Background and career
Jian Ghomeshi (born June 9, 1967) is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and former CBC personality. From 1990 to 2000, he was a vocalist and drummer in the Thornhill-based folk-pop band Moxy Früvous. In the 2000s, he became a television and radio broadcaster. He hosted, among others, the CBC Newsworld program Play (2002–2005), the CBC Radio One program The National Playlist (2005–2006), and the CBC Radio One program Q, which he co-created and hosted from 2007 to 2014. Ghomeshi was fired by the CBC in 2014, as allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment came out, for which he was eventually arrested. In late 2015, Ghomeshi pleaded not guilty to the charges, and his trial began in early 2016. That March he was acquitted of five of the charges, and in May, the Crown withdrew the last remaining charge after Ghomeshi signed a peace bond and apologized to his accuser. In 2018, Ghomeshi's essay "Reflections from a Hashtag" was published in The New York Review of Books, which led to widespread criticism of the magazine. Since 2020, Ghomeshi has been the executive producer and host of Roqe, an English-language podcast aimed at the Iranian diaspora.
Jian Ghomeshi was born in London, England, to Iranian parents Farhang (Frank), a civil engineer, and Azar (Sara) Ghomeshi. His family came to Canada in 1974 when Jian was aged seven and his sister, Jila Ghomeshi, was aged ten, first living in Toronto before eventually settling in its suburb of Thornhill, Ontario. Ghomeshi described Thornhill as a "safe and quiet suburb where conformity was coveted... The dwellings all looked relatively similar on our street, and most of the houses had big lawns and nice trees". He visited pre-revolutionary Tehran twice as a child, once at age two, the other aged five. A Muslim, Ghomeshi was born into a secular household that was initially optimistic about the 1979 Iranian Revolution but also celebrated on Christmas and Easter, and has described being raised in a largely Jewish community. With few Iranian expatriates in Canada during his youth, Ghomeshi "was extremely self-conscious of his appearance and his East London accent" and "felt different." He was bullied for his ethnicity by classmates, who called him "Blackie", "Arab", "Paki", and "terrorist". Ghomeshi attended Thornlea Secondary School, where he was student council president. He has written that, during his teenage years, he ensured that his clothes smelled of cigarette smoke to give him "social credibility" even though he was a non-smoker, dressed "new wave" and listened to music from David Bowie, Talking Heads, and Rush. Ghomeshi had an interest in music as a student and in Grade 9 started a short-lived band with a few of his school friends called Urban Transit. His older sister, Jila, became a professor of linguistics, and their parents had initial reservations about his less-traditional career path—the distinction between busking and begging being lost on his father—but Ghomeshi has said they ultimately supported his choices. In 1985, Ghomeshi was a committed feminist and budding progressive activist when he matriculated at York University in the theatre program (in his memoir 1982, he describes himself as a "theatre geek"). In 1990, he earned a record number of votes in his election to head of student government, which he renamed the York Federation of Students. As president, Ghomeshi instituted bilingualism and advocated for abortion rights, free tuition, and ending "institutional racism." He also cut off funding to student groups he alleged were engaged in "sexism, racism, homophobia and other exclusionary measures." While criticizing fraternities and sororities for "sexism", he supported the school's female-only Women's Centre and was one of the few men allowed inside it. When then-Prime Minister Brian Mulroney visited campus, Ghomeshi hurled macaroni at him. Progressives have since traced the roots of the "activist student coup" that subsequently took hold of York back to Ghomeshi's radical leadership. In 1995, after taking time off to play music, Ghomeshi graduated from York with a BA in political science and a double minor in history and women's studies.
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. Ghomeshi sang and played drums. He was credited as "Jean" rather than Jian on the band's first album, but reverted to the original spelling of his name for subsequent albums. A year after forming, Moxy Früvous was opening for headline performers like Bob Dylan. The band sold over 50,000 copies of their debut independent EP in 1992 (gold in Canada). Their debut album Bargainville went platinum in Canada in 1994 after selling over 100,000 copies. The band was also nominated for a Juno Award as Band of the Year in 1994. Over the course of eight albums, they sold over 500,000 copies of their albums in Canada and the United States and made an appearance on NBC's Late Night with Conan O'Brien. Ghomeshi released his first solo EP, The First 6 Songs, in July 2001. A 1996 video tape, revealed in 2014, suggested that Ghomeshi disdained his audiences, stating on camera that people paying to see the band's shows were "losers" and "fucking idiots". 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".
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. He also wrote columns for The Toronto Star and The Globe and Mail. Ghomeshi hosted the radio series 50 Tracks and 50 Tracks: The Canadian Version on CBC Radio One and CBC Radio 2 (now CBC Music). From late 2005 until early 2006, he hosted a program on Radio One called The National Playlist. From April 16, 2007, to October 26, 2014, Ghomeshi was the host of Q, a program airing twice daily on CBC Radio One, and on over 170 stations in the U.S. through Public Radio International. As the host of Q, he interviewed a range of musicians, artists, actors, and other notable figures, a list that included Woody Allen, Paul McCartney, Salman Rushdie, Barbara Walters, William Shatner, Jay-Z, Jimmy Wales, and Leonard Cohen. In 2012, Ghomeshi received the Gold Award for best talk show host at the New York Festivals' International Radio Awards. By 2013, with Q had a weekly audience of more than 2.5 million listeners weekly in Canada and 550,000 listeners in the U.S. 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. That same month, he was replaced as the host of the CBC competition Canada Reads by Wab Kinew, the previous year's winner. 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.
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. Thornton said that Canadians did not get up and move or throw things at concerts, and referred to them as "mashed potatoes without the gravy". 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".
In the spring of 2014, Ghomeshi advised his employers at the CBC that the Toronto Star was looking into allegations by an ex-girlfriend that he had engaged in non-consensual rough sex and that he denied this accusation. 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. The corporation investigated and concluded that there were no workplace complaints against Ghomeshi. According to an investigation by CBC Television's The Fifth Estate, "almost all known staffers on ... Q said they were not contacted by CBC management as part of any investigation". Ghomeshi denied the accusations again and the Star declined to go forward with the story at that time. In October 2014, Brown tweeted that he was working on a story that would be "worse than embarrassing for certain parties". He later said that he was referring to an unrelated story, but Ghomeshi requested a meeting with CBC management on October 23. During that meeting, the CBC viewed what it later described as "graphic evidence that Jian had caused physical injury to a woman". According to Vice, Ghomeshi showed his bosses lewd text messages on a CBC-owned phone and graphic personal sex videos. 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". Ghomeshi subsequently released a "lengthy Facebook post" 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. Ghomeshi filed a $55 million lawsuit against the CBC, alleging that the corporation misused "personal and confidential information provided to it in confidence". 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.
