Brad Bradford opts out of tonight’s Toronto mayoral arts debate over alleged moderator bias - Toronto Star

Brad Bradford's team alleged that moderator Jill Andrew, a former NDP MPP, has publicly criticized him and wouldn't provide a level playing field for the debate.

Brad Bradford’s mayoral campaign issued a statement saying he would not take part in the arts debate scheduled for Tuesday night. 

A leading Toronto mayoral candidate has pulled out of a planned debate after alleging that the moderator was biased against him. 

Brad Bradford’s campaign issued a statement Tuesday saying he would not take part in the Mayoral Arts Debate, which is being hosted this evening by the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts (TAPA). Organizers bill it as the only debate dedicated to arts and culture policy in the city. Incumbent Olivia Chow and candidates Chris Alexander and Sarah McVie are scheduled to attend. 

The statement asserted that Bradford, who is the councillor for Beaches—East York, supports the arts, but that the event moderator, Jill Andrew, former NDP MPP for Toronto-St. Paul’s, “has spent this campaign publicly attacking” him. 

Campaign spokesperson Laryssa Waler wrote that “no candidate, in any election, should be asked to debate under a moderator who has campaigned against them.” She said Bradford wasn’t trying to avoid “tough questions” but wanted to debate on “a level playing field, which organizers owe every candidate and, more importantly, owe voters.”

Waler also cited a scheduling conflict with the debate, which she said had been moved from an earlier date.

TAPA’s executive director annemieke wade defended the organization’s decision to retain Andrew as moderator in a statement to the Star, highlighting her relevant experience. Andrew was a culture and heritage critic in the legislature and ran a fashion blog. 

“As host, TAPA selects the debate moderator using its own criteria, including familiarity with substantive arts and policy issues in Toronto, and the final decision rests with TAPA,” said wade. “Dr. Jill Andrew is an award-winning journalist with deep knowledge of this sector, and she’s there tonight to run a fair conversation for every candidate on stage.”

Andrew didn’t immediately return a request for comment.

As evidence of Andrew’s alleged bias, Bradford’s campaign cited posts to X the former provincial representative had made accusing him of trying to use the deadly shooting at a St. Clair Avenue street festival in July to score “political points.” 

In August, after Bradford distanced himself from a supporter who had made Islamophobic remarks, Andrew alleged he was “cosplaying ignorance” about “who his key endorsers really are” and suggested he held similar views. “Birds of a feather,” she wrote.

Bradford’s campaign said it flagged its concerns about Andrew’s role to the debate organizers earlier this month, and TAPA initially said it would find a different moderator, but backtracked last week. TAPA didn’t address Bradford’s version of events in its statement Tuesday.

The councillor’s decision to withdraw from the debate marks the second time a moderator has provoked controversy this campaign. Chow declined to attend a debate hosted Sept. 8 by Jewish Lawyers of Canada focused on antisemitism that was moderated by Jesse Brown, founder of the Canadaland media company. He has publicly accused Chow of allowing Toronto to “become a global capital of antisemitism” and claimed she has endangered Jewish residents. 

Brown said she would be treated fairly if she took part, and Chow didn’t publicly cite his involvement as her reason for her not attending. Instead, she said she wasn’t taking part any candidate events before her official campaign launch, which was scheduled the day after the antisemitism debate. Still, critics of the event argued that Brown would have slanted the conversation against her. 

Bradford criticized her for not attending the antisemitism forum. His spokesperson didn’t immediately return a request for comment about how he squares that stance with his assertion that candidates shouldn’t have to debate under moderators who have made public statements against them. 

Alexander, Brown and Chow faced off Monday in the first debate to include all three leading mayoral candidates, with more scheduled in the coming weeks. There are a total of 53 people on the ballot. Voting day is Oct. 26. 

Ben Spurr is the Star's city hall bureau chief, based in Toronto. Reach him by email at bspurr@thestar.ca or follow him on Twitter: @BenSpurr.

Ben Cohen is part of the Star's city hall bureau, based in Toronto. Follow him on X: @bcohenn.