Jian Ghomeshi sex assault charges, scandal at CBC – CBC tries to cover it up

Jan. 8th 2015

3 more sex assault charges against Jian Ghomeshi

Disgraced former CBC Radio host is out in bail on sexual assault charges

The three new alleged sexual assaults took place in August 2002, July 2003 and February 2008. The alleged 2002 sexual assault took place in Owen Sound, the other two in Toronto. His next appearance in Feb. 4th.

Mon. Jan. 5th

• 

CBC execs put on leave in wake of Jian Ghomeshi scandal

• Mon Jan 05 2015
  Chris Boyce, once responsible for all radio programming at CBC including Jian Ghomeshi's Q, and executive Todd Spencer are on immediate leave.

Dec. 3rd

This story has legs. Yet another complaint, and she is right. This is not an uncommon story in places where males used to dominate. I believed that CBC management would do better than this. Kathryn Borel wrote in a Guardian column Tuesday

Jian Ghomeshi touched me, harassed me at work and CBC is covering for themselves: former Q producer

Borel, who eventually quit Q in 2010 and moved to Los Angeles to start a career in writing for television, says senior leaders at the CBC “obsessively propped up” Ghomeshi and are now covering for themselves in the wake of the scandal.
“The CBC allowed a two-tier workplace to emerge, in which Ghomeshi didn’t have to comply with either the law or workplace norms as long as he kept pulling in listeners, and workers like me only had job security so long as we accepted his abuses of authority,” she wrote.

Nov. 29th

On Wednesday, Nov. 26th, Ghomeshi (47) was taken into custody, charged, and had a bail hearing. They set him free on $100,000 bail, into the custody of his mother. They collected his passport.

Jian Ghomeshi did not ask for consent, accusers say

Toronto Star-2 hours agoShare

The women making abuse allegations against Jian Ghomeshi — there are now 15 — say he never raised the topic of BDSM or asked for ...

The Fifth Estate did an hour-long documentary about Ghomeshi's carefully crafted
rise and fall. The blame lies in CBC management trying to cultivate a young target audience. Management has been denying knowledge of all this, despite many rumours, gossip and innuendo.

One woman, quoted in the article, basically cites the modus operandi of a perpetrator grooming a victim:

She said he criticized her for mispronouncing his name and calling his show “The Q” instead of “Q.” He accused her of wearing clothes that were “too granola.”  “He gave the impression I had sincerely offended him and I genuinely felt so bad about it at the time. I look back on this now as the tactic of a manipulator with a mandate,” she told the Star.

The Unmaking of Jian Ghomeshi - The Fifth Estate 

He was the breakout success the CBC needed and there was a time Jian Ghomeshi was everywhere - on radio, TV, hosting award galas and specials. Still there were whispers and allegations.... Ghomeshi was arrested on sex assault charges Wednesday but for years he seemed untouchable. Did his stardom blind people to what was going on ? CBC insiders tell the story of what really happened.

Still more headlines:

Jian Ghomeshi did not ask for consent, accusers say

The women who have made allegations of sexual abuse against the former CBC host say he never raised the topic of BDSM. The women making abuse allegations against Jian Ghomeshi — there are now 15 — say he never raised the topic of BDSM or asked for consent.

New allegations include a woman, a student at the time, who said the former host of the CBC Radio program Q tried to smother her by covering her nose and mouth with his hands, and others who describe how, with no warning, Ghomeshi made guttural snarling noises, hit, slapped, bit, choked them and in some cases pulled their hair so hard they were yanked down to the floor or onto a bed.

Nov. 6

This is no surprise.
However,  CBC fans and taxpayers want accountability and a lot more than 'I'm sorry, Canada' from upper management. Apologies must include the truth, as well as accountability.

CBC's Ghomeshi Investigation a Cover-up Before it Begins

Lawyer Janice Rubin's report will never be released to the public. What's more, the CBC now admits that Rubin has been contracted only to investigate past and present employees of Ghomeshi's shows, Q and Play. Rubin has no powers to demand answers, and no mission to learn who knew what and when. Participation in the investigation seems to be entirely voluntary.

