Different frequencies
In this excerpt from Secret Life: The Jian Ghomeshi Investigation, Kevin Donovan describes the Q host’s last show and an explosive meeting between his lawyer and CBC executives, amid rumours of a huge story breaking
As Jian Ghomeshi prepared to host his final episode of Q, his lawyer was in a room with CBC executives, showing them sexually explicit videos that Ghomeshi believed would clear his name. He had no idea of the firestorm that was about to hit. A behind-the-scenes account from Kevin Donovan’s new book,
In his new book on Jian Ghomeshi, Star reporter Kevin Donovan traces the CBC host’s downfall, from whispers and rumours to the fallout from his sexual assault trial. The story picks up on Oct. 22, 2014 — the same day as the Parliament Hill shootings — after Ghomeshi taped what would be his last episode of CBC’s radio show Q.
The program featured an emotional segment with former NHL goalie Clint Malarchuk about his struggles with mental illness, and it took place amid rumours of a forthcoming exposé about Ghomeshi’s sexual practices and alleged assaults on women.
Finished for the day, late afternoon on Wednesday after the pre-taping, Ghomeshi brushed past some of the Q staff. People stood in clusters, talking about the Ottawa shooting. One stopped him and remarked how emotional he seemed to be about the interview with Malarchuk. It was quite clear to staff that both men had been crying at the end of the segment.
“That interview?” Ghomeshi said as he went out. “Oh, it had nothing to do with that.”
Malarchuk had affected Ghomeshi, but he was also grappling with his fear of the “monster” story that Jesse Brown was apparently about to break. Talks with his advisers went on throughout the night before he came in to work Thursday to host Q, deliver his essay on the Ottawa shootings, and introduce the pretaped portions, including the Malarchuk interview. Then he left the CBC building.
At roughly the time Ghomeshi was wrapping up his morning at Q, his lawyer Tiffany Soucy was sitting in front of a computer in a boardroom at the Dentons offices on King St. W. for a most unusual meeting. Her assistant ushered in two senior CBC employees: chief of public affairs Chuck Thompson and Chris Boyce, executive director of radio programming.
Throughout the summer Ghomeshi had kept both executives apprised of the allegations against him, and both men had taken his protestations of innocence at face value. They trusted Ghomeshi. In fact, the entire CBC executive team trusted him. But now, with Brown’s forthcoming “monster” story apparently bringing the allegations front and centre again, Ghomeshi and his legal team had a new strategy. They were going to reveal evidence of consent.
Soucy had decided that Ghomeshi would not be present at the meeting. In her brief preamble to the two CBC executives, Soucy explained that she had loaded more than a hundred videos and hundreds of text messages onto the computer in front of her, all from Jian Ghomeshi’s cellphone. She said this information would put the matter of Ghomeshi’s alleged sexual abuse to rest.
“The plan was to show this as an example of how during consensual sexual relations there could be bruising,” a source close to Ghomeshi during that time explained to me.
The videos had all been sent to Ghomeshi from one of the many women he dated over the past decade. The woman recorded them as video “selfies” and sent them to Ghomeshi either at his request or of her own volition. (I interviewed this woman, who wishes to remain anonymous.) Soucy warned that the material the two men were about to see was sexually explicit, ranging from provocative images to text chats about a television show that Ghomeshi and the woman in the videos enjoyed. Boyce and Thompson sat down and began viewing.
The woman was sometimes clothed, sometimes naked. Boyce and Thompson were also shown text messages between Ghomeshi and the woman that seemed to indicate, the CBC executives felt, a completely consensual relationship. One video was very different from the others. Soucy showed it, she said, as an example of how bruising could occur as the result of a consensual sexual relationship. The woman revealed bruising to the side of her body apparently caused by cracked ribs during sex play.
Soucy showed the CBC executives a series of accompanying texts that, according to a source, featured the woman telling Ghomeshi that he caused the injury. The video and accompanying messages did not indicate to Boyce and Thompson that the woman was angry or upset with Ghomeshi. No other videos showed any injuries, but Soucy showed provocative videos and text messages the woman had sent Ghomeshi after the bruising video, which the lawyer said was proof the relationship was ongoing, consensual and friendly.
The videos, particularly the one showing the bruise, stunned Boyce and Thompson. This was not the anticipated reaction. The assignment was suddenly out of the CBC executives’ comfort zone. They stood up, gathered the notes they had been allowed to make, and left the law firm offices quickly, hustling into the elevator and then out onto King St. W.
The distance from Dentons to the CBC Front St. offices is 900 metres, and both men covered the distance at a half sprint. They were not allowed to take any of the electronic information with them. Much later, Boyce mused in an on-camera interview that perhaps the CBC should have made a report to the police about the video that showed bruising.
Back at headquarters, the two men briefed Heather Conway, the CBC’s executive vice-president of English services. Conway was as far from being a CBC “lifer” as possible. She had only joined the year before, coming from a post as chief business officer for the Art Gallery of Ontario. Prior to that she had been executive vice-president at Alliance Atlantis Communications.
Boyce and Thompson told their boss that they had been shown information suggesting that this particular relationship seemed to be consensual. It appeared, however, that the sex play had broken a woman’s ribs. Conway made up her mind then and there to fire Ghomeshi.
Ghomeshi, who was not in the building, was summoned to the Front St. offices and told he was entitled to have a union representative sit in on the meeting. One could not be found, and Ghomeshi agreed to come to the meeting unrepresented. “There is evidence of abuse against a woman,” Ghomeshi was told. “We are going to fire you in 24 hours.”
Ghomeshi was given an option: resign before that time was up. As one CBC staffer involved in the situation explained, “We cannot have someone who is violent to women on staff.” Ghomeshi told those at the meeting that they were wrong and that a “spurned lover” had targeted him.
