionne said he will meet with the Herald on Thursday to discuss the column. He said after meeting with the paper, he will likely only proceed with an action against Gustafson.

“I am surprised that she didn’t apologize, so I guess maybe she’d sooner have the courts do it for her,” Dionne said.

“It’s sad that it happened. We won’t know why Barb Gustafson did it. Maybe she’ll answer that one day. Maybe she just doesn’t like me, or she thinks she knows better, but unfortunately no one knows why she did it except for her.”

Gustafson was not able to be reached for a comment.

knguyen@panow.com

On Twitter: @khangvietnguyen