Ghomeshi’s staff complained about ‘culture of fear’

JAMES BRADSHAW AND GREG MCARTHUR

In July of 2012, a core group of staff at the radio show Q began meeting quietly to draft a document complaining that the work culture at the program, then hosted by Jian Ghomeshi, was “unsustainable.” The complaint reveals that a clear, official attempt was made to address Mr. Ghomeshi’s behaviour in the workplace, and it was reviewed and acknowledged by CBC managers long before the star host was fired last month. Sources said they felt management was sympathetic, but that Mr. Ghomeshi’s office conduct never significantly changed. Staff also said the show was outgrowing its resources, and staff members were overloaded with extra tasks outside their job descriptions, keeping them at work for long hours.

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men. -Ella Wheeler Wilcox, poet (1850-1919)

 Nov. 5

It's just getting worse. 

Heads must roll. Decisions were made NOT to act: which is way above Executive Producer Noorani's pay grade. Star attraction, money, international exposure were chosen over moral decisions. Too much US content, little Canadian. Snarky, snippy guests, with little Canadian content: arts, music, culture, pandering to a US audience. Shock value (grungy Billy Bob Thornton) and a waste of taxpayer money. They have to rebrand and rename it.
From @JesseBrown:
Be very skeptical of any messaging that suggests #JianGhomeshi liability goes no higher than Noorani and the Q team. Developing... 
~~~~~~~

Jian Ghomeshi hires lawyer who defended ex-attorney general Michael Bryant

Marie Henein, the criminal defence lawyer who can "channel Hannibal Lecter," has been retained by Jian Ghomeshi amid assault and sexual abuse allegations.

Ghomeshi's new lawyer is paving the way. She is grooming her audience, just as Ghomeshi grooms his victims. Laughing at, and mocking, those who have acted bravely by coming forward to lay charges:

"As criminal lawyers we represent people who have committed heinous acts. Acts of violence. Acts of depravity. Acts of cruelty. Or as Jian Ghomeshi likes to call it, foreplay," she said to the crowd of about 450 lawyers, including judges of both the provincial and superior court where his case might be heard if charges are laid.

Nov. 4

Former York University student alleges Ghomeshi fondled him

Man who served on student federation with former CBC host more than 20 years ago accuses him of unwanted touching.

A male former student at York University who worked for Jian Ghomeshi when Ghomeshi was student federation president alleges the disgraced CBC host “grabbed my genitals and fondled them.”

~~~~~~~~~~

CBC names investigator as former Q staffer speaks;

CBC Radio's Q executive producer takes time off amid Ghomeshi allegations

In an email dated Oct. 28, Neesam wrote he remembers her telling him "about Jian behaving inappropriately (verbally/in attitude) toward you.”

But the next day, he added, "I have no recollection of you telling me about physical touching" and that "it's not information that I would have excluded from any of my conversations with anyone."

In the same email he says the information "was passed verbatim to the CBC radio manager, and also verbatim to the Q executive producer. Senior management is now aware of those conversations."

On Tuesday, CBC named employment lawyer Janice Rubin to lead an independent investigation into allegations of harassment or violence against women by Ghomeshi.

Nov. 3rd update

We all know about Jian Ghomeshi

Roberto Verì used to work for CBC's Q with Jian Ghomeshi. He witnessed harassment that he never reported, until now. Also: the extraordinary circumstances that led to Ghomeshi's downfall.

2009 - 2010

Chase producer: lined up stories; celebrities, not Canadians.
An Executive Producer told the story to Verì about how Ghomeshit tried to auto-erotically tried to asphyxiate someone. If he wasn't around, they'd use a signal for choking. It was a joke to these people. He was dating women young enough to be his daughters.
He was into weird, he said. Sexual assault in the workplace. No one tells. No one stands up for the women who are victimized. Shameful.

