At your mother's knee

That's what the late Ontario judge, Kenneth Fogarty, said to the opposing lawyer when B was in the vortex of his unnecessarily hideous divorce a million years ago.  Asking the lawyer to approach the bench he said, "You don't learn ethics and morals in law school, you learn them at your mother's knee," he admonished this particular counsel.  "If you don't settle this case within a reasonable timeframe, I will have you back in front of me and I will settle it," he added.  Unfortunately, the "other side" fought on and His Honour actually died before things were settled!   

But I have never forgotten Justice Forgarty's words, which came back to me today when I read the lead story in 'The Calgary Herald' this morning.  Our hapless and luckless mayor, Naheed Nenshi, was publically admonished in a report by the city's ethics watchdog for the tasteless, rude and unprofessional remarks he made to a Boston cabbie many months ago.  Not realizing he was being recorded, Nenshi called Uber, "the worst people in the world to deal with," and added, "the guy who heads it is a dick."  I wish I were kidding, but I am not.

By the way, this is the same guy who was sued by a local developer for having called him a crook.  Nenshi lost and then stiffed the Calgary taxpayer for $300,000 in legal fees!  He claims to be paying it back through "donations" from his friends.  Good luck with that in a city that is crippled by low gas prices, hundreds of failing businesses and scores of people laid off in droves. 

When outed, Nenshi should have known that the right thing to do would have been to have admitted guilt and apologized immediately?  Seriously.  But no, it took a months-long investigation by the ethics commissioner to tell him what his mother should have taught him at her knee when he was a toddler.  You just don't do that.  To me it is unbelievable that he had to be put in line and made to heel by a city official. 

Folks, don't believe everything you read and hear about Nenshi.  Unfortunately, he has outlived his 'best-before' date.  What he exhibited was precisely the kind of behaviour that would have outraged him when he first ran for mayor.  Those days are long gone and it's time for him to be too.