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Jian Ghomeshi apologizes to former colleague after deal to drop charge Jian Ghomeshi apologizes to former colleague as part of deal to drop charge
(about 2 hours later)
A criminal charge against former Canadian radio host Jian Ghomeshi has been dropped after he reached an agreement with prosecutors that included an apology for thrusting his hip into a former colleague’s backside. After 18 months of pointed silence, one of Canada’s most familiar voices resonated loudly in a Toronto courtroom on Wednesday when former broadcaster Jian Ghomeshi expressed “deep regret” for workplace behaviour that resulted in a charge of sexual assault.
Ghomeshi, the former host of Q, a popular radio show on culture heard in Canada and many US public stations, was cleared criminally again two months after he was acquitted of sexual assault charges involving three other women. The apology saved the once-idolized broadcaster from a second criminal trial and put an end to legal proceedings over a string of sexual assault allegations. His sensational trial on a previous set of charges ended in March with a blanket acquittal that outraged activists and survivors of sexual violence.
Police launched an investigation in 2014 after more than 12 women contacted various media sources to allege that Ghomeshi had assaulted them. The allegations rocked Canada’s public broadcaster and sparked a heated nationwide conversation about consent and sexual harassment.
Related: Canada urged to rethink approach to sexual assault after Ghomeshi acquittalRelated: Canada urged to rethink approach to sexual assault after Ghomeshi acquittal
His previous acquittal in March sparked raucous protests from female activists decrying how the justice system treats sexual assault complainants. Wednesday’s apology formed part of a deal to withdraw the final charge against Ghomeshi, which stemmed from allegations that in 2008 he had sexually assaulted a former co-worker, Kathryn Borel.
Ghomeshi, who first gained fame as a member of the 1990s satirical pop band Moxy Früvous, apologized on Wednesday for being “sexually inappropriate” to former co-worker Kathryn Borel, who had accused him of sexually assaulting her. Recommending the agreement as “entirely reasonable and appropriate”, prosecutor Michael Callaghan recounted how Ghomeshi, while working as host of the popular Q radio show on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), approached Borel while she was bending over her desk at work, “held her waist and pressed himself back and forth repeatedly into her buttocks.”
“I now recognize that I crossed boundaries inappropriately,” Ghomeshi said, speaking in the court for the first time since entering a not guilty plea. “I didn’t appreciate the damage that I caused … The incident was thoughtless and I was insensitive to her perspective and how demeaning my conduct was towards her.” Along with the apology, Ghomeshi agreed to keep the peace and have no contact with Borel for the next 12 months.
Borel said outside court the courtroom apology was an admission of guilt even though it wouldn’t lead to a criminal conviction. But she said it was unfortunate, though not surprising, that Ghomeshi chose not to say much about what exactly he was apologizing for and noted that he made it clear to her that he could do what he wanted to her body. “I now recognize that I crossed boundaries inappropriately,” Ghomeshi said, reading a statement that brought a quiet end to a legal ordeal his celebrity lawyer Marie Henein called “one of the most intensely public trials in our history.”
“He made it clear that he could humiliate me repeatedly and walk away with impunity,” Borel said, noting there were at least three documented incidents of physical touching. “I enjoyed a position of privilege in my job at the CBC as the host of a program I loved,” Ghomeshi intoned, adding that he “did not show the respect that I should have” to Borel.
“This includes the one charge he just apologized for, when he came up behind me while I was standing by my desk, put his hands on my hips, and rammed his pelvis against my backside over and over, simulating sexual intercourse.” His conduct, Ghomeshi added, was “sexually inappropriate”.
Borel said she went to the CBC for help, but said what she received in return was a directive that yes, he could do this, and yes, it was her job to let him. The deal marked the end for the fifth and final sexual assault charge Ghomeshi has beaten since police launched an investigation against him in 2014.
“The relentless message to me, from my celebrity boss and from the national institution we worked for, was that his whims were more important than my human dignity,” she said. More than 20 women came forward with allegations of being slapped, punched, bitten, choked or smothered by the radio host.
It wasn’t until she spoke to police in late 2014 that she said she realized it was sexual assault. Related: Jian Ghomeshi trial: first complainant claiming sexual assault goes public
“Jian Ghomeshi has apologized, but only to me. There are 20 other women who have come forward to the media and made serious allegations about his violent behavior, women who said he choked and punched and smothered them,” she said. “All he has said about his other accusers is that they are all lying and that he’s not guilty. And remember, that’s what he said about me.” But despite hearing testimony that he had mistreated several women, Judge William Horkins dismissed four charges in March after a dramatic trial in which witnesses contradicted themselves and attempted to suppress inconvenient details about their relationship with the accused.
The CBC fired Ghomeshi in 2014 and a CBC spokesman said on Wednesday it stood by the decision. A judge acquitted Ghomeshi on the previous charges in March, saying it was difficult to have trust in witnesses who selectively or deliberately suppress information. He said the three women were less than fully frank and forthcoming in their testimony. One of the accusers, Canadian actress and army reservist Lucy DeCoutere admitted in court that she had proposed sex with Ghomeshi the day after he allegedly choked her, but hadn’t previously told police or prosecutors.
A CBC spokesman, Chuck Thompson, said in a statement that what Borel experienced should never have happened. He said the CBC had since made progress in handling harassment complaints. In a scathing decision, Judge Horkins concluded that none of the witnesses who had complained about Ghomeshi were believable beyond a reasonable doubt.
“The incidents that came to our attention as it relates to Mr Ghomeshi’s conduct in our workplace were simply unacceptable. We apologized then and we do again today,” Thompson said. At the end of the final proceeding, Henein was quick to note that her client remains officially innocent of any criminal act. Ghomeshi’s apology “was not an admission or a plea”, she told the court.
The results did little to satisfy either the protesters who lined the court steps or Borel, who expressed her reservations to reporters after the hearing.
“Every day over the course of a three-year period, Ghomeshi made it clear to me that he could do what he wanted to my body,” she said. “He made it clear that he could humiliate me repeatedly and walk away with impunity.”
Speaking outside the court, Borel noted that Ghomeshi has yet to apologize to any of the other women who complained to police about his harassment. “All he has said is that they’re all lying and that he’s not guilty,” she said. “And remember, that’s what he said about me.”
Borel was also sharply critical of the public broadcaster for refusing to act on her initial complaint. “When I went to the CBC for help, what I received in return was a directive that yes, he could do this, and it was my job to let him ... His whims were more important than my humanity and my dignity.”
Ghomeshi’s final escape did little to sooth critics who see his trial as an example of all that is wrong with how Canada deals with cases of sexual assault. On the other hand, it clearly established Henein as the most accomplished criminal defence attorney in the country.
Nor did the result satisfy the complainants in the original trial. “With my case he never admitted that he assaulted me,” said Linda Redgrave, who testified in February that Ghomeshi interrupted a romantic encounter by unexpectedly punching her and knocking her to the ground.
Judge Horkins dismissed the woman’s testimony in part because she failed to tell police that she had emailed Ghomeshi a picture of herself in a bikini shortly after the encounter.
“He never admitted that he assaulted me,” Redgrave complained on Wednesday. “Where’s my apology?”