The unions says there is no record of complaints. Victims say this is wrong.
CBC told him he had a clean HR Record.
Yes, they branded the network around him. Wanted the exposure, never mind the women he exposed himself to. Someone covered it up and shamed the victims.
I've been harassed at work. I know.
Gender politics hit the news, but no one will 'fess up.
One woman in the Star story went to the shop steward, who took it to Q, the staff took it no where.
Q: What did the CBC know and when? And  when did they stop knowing about it?
Yes, he is a narcissist.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I remember going to a CBC studio with an editor. He closed the door and tried to hit on me. Late 70s.
It was the institutionalized accepted practice. In 1991 a performer on Mr, Dressup, Polka Dot Door, was convicted. He was a pedophile. Scoop was people who worked at the networks that the children go to his school.

~~~~~~~~~

Students were warned away from Q internships: professor

University of Western Ontario journalism students heard interning at Q was “off limits” over concerns about host Jian Ghomeshi’s “inappropriate” behaviour.

Jeremy Copeland, a journalism lecturer at Western, said the concerns stemmed from a 2012 incident in which Ghomeshi allegedly “prey(ed) on a young grad who wanted to work (at Q).” Because of this, he recently stopped a female student from pursuing an internship at Q.

What amazing me is that a male intern is made to do errands, and suddenly the male prof tell them not to go there. There are reports of him abusing his power over interns, making them do errands, and shopping for him.

Nov. 2nd Updates

Ghomeshi had a long history of disrespect. He has a YouTube video dating 1996,
"All my fans make me sick"
All #JianGhomeshi 's fans made him sick with contempt for decades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zSkjqK4SdP8 … (Think it's a joke? watch the monologue)

CBC will have to be reconstructed: from its employment of interns, part-timers, to hosts and 'stars,' to its Canadian content, and radio vs. TV or Internet.

Jeet Heer @HeerJeet · Oct 31

I'm increasingly feeling we need to tear the CBC apart, brick-by-brick, if they don't come clean about culture of tolerating Ghomeshi abuse

Is the CBC broken? Is it time for the CBC to be reconstructed? You owe it to all of us, from staff to listeners, to taxpayers. Time for CBC staff to stop moaning about how difficult work has been this past week, and move on to think of its listeners, who pay your salaries, and shudder every time another photo of Ghomeshi appears somewhere. Pictures who bring back every incident of groping, harassment and bullying we've ever experienced.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

FORMER Q INTERN PISSED OFF AT CBC’S INACTION

By Elisabeth Faure
CBC has now joined the media pile-on against Ghomeshi, but for me, it’s too little, too late. The time to take action against Ghomeshi was when the rumours first started to circulate about his strange behaviour with women. When a female employee first came forward with allegations he harassed her at work. At the end of the day, Ghomeshi and Ghomeshi alone is responsible for the vile crimes he committed against woman after woman after woman. But the MotherCorp was his enabler.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Orla Moylan Hegarty

This is what is wrong at CBC. The young people don't care what we old farts want on our radio. We thinking sentient adults are NOT the target audience.

""Everyone said 'oh, my God, we have a hit, we did it. For once, we're not making radio for 87-year-olds in Saskatoon. We're making radio for the new generation.' ".

Says it all, doesn't it? Those of us in the old generation, whose tax dollars have kept CBC going, have been mocked. The smart, educated, thinking people of all ages, in cities and rural areas, have been dumped for the 20-somethings who want fluff, to be told what to think, and vacuous programming. I adored listening to Gzowski when home with young kids. I was never bored. I learned, and I laughed a lot. I have turned off the radio at 10 a.m. for a long time now I'm retired.

Nov. 1st Update

The information from victims continues to pour out. 

My take? When the CBC manager knew about it, there should have been mediation. At least. That is what the Health and Safety officer offered me when I was harassed by my boss. Then, they decided it wouldn't happen. Nothing fits into those Policy and Procedures written by lawyers. Lower level managers are as protective as upper management. Deny, deny, deny.

