Mayor Nenshi in Twitter tiff with SUN columnist
Posted Sep 8, 2013 2:03 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor Naheed Nenshi waged a war of words with a SUN columnist on Twitter Sunday morning.
It began with a question from Ezra Levant to the mayor about the city paying $340-thousand to the Pembina Institute. The mayor’s response generated an uproar.
Levant had written an article in Sunday’s SUN criticizing Nenshi for supporting the move to fund the organization and for claiming Pembina was a “scientific think-tank.”
The columnist, also an author, a lawyer, and SUN News commentator, tells 660News, from what he’s determined, most of the staff at Pembina are spin-doctors and registered lobbyists — not scientists.
“It’s just really weird the mayor of Calgary would be giving a third of a million dollars to anti-oilsands activists. So I started asking him some questions,” says Levant.
The columnist tweeted questions to the mayor including: “Almost half of the 22 Pembina staff you hired are PR staff. Why did you call them scientists? Are they campaigning for you?”
Levant also questioned whether Pembina staff were working on his election campaign, or have donated to him.
Nenshi responded with a cliche known in legal circles meant to represent a loaded question: “When did you stop beating your wife?”
Levant says he responded to that by telling the mayor he has never beaten his wife and asked him to answer his questions.
Nenshi tweeted afterward to Levant: “You well know that that’s a cliche used to expose gotcha questions. More fake outrage?”
The Twitter war went on for about an hour and a half, garnering numerous responses from followers. Some were upset, saying Nenshi shouldn’t joke about domestic violence. Others, who immediately understood the reference, targeted Levant for not taking it in stride.
Levant tells 660News, he and the mayor have known each other for about 25 years.
“We first met in high school, we were actually debating partners for a couple of years. He’s a very charming man 99 per cent of the time but he has serious issues with the other 1 per cent.”
Levant says Nenshi should not make comments about people’s personal lives, especially if they’re false and defamatory.
“It’s bad form by the mayor,” says Levant, who wants a retraction. “Wife-beating is not a joke,” he says.
Levant says he’s familiar with the cliche the mayor used but felt it was inappropriate, especially given the public forum.
Mayor Nenshi has told media he’s planning on releasing a statement sometime Sunday.
