Jian Ghomeshi

Career Music

In 1983, Ghomeshi and friends Murray Foster, Tracy Jones, Reno Manfredi, and John Ruttle formed a band called Tall New Buildings. The band released two 12" EPs and played various gigs in and outside of Toronto before breaking up around 1988. Ghomeshi, Foster and another bandmate, Mike Ford, then formed a band called The Chia Pets.

In 1989, the trio were joined by Dave Matheson to form the politically satirical folk-pop band Moxy Früvous and together recorded eight albums before going on indefinite hiatus in 2001. Moxy Früvous was originally inspired by street-performing or busking bands, and Ghomeshi and bandmates started out by playing on streets in Toronto. David Yuhnke, who was present at the recording, suspected that Ghomeshi was joking, recalling that the room's atmosphere was "sarcasm-laded", but added that he found it "hard to gauge entirely if he [Ghomeshi] was being serious or not".

In 1999, Ghomeshi began a correspondence with a 16-year-old girl, Sally Block, who was a fan of Moxy Früvous. This continued for three years and included in-person meetings where Ghomeshi is alleged to have been "handsy" with her. In 2002, they had a falling out and Block broke into Ghomeshi's email account. Ghomeshi sought to have her banned from "FruCon" – a Moxy Früvous convention – and wanted criminal charges to be pressed against her. She was allowed to attend FruCon, and Ghomeshi dropped the issue after her father confronted him for "carrying on this type of relationship with an underage girl".

Ghomeshi's production company, Jian Ghomeshi Productions Inc., managed musician Martina Sorbara (now of the band Dragonette) and produced music for Dar Williams. He managed electropop artist Lights from 2007 until 2014, during which time she won the Juno Award for Best New Artist and was nominated for several more. Lights initially supported Ghomeshi after he was accused of sexual abuse in 2014, but later dropped him as her manager, saying: "I rushed to defend my manager of 12 years. I am now aware that my comments appear insensitive to those impacted and for that I am deeply sorry".

Radio and television

In 2002, Ghomeshi became host of CBC Newsworld's Play, a show about the arts in Canada and abroad. Play ran for three seasons and won a Gemini Award. During his time as host of Q, Ghomeshi many times booked guests who shared his agent and lawyer without disclosing this connection.

Ghomeshi hosted the 2009 Dora Mavor Moore Awards ceremony. He was set to host the November 2014 Scotiabank Giller Prize awards gala but was replaced in October by comedian Rick Mercer.

In December 2014 the CBC announced that it would not be rebroadcasting Ghomeshi's interviews and it would be removing them from the CBC's online archive. Reactions to this decision were swift and varied and, after further deliberations by CBC management, the decision was reversed.

Billy Bob Thornton interview On April 8, 2009, actor and musician Billy Bob Thornton appeared with his band, The Boxmasters, on Q. In introducing Thornton, Ghomeshi mentioned Thornton's acting career and added, "he's always intended to make music, he just got sidetracked." In responding to Ghomeshi's subsequent interview questions, Thornton acted confused and gave vague, evasive answers. When asked about his musical tastes and influences as a child, Thornton answered with a rambling commentary about his favourite childhood magazine, Famous Monsters of Filmland. Later in the interview, Thornton said that the reason for his uncooperative answers was that Ghomeshi had been "instructed not to discuss" his film career but had done so. Ghomeshi replied, "Oh, we've got some gravy up here as well." Ghomeshi described the interview as one of the most difficult he has conducted. He compared the international media exposure that followed the interview to being "in the middle of a tsunami". After the show, Canadians responded to Ghomeshi's "professionalism and the manner in which he handled the situation ... [and] the show received more than 100,000 e-mails with almost unanimous praise for the host". The crisis management firm Navigator Ltd. was hired to work for both Ghomeshi and the CBC.

In early summer of 2014, reporter Jesse Brown contacted the CBC and warned that Ghomeshi's behaviour may have crossed into his work environment.

