Two managers who were involved in the departure of disgraced radio host Jian Ghomeshi from the CBC are taking leaves of absence, according to the national broadcaster.
The CBC tweeted Monday afternoon that Todd Spencer, head of human resources, and Chris Boyce, executive director of radio and audio are taking leave, but provided no other details.
2 CBC managers take leaves of absence: Todd Spencer (Human Resources/Industrial Relations) and Chris Boyce (exec director, Radio and Audio).
— CBC News Alerts (@CBCAlerts) January 5, 2015
An internal memo sent to CBC staff by CBC’s executive vice-president of English services Heather Conway, and shared by journalist Jesse Brown, said the leaves are effective as of Monday “until further notice.”
“We recognize this is a difficult way to start off the year, but despite our current challenges, together we will get through this, and we do have a great future,” the memo said. Neither the tweet or the memo makes mention of Ghomeshi.
Here’s the CBC internal memo announcing that Boyce and Spencer “will be on leave of absence until further notice”. pic.twitter.com/EcAAmECklF
— Jesse Brown (@JesseBrown) January 5, 2015
“Given our obligations of confidentiality to Chris Boyce and Todd Spencer, we’re not going to go into any details as to why this decision was made other than to say it was a management decision and the timing for their leaves is indefinite,” CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson told Postmedia, in an email.
In late October, Ghomeshi was fired from CBC and quickly released a statement on Facebook proclaiming his innocence and blaming what he characterized as false allegations on a “jilted” ex-girlfriend while accusing the CBC of demonizing his sexual preferences. Since then, numerous women have come forward with their own allegations of abuse at the hands of Ghomeshi and he was charged with four counts of sexual assault and one count of “overcome resistance – choking” on Nov. 26.
According to documentary produced by The fifth estate, Boyce and Spencer were the managers to whom employees of Q brought concerns about allegations that Ghomeshi had assaulted a number of women. The information was based on an email from journalist Jesse Brown that said Ghomeshi’s alleged behaviour had entered his professional life.
Boyce’s actions in particular came under scrutiny in The fifth estate’s investigation. Boyce said he and Spencer spoke with Q employees to determine if Ghomeshi had harassed anyone, but The fifth estate team found those who were working at Q that summer were not approached.
Boyce also said he was aware of allegations involving Ghomeshi’s personal life. When asked by CBC journalist Gillian Findlay why that in itself didn’t warrant an investigation, Boyce replied, “I’m not the police.”
The CBC has hired employment lawyer Janice Rubin to conduct an internal review of how the broadcaster handled the allegations against Ghomeshi.
Source:: canada.com
