In 2010,
Q producer
Kathryn Borel approached her union, the
Canadian Media Guild, reporting
[46] that Ghomeshi had repeatedly sexually harassed her starting in 2007. She also reported that there was "...emotional abuse, too:
gaslighting and psychological games that undermined [her] intelligence, security and sense of self. Sometimes that hit harder than the physical trespassing."
[47][48] Borel declined to start a union arbitration or formal grievance but met with the executive producer of the show informally.
[47][48] Borel says that her union representative and the producer "did nothing."
[47][48] When Borel's allegations became public in 2014, CMG national president Carmel Smyth described Borel's experience as unacceptable and stated that sexual harassment is now a priority for the union.
[49]
In 2012, journalism students at the
University of Western Ontario were advised not to pursue internships at
Q due to Ghomeshi's rumoured inappropriate behaviour toward young women.
[50]
In 2013, journalist Carla Ciccone published an account of her date with a Canadian radio host to
XoJane titled "I Accidentally Went on a Date With a Presumed-Gay Canadian C-List Celebrity Who Creepily Proved He Isn't Gay."
[51][52] Ciccone refers to the personality under a pseudonym but
Toronto Life identified the individual as Ghomeshi. The article describes the radio host as making unwanted physical advances.
[53] Ghomeshi did not deny going on a date with Ciccone and claimed not to have read the article, but stated that much of it was untrue from what he had heard.
[52]
In 2014, a
Twitter account named for Ghomeshi's teddy bear, Big Ears Teddy, made accusations of abuse against him; these accusations included an April 9, 2014 tweet signed "every female Carleton U media grad."
[54]
In the spring of 2014, Ghomeshi advised his employers at the
CBC that the
Toronto Star was looking into allegations by an ex-girlfriend that he had engaged in
non-consensual rough sex and that he denied this accusation.
[44] The crisis management firm Navigator was hired to work for both Ghomeshi and the CBC.
[55]
In early summer of 2014, reporter
Jesse Brown contacted the CBC and warned that Ghomeshi's behaviour may have crossed into his work environment.
[44] The CBC investigated and concluded that there were no workplace complaints against Ghomeshi.
[44] According to an investigation by the CBC's
The Fifth Estate, "almost all known staffers on... Q said they were not contacted by CBC management as part of any investigation."
[56] Ghomeshi denied the accusations again and the
Toronto Star declined to go forward with the story at that time.
[44]
In October 2014, Brown tweeted that he was working on a story that would be "worse than embarrassing for certain parties".
[55] Brown later said that he was referring to another story but Ghomeshi requested a meeting with CBC on October 23.
[55] During that meeting, the CBC viewed what it later described as "graphic evidence that Jian had caused physical injury to a woman".
[44] According to
Vice, Ghomeshi showed his bosses lewd text messages on a CBC-owned phone and graphic personal sex videos.
[57]
On October 24, Ghomeshi announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the network to deal with personal matters.
[58] Two days later, the CBC terminated Ghomeshi's employment,
[33] with a CBC spokesperson saying "information came to our attention recently that in CBC's judgment precludes us from continuing our relationship with Jian."
[33] Ghomeshi subsequently released a "lengthy
Facebook post"
[59] saying his dismissal was motivated by fear of an alleged
smear campaign by an ex-girlfriend that according to Ghomeshi could release private details about his sexual life.
[60] Ghomeshi also said he refused an offer by the CBC to "walk away quietly."
[56] Chris Boyce, the head of CBC Radio, denied that such an offer was made.
[56]
Ghomeshi filed a $55 million lawsuit against the CBC, alleging that the broadcaster misused "personal and
confidential information provided to it in confidence".
[61] He also filed "a union grievance alleging
wrongful dismissal and
defamation,"
[62] and stated through his lawyer that he "does not engage in non-consensual
role play or sex and any suggestion of the contrary is defamatory."
[63] Ghomeshi withdrew his lawsuit on November 25, 2014.
[64] The terms of settlement stipulated that Ghomeshi will pay the CBC $18,000 in legal costs.
[64]
Following his firing, the
Toronto Star published allegations by three women who said that they experienced violence from Ghomeshi without consent, along with allegations by a former CBC colleague, who later revealed her identity as
Kathryn Borel,
[48] who said that Ghomeshi had
sexually harassed her in the workplace.
[63] A fifth woman gave an interview to CBC Radio's
As It Happens on October 29, 2014, also revealing that Ghomeshi physically abused her on their first date.
[65] By December 16, 15 women
[1][35] and one man
[66] had approached media outlets with abuse allegations against Ghomeshi.
[67] Actress
Lucy DeCoutere was the first woman to agree to the publication of her name in conjunction with the allegations,
[68] followed by author and lawyer
Reva Seth.
[69] Jim Hounslow later came forward publicly accusing Ghomeshi of sexually assaulting him while the two were students at
York University in the early 1990s.
[66]
On October 30, Ghomeshi was dropped by Navigator and his PR firm, Rock-it Productions, ended their association with Ghomeshi.
[67]
On November 26, Ghomeshi turned himself in to
Toronto Police and was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking, after an investigation that began on October 31. The charges concern three separate women.
[70][71] He appeared in court on the same day
[70][72] and was released on $100,000 bail on the conditions that he surrender his passport, stay within Ontario and live with his mother.
[5] Ghomeshi appeared in court again on January 8, 2015 and was charged with three additional counts of sexual assault related to three more women.
[5][6] In a court appearance on February 26, 2015, a judicial pretrial was set for March 27, 2015,
[73][74] and was later put over to April 28, 2015.
[75] His lawyer,
Marie Henein, has said he will plead not guilty to all charges.
[76]
Both
Carleton University[77] and the CBC
[78] launched private investigations into allegations against Ghomeshi. The CBC investigation was led by Janice Rubin, a prominent lawyer and leading authority on
workplace harassment,
[79] and the results were released on April 16, 2015.
[80]
As a result of his firing and the accusations made against him, Ghomeshi was named
QMI Agency's newsmaker of the year.
[81]
On January 5, 2015 the CBC placed Boyce and Todd Spencer, the executive director of human resources and industrial relations for English services, on indefinite leave of absence because of the Ghomeshi scandal.
[82] The CBC announced their dismissal on April 16, 2015.
[80]