The CBC executives repeated that the conduct they were now aware of from the video showing was not something the national broadcaster could tolerate. He was told to leave the CBC building; a replacement would be found for the next day’s show.
In a closed-door meeting that followed, Chuck Thompson, the public relations chief, was instructed to say, should anyone in the media call to ask about Ghomeshi’s absence, that the CBC does not comment on the “private lives” of its employees.
The CBC believed the publication of a story was imminent. Timing was critical. Ameeting was scheduled for the next day, Friday morning. With the Friday Q host chair suddenly empty, producers called in veteran CBC host Piya Chattopadhyay.
Q producer Arif Noorani phoned Chattopadhyay, who was in Halifax, asking if she could take over.
No explanation was given. Chattopadhyay speculated that either Ghomeshi
had landed a last-minute, gold-list interview out of town, or he was taking time off due to his father’s passing. She told Noorani she would do it but then was flying to Windsor to host an event.
Being parachuted into Q, particularly the busy Friday show, was not easy. The Friday episode included several interviews, plus the popular media panel, featuring rabble.ca’s Judy Rebick, the National Post’s Jonathan Kay and, interestingly, (the Star’s then publisher) John Cruickshank. The control room also dug up an earlier interview by the suddenly pressed-into-duty guest host so the show would appear seamless and there would be no hint of Jian Ghomeshi. Q production staff had an inkling that Ghomeshi’s absence was due to the rumoured Toronto Star story. They watched the Star publisher for clues but saw none.
Meanwhile, a call was made to CBC’s maintenance team, who were told to stand by. Something needed to be removed from the CBC lobby.
The Friday morning meeting was held at the Dentons law offices. Ghomeshi was there, joined by lawyers Tiffany Soucy and Neil Rabinovitch. Also present was the Navigator crisis communication team, led by Jaime Watt, who had returned from Ottawa. Representing the CBC were Heather Conway, Chris Boyce and Chuck Thompson.
CBC’s top outside employment lawyer was away on a work retreat in Chicago and so a senior outside counsel named Roy Filion attended as a stand-in. Filion was visibly embarrassed by any mention of the rough sex allegations. Navigator’s staff had a request for the CBC at the boardroom table: “Give us the weekend.” CBC agreed, and a meeting was set for 11 a.m. Sunday.
At Canadaland, Jesse Brown’s antenna was up. The media was his beat, and he was always on the lookout for news. A source told him that Ghomeshi had been put on an “indefinite” leave. Brown, whose canvas is very much social media, tweeted that information around 4 p.m. Immediately, he and CBC public relations chief Chuck Thompson got into a small Twitter skirmish. Thompson tweeted “Jian Ghomeshi is not on indefinite leave from the CBC.”
Brown shot back on Twitter. “My info on @jianghomeshi is unverified but from a highly credible source. @CBC should deny now if inaccurate and I will retract immediately.”
CBC then countered with a brief statement from Thompson saying that Ghomeshi was taking an “undetermined” period of time away from the CBC to “deal with some personal issues.” Jesse Brown had publicly forced the CBC into partial transparency. The fact was that the CBC had already determined that Ghomeshi was going to be fired. The only question was whether he would choose to resign first.
The buzz online was that the leave was related to the death of Ghomeshi’s father. That was referenced in stories and comments Friday evening in the Toronto media. The response from fans was warm. Of course their beloved Q host needed time to deal with this family tragedy. “Thanks for all the well wishes, guys, I’m okay,” Ghomeshi tweeted to his followers that Friday afternoon, telling them he was taking some much-needed personal time away from the CBC.
I was still in Italy when (Star editor) Michael Cooke shared the social media announcements with me. “Is this what I think it is?” he asked. It was well past midnight in Rome. Cooke and I talked on the phone, planning a strategy. It seemed a good guess that Ghomeshi’s leave was not connected to his father. Cooke quickly put Jesse Brown back on contract. Brown was also away, so the three of us agreed to reconvene in Toronto as soon as possible. My flight back home was scheduled for early Saturday morning.
While I was in the air, high-level meetings were being held at CBC’s offices to prepare for the rescheduled meeting at Dentons. The CBC board of directors was notified of the situation.
At 11 a.m. Sunday, two groups faced off across a large boardroom table.
Present for the CBC were Chris Boyce, Heather Conway and human resources chief Todd Spencer. Lawyer Filion was also in attendance. Ghomeshi was joined by Jaime Watt and other Navigator consultants, as well as the Dentons lawyers.
Todd Spencer read a short, formal statement informing Ghomeshi that he was being terminated for cause. Spencer cited information that “we have learned in recent days” as the reason for the firing. “Do you have anything to say?” Spencer asked Ghomeshi. Ghomeshi summed up what he saw as the CBC’s position. He said he was being fired for optics: the danger that revelations about his personal life would damage the CBC brand. From his point of view, as he would later write on Facebook, he had kept the CBC informed as a true partner during the past six months. Now, he felt, for the first time in 13 years, like an outsider.
Spencer, a former journalist thrust into a human resources role, was nervous. Speaking woodenly, he read another document informing Ghomeshi that the representative of an “outplacement” counselling firm, available to help an employee transition to another career, was on hand downstairs should he wish to avail himself of its services.
Ghomeshi said no, he was fine. As he told his advisers later that afternoon, he was delighted and “bullish” about his future. He had his second book in the works, was seriously contemplating sinking the CBC with a major wrongful dismissal lawsuit, and he was certain he could be hired by a network in the U.S.
He told his advisers that his plan was to leave Toronto later that day and fly to Los Angeles, where he had friends he would stay with. His only concern was how to leave Toronto without being spotted by the press which, when the announcement of his departure was made, would be looking for a photo and a quote.