11.04.2014 07:22 AM

Knew about Ghomeshi, did nothing

But he got a Slate byline!

What an asshole Carl Wilson is.

30 Comments

  1. smelter rat says:

    He was my favourite Beach Boy.

  2. patrick says:

    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.

      • patrick says:

        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.

    • Just Askin' says:

      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

  3. Austin So says:

    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.

  4. Warren says:

    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.

  5. Lance says:

    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?

  6. keith says:

    Did Leah McLaren give you permission to put her comment up? Just wondering.

  7. My Name is Andy says:

    My wife was sexually harassed several years ago by, of all things, her company’s HR Director.

  8. Lance says:

    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.

  9. Lance says:

    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.

  10. Kaiser Helmets 'n Motorbikes says:

    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.

  11. ABlanas says:

    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.

    • Lance says:

      “Neutral”!? We’re talking about the abuse of women here. How can you be “neutral” about that?!

      • ABlanas says:

        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.

        • Lance says:

          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.”

  12. sezme says:

    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.

  13. Derek Pearce says:

    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.

    • Derek Pearce says:

      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…

  14. davie says:

    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.

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