Ghomeshi scandal: CBC brass walloped
Top execs fired after report finds network management ‘condoned’ former radio host’s abusive behaviour and alleged sexual misconduct
CBC management is squarely to blame for allowing disgraced radio host Jian Ghomeshi to get away for years with inappropriate behaviour that included sexual harassment, a damning report concluded Thursday.
“Management knew or ought to have known of this behaviour and conduct and failed to take steps required of it in accordance with its own policies to ensure that the workplace was free from disrespectful and abusive conduct,” reads the report from the independent investigation carried out by Toronto employment lawyers Janice Rubin and Parisa Nikfarjam.
“It is our conclusion that CBC management condoned this behaviour.”
The public broadcaster brought in Rubin to lead the investigation last November, days after Ghomeshi was fired from his job as host of Q, a position he had held since 2007. He is now facing seven counts of sexual assault and one of overcoming resistance by choking. He intends to plead not guilty.
Ghomeshi declined to participate in the investigation. His lawyer did not return the Star’s request for comment.
Top brass at CBC, who received the report Monday, acted swiftly. Just minutes before the results were released to the public Thursday morning, CBC announced it had “severed ties” with two top executives who had been on leave since January.
The two are former head of radio Chris Boyce and human resources director Todd Spencer. It did not offer any further details.
Boyce did not return a request for comment. Spencer could not be reached.
CBC president Hubert Lacroix, speaking to reporters on a conference call, offered a “sincere and unqualified apology” to employees and Canadians, pledging to work with the union to put in place the report’s recommendations as quickly as possible to strengthen safety in the workplace.
The union, the Canadian Media Guild, criticized the timing of the report’s release — it was made public the same day that 244 staff redundancy notices went out to CBC and Radio-Canada employees across the country.
“It’s baffling,” said CMG national president Carmel Smyth. “Out of 365 days in the year, they’re releasing this information today? We’re talking about devastating cuts for the CBC.”
Lacroix told reporters the timing was purely coincidental, saying the announcement regarding those notices was made in March, before executives knew when Rubin would be completing her report.
“This is the day that it happens to fall on,” he said. “Two disappointing announcements on the same day.”
In a surprise move, CBC chose “in the spirit of transparency” to release the full 52-page report — albeit many parts censored — rather than just the recommendations, as it initially announced last year.
“Because the report is public, it allows for employees and future employees to really hold their employer to account,” said Farrah Khan, an advocate at the Barbra Schlifer Commemorative Clinic, which provides counselling and legal support to women who experience violence.
“Sexual harassment is never something that is just by one person. It’s by a whole system in place that upholds this behaviour and condones it. That’s what we call rape culture. It silences the survivor.”
The long-awaited report — Rubin and Nikfarjam spoke to 99 people over nearly six months — had harsh words for a culture at the CBC that showed far too much deference to the host, a system that did not properly address and compile complaints of harassment, and an atmosphere that caused young and vulnerable workers to feel they could not go to management with concerns.
Among its recommendations: a full review of policies and procedures around protection and expectations of employees; a confidential hotline for reporting inappropriate behaviour; and a work and human rights ombudsman.
The investigation dealt only with complaints and concerns from former and current CBC employees related to Ghomeshi. No one was compelled to talk, and indeed 17 people contacted by Rubin declined to be interviewed. Employees with nonGhomeshi complaints were told last year to go to the human resources department.
The lawyers found Ghomeshi was an incredibly difficult person to work with: he was chronically late, emotionally unpredictable, took credit for other people’s work, gave harsh criticism and played cruel jokes.
They said a “small number of cases” constituted sexual harassment: these included Ghomeshi giving unwanted back rubs to female employees and sharing too much information with colleagues about his sex life.
“Mr. Ghomeshi became a star of the CBC,” Rubin and Nikfarjam wrote. “We do not wish to overstate the powerlessness of those who worked with him. Based on our interviews with them, they appeared to be highly professional, creative and productive people. However, relative to Mr. Ghomeshi, they were vulnerable.”
The authors identified at least three opportunities when management was made aware of inappropriate behaviour by Ghomeshi over the span of two years but failed to properly handle it.
Rubin would not be made available for comment, the CBC said.
Heather Conway, the CBC’s executive vice-president of English services, told reporters she first became aware last June of an allegation that inappropriate behaviour by Ghomeshi may have crossed over into the workplace but was “satisfied” at the time with an internal investigation that found no wrongdoing.
That internal investigation was led by Boyce and Spencer. Last year, Boyce told the CBC’s the fifth estate that they had contacted a cross-section of employees, including Q staffers. Everyone at Q reached by the fifth estate said they had not been part of an investigation.
Lacroix told reporters he became aware of problems “in that famous week in October” when Boyce and Chuck Thompson, the CBC’s head of public affairs, viewed evidence of Ghomeshi causing physical harm to a woman, including a cracked rib. That was on Oct. 23, 2014. Ghomeshi was fired three days later.
Conway would not go into specifics when asked by a reporter if anyone else at the CBC would be disciplined or if there would be more departures.
“We will be working every day to address any kind of weaknesses that existed in the management system,” she said.
Employment lawyer Daniel Lublin told the Star that someone had to leave CBC to signal to the public that the corporation values accountability.
“The four executives who were participating in that conference call (Lacroix, Conway, general counsel Maryse Bertrand, and vice-president, people and culture, Roula Zaarour), of course, are still there, and this all happened under their watch, and yet it’s the other two (Boyce and Spencer) who were cut,” he said.
“Someone had to go. It wasn’t going to be the CEO or Ms. Conway. Why? Because they call the shots. (Leafs president Brendan) Shanahan didn’t fire himself, he fired everyone else. That’s because when you’re the boss, you get to call the shots.”
The report authors said they did not believe that a 2010 allegation of sexual harassment made by former Q employee Kathryn Borel (who is not named in the public portion of the report) ever came to the attention of management. Borel alleged she had been grabbed from behind on one occasion and once told by Ghomeshi that he wanted to “hate f---” her.
But they found the complaint did come to the attention of Borel’s union “and it failed to respond properly.”
“I have no idea what (Rubin) is basing that on,” said the CMG’s Smyth, “but at the same time, I realize we could have done better . . .
“We will be doing a better job in the future.”
Borel declined the Star’s request for comment.
CBC announced Thursday it was cutting ties with two executives, and president Hubert Lacroix offered to work with the union to implement suggested changes