*When I was in my early twenties I performed unfavourable acts in Jian Ghomeshi’s home. These acts included but were not limited to:

• Folding laundry
• Washing his deck
• Cleaning his bathroom
• Ensuring fresh cut flowers and soy milk were in place
• Travelling two hours to IKEA to purchase a set of white candles
• Organizing his CD’s
• Making a scrapbook of him for him (he had collected the newspaper and magazine articles about himself, but I was instructed to purchase the scrapbook and assemble the homage)

Jian Ghomeshi story shouldn’t have gotten this ugly: DiManno

By: Rosie DiManno  Week’s events are a modern parable about the cult of celebrity, the excesses of entitlement and the consequences of sexual compulsions unplugged.

I’ve just listened to the tape of a Q program from last March. Following several incidents of sexual assault at Canadian universities — a campus rape epidemic, some maintained — the subsequent online abuse aimed at alleged victims, Ghomeshi posed the question: “Do we really live in a so-called rape culture? Is that term accurate or is it alarmist?’’

Rumours are he has left the country. He will be told to come in and speak to police once they have gathered any and all evidence and have a case. They are trying to access the video footage CBC has reported they have seen.

Barbara Haynes ‏@barbhaynes  11m11 minutes ago

So... these are some interesting lyrics: http://www.leoslyrics.com/jian-ghomeshi/lousy-boy-lyrics/ … #JianGhomeshi #LousyBoy

Toronto Police on assault investigation

By CTV News @CTVNews

Toronto Police give an update after two women contacted officers with allegations of assault and sexual assault LIVE @ 10 a.m. ET.

 Toronto Police say that three people have filed police reports, and they urge anyone who may have had an incident to come forward. The police are reminding us that: Victim Services http://offers counselling, court help, support, and this is separate from police.

Their issue is with concrete evidence. Inspector Beaven-Desjardins publicly asked all affected to come forward and speak to her unit. Their unit spoke to the Toronto Star reporters, who spoke to victims, and asked that the victims contact the Assault and Sexual Assault unit directly. Three women have done so so far. It takes courage.

Another woman reported on her discomfort when Ghomeshi was grooming her. It is fair warning for all. Ruth Spencer, managing editor @GuardianUS  @ruths This is my story: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/nov/01/jian-ghomeshi-i-dated-him …

Absolute power corrupts. This is a danger in all workplaces. I was bullied and harassed by a couple of my bosses who didn't like who I was and what I was doing. The powers-that-be deny the issues, blame the victims, and move you, rather than the perpetrator. My 7-page letter, documenting the issues, I sent to the Superintendent. She sent it to head office and my problems were swept under the rug by my Health and Safety Officer, after he was told by the big brass to let it go. The bullying wasn't based on sexual harassment, and I didn't have a case. Don't let the big brass think that there will be only one victim. There is usually a history of corrupt power based on gender, sex, low self-esteem or high self-esteem of the bullies. This abuse of power escalates.

Put the "C" back in CBC, drop the show "Q"

When in 2010 she revealed to the show’s executive producer that the host had said he wanted to “hate f—” her, and had groped her buttocks, the manager suggested there was no point confronting Mr. Ghomeshi about his actions, the woman said.

“[The executive producer's] comment to me was …’He’s never going to change, you’re a malleable person, let’s talk about how you can make this a less toxic work environment for you,” the woman recalled. “No one was going to talk to Jian, he was too big. The show was a f—-ing juggernaut at that point. His face and name were inextricably linked with the brand of Q.”

Finally, my complaints are echoed on the GLobe and Mail's pages:

When Q launched as the new afternoon arts program in the spring of 2007, it had a core group of young and ambitious producers, almost all of them in their 20s and 30s. Mr. Ghomeshi had a very specific idea of what Q was going to be, and it was not typical CBC.

