Calgary Home builder Cal Wenzel, who filed amultimillion dollar defamation lawsuit againstmayor Naheed Nenshi, was caught in a leakedtape recorded in 2012 where Wenzel implied threeCalgary councillors were already “taken care of”.
CALGARY -Popular SouthAsian mayor ofCalgary NaheedNenshi is beingsued by aprominent citydeveloper whoclaims themayor defamedhim by allegedlyreferring to himas a mafia don.The battleb e t w e e nNenshi andCalgary homebuilderCalWenzel took anasty turn last Friday as Wenzelbrought a $6 million defamationsuit against the mayorWenzel, the CEO of ShaneHomes, claims the mayordefamed him for political gain,citing a radio interview in whichNenshi compared the developmentmogul to Don VitoCorleone, Marlon Brando’smafia boss character in theGodfather movies, reportedCTV news.Wenzel and the mayor clashedafter a video emerged in April of2013 in which Wenzel urged hisfellow developers to vote forpro-business candidates inCalgary’s municipal election.Wenzel has made no secret of his desirefor more pro-development voices on citycouncil and, in that leaked tape recordedin 2012, Wenzel implied three councillorswere already “taken care of”.Two city councillors confirmed theyreceived donations from Shane Homesbut insist the donations did not affecttheir votes in council.Friday’s lawsuit claims the mayor distortedWenzel’s recorded comments, thentried to smear the developer as a re-electionstrategy.