On October 24, Ghomeshi announced he was taking an indefinite leave of absence from the CBC to deal with personal matters. Two days later, the CBC terminated his employment, with a spokesperson saying "information came to our attention recently that in CBC's judgment precludes us from continuing our relationship with Jian". saying his dismissal was motivated by fear of an alleged smear campaign by an ex-girlfriend that according to Ghomeshi could release private details about his sex life. Ghomeshi also said he refused an offer by the CBC to "walk away quietly". Chris Boyce, the head of CBC Radio, denied that such an offer was made. He also filed "a union grievance alleging wrongful dismissal and defamation", and stated through his lawyer that he "does not engage in non-consensual role play or sex and any suggestion of the contrary is defamatory". Ghomeshi withdrew his lawsuit on November 25, 2014. The terms of settlement stipulated that Ghomeshi pay the CBC $18,000 in legal costs. It is a memoir of Ghomeshi's life at the age of 14 (during 1982) growing up as a Persian-Canadian in Thornhill, his attempt to fit in as one of the few non-white kids in his neighbourhood, and his goal of mimicking his idol David Bowie.

1982 received a mixed reception from critics. Canadian poet, novelist and TV writer Zoe Whittall called it a "funny, nostalgic and compelling read, especially for music nerds of a certain age."

In September 2018, The New York Review of Books published "Reflections from a Hashtag", a 3,000-word essay by Ghomeshi. The essay drew a "storm of criticism" from major figures in the literary world, an apology from the magazine, and the late-September firing of editor Ian Buruma. On October 25, the magazine's editors acknowledged that the essay generated "considerable criticism from readers" and admitted to "failures in the presentation and editing of his story". The editors wrote that readers should have been informed about the "serious nature and number of allegations against Mr. Ghomeshi" and they added a summary of these allegations to the online version of the essay.

Podcasting

In April 2017, Ghomeshi launched The Ideation Project, a music and podcast series featuring all-original words, music, recordings and production by Ghomeshi commenting on cultural and newsworthy topics. Ghomeshi launched The Ideation Project with a monologue called "Exiles" on the topic of what it means to not have a homeland. The podcast was discontinued after one season.

Since 2020, Ghomeshi has been the executive producer and host of Roqe, an English-language podcast aimed at the Iranian diaspora.

Criminal charges and trial

On November 26, 2014, following his termination by the CBC, Ghomeshi turned himself in to the Toronto Police Service and was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of overcoming resistance by choking, after an investigation that began on October 31, 2014. The charges concerned three separate women. He appeared in court on the same day and was released on $100,000 bail on the conditions that he surrender his passport, stay within Ontario and live with his mother.

Ghomeshi appeared in court again on January 8, 2015, and was charged with three additional counts of sexual assault related to three more women. In a court appearance on February 26, 2015, a judicial pretrial was set for March 27, 2015, and was later put over to April 28, 2015. His lawyer, Marie Henein, stated that he would plead not guilty to all charges. On October 1, 2015, Ghomeshi pleaded not guilty to one count of choking and four counts of sexual assault.

Ghomeshi's trial began on February 1, 2016, and lasted eight days. Henein was able to access thousands of messages between Ghomeshi's accusers and presented them during the trial. Judge William Horkins stated that the complainants had provided what he described as "deceptive and manipulative" evidence, claiming the "inconsistency" and "outright deception" of the witnesses' testimony had irreparably weakened the prosecution's case.

These statements, as well as the verdict of the trial itself, caused a great deal of controversy online, with many feeling like the plaintiffs had been treated unfairly and subjected to a biased trial, while others felt that the evidence was not strong enough to convict. The trial also raised legal questions as to whether victims were properly protected in Canadian law. This resulted in Bill C-51, which, among other things, increased the number of legal protections extended to sexual assault victims. It included the so-called "Ghomeshi rules" which required the defense to submit private records to the judge before being allowed to introduce them as evidence, making the defense used by Henein no longer legal. Many lawyers objected to this change, arguing that it would be unconstitutional and unfairly beneficial to plaintiffs. and after several exchanges Ghomeshi agreed to apologize to Borel and did so formally.

Further allegations In 2022, actress Sarah Polley accused Ghomeshi of sexually assaulting her on a date in 1995, when she was 16 and he was 28. Polley made the accusation in her autobiographical essay collection Run Towards the Danger, in which she wrote that she had wanted to come forward about her experiences in 2014 but was dissuaded by family and friends from speaking out.

Awards Favourite New Group (Moxy Früvous), CASBY Awards (1993) Best Media Personality, NOW Magazine (2009) Gold Award for Best Talk Show Interview, New York Festivals International Radio Awards (2010) Gold Award for Best Talk Show Host, New York Festivals International Radio Awards (2012)