— Musings —11.04.2014 07:22 AM
Knew about Ghomeshi, did nothing
But he got a Slate byline!
— Musings —11.04.2014 07:22 AM
But he got a Slate byline!
He was my favourite Beach Boy.
But it is so difficult to deal with rumours. No one came forward. And we live in a world of self interest. Was he supposed to write an article about — I heard JIan is scum? What if everything turned out not to be true? Obviously he is not alone in his behaviour. And I think it is a great example of thinking that festers through institutions only 100 times worse because stories would be of the friend of a friend of a friend told me type. It’s easy to be morally superior in retrospect when there are facts, confessions and someone else went first.
http://warrenkinsella.com/2014/10/on-fridays-sun-i-didnt-know/
I must be missing something. All he suggests is that there were rumours and much commentary that Jian is a creep. No one came to him crying about the abuse. I’d like to think that most of us would act as you once did given that much evidence (and an ex would never tell me who her personal creep had been). And please stop referring to the CBC as a conscious entity. It has failed no one because it is incapable of making that choice. It’s an institution. Institutions are notorious for scum rising to the top and getting away with much while doing it because the people in the institution can get away with being awful much easier. People failed other people. It has nothing to do with being chattering classes, downtown elites etc and everything to do with group dynamics and the abuses of power which occurs in families, mom and pop shops and mega corporations. Though, to state the obvious, every person who failed the people Jian abused should be shamed, fired and if possible charged.
Even Sarah Lawrence College beat the CBC by kicking out an entitled douche after he hit a woman. An institution is made up of the people who work there, and the CBC (and Toronto media culture in general) sanctions misogynistic behavior within its walls. http://gawker.com/nev-from-catfish-was-kicked-out-of-college-after-punchi-1632568249
People who “scream fire and brimstone from the pulpit” often do so as a cover for their own acts of indecency…it is just a sad part of human nature.
I stress that I don’t know who Leah is talking about. But, yes, Wilson’s drivel is an attempt to cash in without taking responsibility. It is a disgrace.
While Jian Ghomeshi was a predator – 99 per cent of Toronto’s chattering classes are full of shit/bald-faced enablers.
You live in Toronto area (or did at one point) don’t you, Warren? How the hell does knowing the above not wear you out or drive you stark raving mad?
It’s why I don’t go to parties with those people, my friend. I don’t hang out with them, I don’t socialize with them, I don’t like them.
Did Leah McLaren give you permission to put her comment up? Just wondering.
It’s on the Internet, dude.
I suspect that if you logged out of your Facebook account, you wouldn’t be able to find it. I could be wrong. I have no connection to any of the parties, but it’s at least possible she might not have wanted it in a totally public forum.
Why are you preoccupied with keeping quiet what she wrote?
If you are comfortable with the post, shout it from the rooftops! Fine by me.
The many supportive commenters below her post have shared it widely, as well.
A few seem to be suggesting the man she refers to wrote his piece “in the second person.”
My wife was sexually harassed several years ago by, of all things, her company’s HR Director.
When I think of enablers, I wonder if eventually someone will call for a public inquiry into such systemic issues with the national broadcaster, especially with more and more coming to light everyday. With this much coming to light only recently, it makes me wonder what is kept in the dark and what will turn up when people start kicking stones.
Given that they are slowly dying anyway, a public inquiry would be a coup de grace.
Credits: SÉBASTIEN ST-JEAN/QMI AGENCY
OTTAWA – CBC’s top brass could be recalled before the Commons committee on women because the allegations against radio host Jian Ghomeshi contrast with testimony the broadcaster’s president provided last year.
Well…..SOMEONE is in deep doo-doo and a LOT of ‘splainin’ to do.
Yep. Heads are a-gonna roll.
And referring again to my comment earlier about enablers in the Toronto chattering classes and how hard it must be for you to stand it, did you also not work (and please correct me if I am wrong) for the CBC at one point? If you did, I bet you’re glad as fuck that you’re not there any more, LOL.
Nope. Just a guest meat puppet. Like at CTV and SNN and Global. Done ’em all.
If there is any good to come out of all the misery, ordinary Trailer Park Boys like me have been jolted out of our stupor and are mad as hell. It is now open season on these sweaty, greasy, big eared teddy bears.
Politicians (Right, Left, or other) who fail to implement serious changes to the ways our society supports female victim/survivors inside corporate Canada and beyond will find themselves hiding out with Gomer-eshy in his uncle’s converted LA garage suite.
what I can’t figure out is how allegations that apparently are over TEN YEARS OLD can be considered capable to investigate by the police? Does this not all distill down to he-said she-said? What evidence or witnesses can reliably be gathered ten years later? I am neutral to the issues at hand, I just want to understand what the basis of investigation is.
“Neutral”!? We’re talking about the abuse of women here. How can you be “neutral” about that?!
Neutral means no judgment yet about the merits of what either side is saying… Sounds like you have already hung and decapitated the guy for assumed being guilty. This is not China or North Korea.
Hmmm, lets see……….he said……VS……….she said……….she said…………..she said…………she said………..she said………she said………..she said………..she said…………she said…………..she said………….and now according to the Toronto Star today…………HE said.
You’re right; lets keep talking about ‘merit” and “assumptions.”
We’re all outraged. I’m outraged too. But rumours also have the power to destroy innocent people. Keep that in mind when blaming people for not starting a witch hunt earlier.
Listen to Canadaland with Jesse Brown this week.
http://canadalandshow.com/podcast/we-all-knew-about-jian
He does a very interesting interview with someone who was right there when the sexual harassment was happening at Q, someone with serious regrets. He saw it happening to a friend and didn’t intervene. He didn’t know whether what he saw Jian doing was welcomed by his friend or not. But this, this is what has to change for this kind of harassment to stop. It’s not about HR policies or education (Jian took Women’s Studies for crying out loud). It’s about co-workers looking out for each other and standing up to the powers that be. But you’ll hear over and over again that someone like Jian had the power to make or break careers, at least that’s how it was perceived, so everyone walked on eggshells.
Again, though, the way it turned out, things ended up getting exposed that were even darker than lewd comments and gropes in the office.
I’m curious to know WK, as you know liable law well, what kind of action could someone have taken against Ghomeshi without being at risk of a liable suit? Is a columnist protected in printing “it is well known that so-and-so is a sexual predator though no women have officially come forward about him”? I’m trying to understand, apart from the slimy I-still-want-to-be-invited-to-the-parties reasoning, if that is a factor in why anybody who knew said nothing.
So, I obviously didn’t know how to spell libel, duh, my bad. But I’m curious as to what the law says what “liability” someone would be under for acting on rumours they hear. C’mon WK, this is a clusterf*ck of a situation but I want your genuine take on the question I asked…
I am gloomily mulling over the difficulty women have in getting some help for this kind of stuff, and I think of how much more difficult it would be for women who are poor and in visible minorities, especially if they are locked in by language in an ethnic community with little or no knowledge of what kind of rights they have.