Bernnie Federko
TRIBE Member
TVO launches probe into allegations against host Steve Paikin
TVO is launching an independent third-party investigation of an allegation of sexual harassment made against well-known broadcaster Steve Paikin, host of the Ontario public-TV channel's current affairs show The Agenda.
The allegation was made by Sarah Thomson, an outspoken former candidate for mayor of Toronto. But the channel said, based on the evidence it has so far, Mr. Paikin will remain on the air pending the results of the probe.
The taxpayer-funded station's chief executive officer, Lisa de Wilde, issued a statement on Monday disclosing that Ms. Thomson, after detailing the alleged incident in articles on her website without using Mr. Paikin's name, had sent him an e-mail over the weekend. Mr. Paikin immediately notified TVO of the e-mail, the statement says.
According to the account of the 2010 incident that Ms. Thomson published on her website, while at a lunch at the Grano restaurant, where Mr. Paikin is a regular, the TVO host allegedly asked if she would have sex with him to appear on The Agenda. Ms. Thomson says her assistant, whom she did not name, was also present at the lunch.
"TVO does not tolerate sexual harassment. We believe it is important that allegations be fully heard and investigated," Ms. de Wilde's statement reads. "However, based on the evidence to date, TVO sees no reason to remove Mr. Paikin from his role as Host for The Agenda pending the outcome of the investigation."
TVO says that during the investigation, stories related to "this subject matter" would be handled by other TVO journalists. Mr. Paikin has been covering the chaos in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario that erupted after leader Patrick Brown was forced to step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
A source close to TVO says the channel has received no other such complaints about Mr. Paikin, who has hosted current affairs programs at TVO since the early 1990s.
Ms. Thomson ran for mayor in 2010 but announced she was dropping out of the race in September of that year, too late to have her name removed from the ballot. She finished well behind the frontrunners with just 1,883 votes in the election, which was won by the controversial Rob Ford. During his mayoralty, she alleged that an inebriated Mr. Ford grabbed her buttocks and made a sexual comment to her at a 2013 gala.
On her website, Womenspost.ca, she alleged in an article dated Feb. 2 2018 that during a lunch with an unnamed TV host, during the 2010 campaign, she asked him how she could get on his show again: "Not five minutes in to the lunch, the host asked me if I would sleep with him."
She says she left the table and phoned her campaign manager. She also alleges the TV host has approached her at other events since, and repeated his remark with laughter. In her article, she asks other women with similar experiences to contact her, and urges the unnamed host to step down: "And I warn him: we are coming. We aren't rushing, but we are slowly gathering our facts and we won't let up. Do the right thing, and step down from your job."
TVO is launching an independent third-party investigation of an allegation of sexual harassment made against well-known broadcaster Steve Paikin, host of the Ontario public-TV channel's current affairs show The Agenda.
The allegation was made by Sarah Thomson, an outspoken former candidate for mayor of Toronto. But the channel said, based on the evidence it has so far, Mr. Paikin will remain on the air pending the results of the probe.
The taxpayer-funded station's chief executive officer, Lisa de Wilde, issued a statement on Monday disclosing that Ms. Thomson, after detailing the alleged incident in articles on her website without using Mr. Paikin's name, had sent him an e-mail over the weekend. Mr. Paikin immediately notified TVO of the e-mail, the statement says.
According to the account of the 2010 incident that Ms. Thomson published on her website, while at a lunch at the Grano restaurant, where Mr. Paikin is a regular, the TVO host allegedly asked if she would have sex with him to appear on The Agenda. Ms. Thomson says her assistant, whom she did not name, was also present at the lunch.
"TVO does not tolerate sexual harassment. We believe it is important that allegations be fully heard and investigated," Ms. de Wilde's statement reads. "However, based on the evidence to date, TVO sees no reason to remove Mr. Paikin from his role as Host for The Agenda pending the outcome of the investigation."
TVO says that during the investigation, stories related to "this subject matter" would be handled by other TVO journalists. Mr. Paikin has been covering the chaos in the Progressive Conservative Party of Ontario that erupted after leader Patrick Brown was forced to step down amid allegations of sexual misconduct.
A source close to TVO says the channel has received no other such complaints about Mr. Paikin, who has hosted current affairs programs at TVO since the early 1990s.
Ms. Thomson ran for mayor in 2010 but announced she was dropping out of the race in September of that year, too late to have her name removed from the ballot. She finished well behind the frontrunners with just 1,883 votes in the election, which was won by the controversial Rob Ford. During his mayoralty, she alleged that an inebriated Mr. Ford grabbed her buttocks and made a sexual comment to her at a 2013 gala.
On her website, Womenspost.ca, she alleged in an article dated Feb. 2 2018 that during a lunch with an unnamed TV host, during the 2010 campaign, she asked him how she could get on his show again: "Not five minutes in to the lunch, the host asked me if I would sleep with him."
She says she left the table and phoned her campaign manager. She also alleges the TV host has approached her at other events since, and repeated his remark with laughter. In her article, she asks other women with similar experiences to contact her, and urges the unnamed host to step down: "And I warn him: we are coming. We aren't rushing, but we are slowly gathering our facts and we won't let up. Do the right thing, and step down from your job."