The aim was to land big-name guests, and not to adhere to the usual CBC mandate: promoting Canadian content coast-to-coast. A couple of veteran producers who objected ran up against Mr. Ghomeshi’s star power; they were weeded out. The five that stuck around quickly began to understand that, although Mr. Ghomeshi had “brilliant instincts,” they were going to pay a price for being part of this wild experiment, said Matt Tunnacliffe, a former Q producer and director.

It just keeps getting worse

And even more comes out, and the fact that people at CBC, and in the media, knew about him:

"DO YOU KNOW ABOUT JIAN?"

For at least half as long as I have been been alive, a string of five short words, or something very like them, slipped through the back-channels of certain social scenes. The question was whispered around wine glasses from Toronto to Vancouver, they were tapped out in texts and Twitter direct messages between old friends, or between kindred spirits newly met. In time, the answer that most followed became just as familiar as the question that preceded: a nodded affirmative, a mouth twisted in a rictus of disgust.

Eight women have come forward

Yes, this morning at 7:35-ish, Stu Mills was replaying an interview with a lawyer who was explaining what S & M is, in all its glory. Seriously... TMI. My kids listen to the radio in the morning while getting their kids ready for school!

Rough sex a murky legal area: experts

CBCOttawaMorning @OttawaMorning · 2h2 hours ago

The limits of consent. Our conversation with Ottawa lawyer @HowardKrongold is on now. #ottnews

Howard Krongold @HowardKrongold · Oct 27

It's been a long time since I was last quoted on the legality of unusual sexual practices. Wait no longer: http://goo.gl/fx6d0H 

CBC has been spending a lot of time going on about S & M since they fired Jian Ghomeshi, infamous host of Q, a fluffy arts show. I never liked him, he was a musician turned arts host, and spent a lot of time making himself famous. I don't know why Q would have to be taped in L.A., for example. I have tracked his guests and they were more US authors and artists, rather than Canadian.  Puerile humour. 
He isn't Q. Many are employed by CBC to create programming.

The CBC wanted to bring in a younger demographic (what am I, chump change?), and used this 47-year-old to do so. It's all hit the fan.

First, he was on leave, his father died this month, and then he was fired. Then he admitted to being into S & M with a 20-something girl, who, he claims, is after him. He later followed that up with a Facebook posting saying he has been the target of “harassment, vengeance and demonization.” He explained the entire story, fully admitting to rough sex. That was his mistake. Mind you, I was thinking maybe he was after boys, not girls. Silly me. Glad he cleared this up!

Then the Toronto Star came out with some interesting allegations of inappropriate workplace behaviour. Months of investigations, beginning in May, who knows why. 

He's suing the CBC for $55 million for wrongful dismissal. Welcome to the real world. You can be fired. 
Personally, I can't get an image out of my head of him in leather, with a whip. Just sayin'! 

1. 
   

   Jian Ghomeshi: CBC releases memo citing 'claim of ...

   Toronto Star ‎- 2 hours ago

   On Sunday, the Star published detailed allegations about former CBC Radio host Jian Ghomeshi, who was fired by the CBC that same day.

At least, this has blown Rob & Doug Ford out of the news, I guess.

This is an excellent piece on the situation.

The Ghomeshi question: The law and consent

"But, when it comes to BDSM – or at least its more intense versions – the law doesn’t actually care about consent. The Supreme Court has said that a person cannot consent to an assault that causes bodily harm. While the cases have typically arisen in the context of bar room brawls or hockey violence, other courts have applied the same reasoning to the sexual context. So, if a sexual activity causes bodily harm, a person cannot consent to it." 

 "BDSM sexuality still lives on the margins of legality in Canada. Fifty shades of grey is actually a pretty good description of its legal status. This isn’t to say that the CBC should or shouldn’t have fired Mr. Ghomeshi for it. Simply that Mr. Ghomeshi’s defense that the sex was consensual – even if it is true – is not the end of the story."

Jian Ghomeshi case highlights why some women don’t report assaults:...

If a tree falls in the forest and no one files a police report – did it make a sound? Some of the thousands of people weighing in on the Jian Ghomeshi affair seem to be convinced that if a woman...

Leave it to a retired musician -turned radio host- to complain about the media!