Music

CBC releasing a report on Jian Ghomeshi to coincide with nationwide layoffs

by Mark Teo

During the apex of the Jian Ghomeshi scandal in late 2014—where handfuls of women alleged they were sexually assaulted or harrassed by the former Q star—his employer, the CBC, announced that they were launching an internal investigation on Ghomeshi. After all, the scandal wasn’t only about the one-time Moxy Fruvous member; plenty of questions were lobbed at the public broadcaster, too. Why did the CBC deal with complaints—such as those from former employee Kathryn Borel—so passively? In deliberately ignoring Ghomeshi’s conduct, could we hold CBC complicit? How, and why, did such a star system develop at the CBC?

Those questions—and dozens more—will undoubtedly be re-ignited today, when the CBC finally releases the findings of their independent investigation, conducted by labour lawyer Janice Rubin, into Ghomeshi. But, as Canadaland’s Jesse Brown reports, the release of their report may have an ulterior motive: Namely, to deflect attention away from the fact that the broadcaster is planning a round of layoffs today. It’s expected that 244 job cuts will be announced today.

Brown, for his part, cited a tweet from CBC Newfoundland’s provincial affairs reporter, David Cochrane.

So yes, it’s possible that the timing of the investigation’s release is all about optics. Brown—the reporter who broke the Ghomeshi story—took things a step further, stating that the release won’t, in fact, be as illuminating as we’d expect. Brown writes that the CBC will only be releasing Rubin’s partial findings (the entirety of the report, he says, is reserved for high-level CBC management); the participants in the report were all voluntary, meaning that it’s unlikely that it’ll address tough questions or demand accountability from controversial players in the scandal; and Q management weren’t asked to participate in the investigation.

If Brown’s being forthright about the report—and we’ll find out the truth this afternoon—then it seems like Rubin’s findings may be a play for publicity. Read the rest of Brown’s findings here.