Well, we finally know who lost the court battle between Mississauga Mayor Hazel McCallion and citizen Elias Hazineh. We did. The residents of Peel are the biggest losers.

Last week, Peel councillors generously voted to cover the $513,000 McCallion owes her lawyers for legal work done since Hazineh brought a complaint against her.

To refresh your memory, McCallion successfully defended herself against Hazineh’s allegations she broke conflict-of-interest rules related to a vote by councillors on a development charges bylaw in 2007.

A Superior Court judge ordered Hazineh to pay $170,000 towards the mayor’s legal tab — fair enough, since he lost — but he now says he’s flat broke and can’t meet that obligation.

Of course, McCallion’s legal team wants to be paid — and Hazineh’s tale of financial woe is of little concern to them. They quickly assessed that getting money from Hazineh would be squeezing blood from the proverbial stone, so they astutely targeted their client’s political colleagues and arranged a withdrawal from the public purse.

There’s no problem with council covering McCallion’s share of the outstanding legal tab. The argument is sound. Public officials can’t be left unprotected from politically-motivated and/or groundless attacks. And it’s not right that they be left holding the bag when the dust settles.

But, councillors had no right to hand over $170,000 of our hard-earned tax dollars to pay a deadbeat’s debt. It’s Hazineh who owes that money to McCallion’s legal team.

Peel council should now take steps to recover that shortfall from Hazineh. It might be an expensive proposition but a message needs to be sent. It’s a serious matter to take someone to court, and you have to be prepared to pay the piper if you lose.