Bestowing The Gift Of His Favours

"Everyday, over a three-year period, Mr. [Jian] Ghomeshi made it clear to me that he could do what he wanted to me and my body. He made it clear that he could humiliate me repeatedly and walk away with impunity."
"When I went to the CBC [Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] for help, what I received was a directive that yes, he could do this, and  yes, it was my job to let him. The relentless message to me from my celebrity boss [Ghomeshi] and the national institution [CBC] we worked for were that his whims were more important than my humanity and my dignity."
Kathryn Borel, former CBC producer

Laura Pedersen / National Post    Kathryn Borel, the complainant in the Jian Ghomeshi case, delivers a statement to media after Jian Ghomeshi's court date at Old City Hall in Toronto on Wednesday.

Former immensely popular host of the CBC show Q, Jian Ghomeshi must most certainly have felt that he had escaped the worst that could conceivably happen to him when it was revealed in 2014 that he was a sexual predator, preying on vulnerable women with whom he worked and on other women with whom he had casual relationships, who eventually decided to bring attention to this man's clear contempt for women, leading him to abuse them with impunity.

On May 12, at the Old City Hall courts in downtown Toronto, Mr. Ghomeshi signed a peace bond. Which meant that he was enabled to bypass a civil trial. The criminal trial that had earlier taken place saw him exonerated by Ontario Court Judge Bill Horkins who reached the conclusion that three complainants whose history with Ghomeshi gave rise to an assortment of sexual charges, were not credible. As victims of sex abuse their emotional reactions to what they had experienced seemed illogical to his logical mind.

And so Ghomeshi was found not guilty in the original trial where three different women testified against him, speaking of how he had violently assaulted them. The evidence did not meet the strict demands of a criminal trial to convict an accused; clearly the police and the lawyers involved had performed a less than sterling job of questioning the women, and the women themselves, though their experiences were those of sexual attacks, handled their own testimony poorly.

"In a perfect world, people who commit sexual assault would be convicted for their crimes. Jian Ghomeshi is guilty of having done the things that I've outlined today. So when it was presented to me that the defence would be offering us an apology, I was prepared to forego the trial. It seemed like the clearest path to the truth.    A trial would have maintained his lie, the lie that he was not guilty, and it would have further subjected me to the very same pattern of abuse that I am currently trying to stop", stated his accuser.

In response, Jian Ghomeshi admitted that he "crossed boundaries inappropriately." That "A workplace should not have any sexualized tone. I failed to understand how my works and actions would put a co-worker who was younger than me, and in a junior position to mine, in an uncomfortable place. I did not appreciate the damage that I caused, and I recognize that no workplace friendship or creative environment excuses this sort of behaviour, especially when there is a power imbalance as there was with Ms. Borel", he stated.

Despite being found not guilty in March in the sexual assault trial involving three women, and with the final charge dropped by the Crown, Jian Ghomeshi could still have a difficult time moving forward with his career. (Chris Young/Canadian Press)

He is acknowledging 'inappropriate' behaviour, but certainly not the more damning sexual attacks that had unnerved and frightened and violently wounded the women he preyed upon. Kathryn Borel is made of sterner stuff than the previous complainants, as a highly intelligent, principled and empowered woman who in the final analysis dealt a death blow to the hope that must have arisen in Mr. Ghomeshi's brain at the dismissal of complaints in the previous criminal trial.

His mea culpa was placed by her firm and unequivocal assessment of his character and his actions into the perspective that reflected the reality of how he had conducted himself, his blase entitlement, his belief that there was nothing he could do that should not be accepted as the right of a powerful and valued entertainment personality perpetrating indignities and violence against women helpless to defend themselves in a social and justice structure that is weighted to victimize women.