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Solomon’s dismissal sends shock waves across political circles

Evan Solomon's firing discussed by CBC president Hubert Lacroix

The news of CBC TV host Evan Solomon’s art dealings took many of Ottawa’s insiders by surprise. What came as a shock, however, was how promptly he was dismissed by the national broadcaster.

Political circles in Ottawa were a chatter after the Toronto Star broke the story, with news that Solomon had been collecting a handsome commission from art sales to people he dealt with as the host of CBC’s Power and Politics and The House on CBC radio. The CBC quickly cut ties with the journalist on the same day the story broke, despite having been employed by the corporation for about two decades.

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The CBC is no stranger to hosts and personalities being caught up in scandals or conflicts of interest. Over the past year, Jian Ghomeshi, Peter Mansbridge, Rex Murphy and Amanda Lang have made headlines over various alleged wrongdoings.

Ghomeshi, whose sexual harassment case has been hard for many to stomach, was fired last year. Mansbridge, Murphy and Lang have all been paid for speaking gigs by companies or corporations seen as an obvious conflict of interest but remain employed by the CBC.

While many agree that Solomon’s art dealings appear to be in conflicts of interest, his colleagues, nevertheless, expressed regret about his departure from the CBC.

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Since Solomon’s firing, questions have been posed about why, for example, the Ottawa-based host was turfed, while Lang continues to appear on the airwaves.

Bruce Livesey, a former CBC producer, who briefly worked with Solomon, has a theory.

“No one is more embedded in Canada’s economic elites than Lang,” he said.

He said he believes that can go a long way to helping Lang avoid the same kind of blow back from CBC executives that Solomon felt, despite the fact that she was accused of trying to sabotage a story about the temporary foreign worker program.

As well, he noted that Lang has spent many years as a corporate journalist and the former wife of Vince Borg, president of corporate communications at Barrick Gold, Livesey pointed out.

“Thus, CBC’s instinctive reaction to protect Lang is because of her ties to where real power in Canada lies – with Bay Street. The Ottawa-based political mandarins Solomon socializes with are mere pikers compared to those Lang hobnobs with,” he noted.

“And whether consciously or not, the CBC bosses know this: you don’t want to mess with Corporate Canada.”

Others have suggested the quick dismissal — while perhaps surprising — had to do with the many trials and tribulations facing the broadcaster of late.

“I think the CBC has been through a fair number of issues in the last couple years, most notably the Jian Ghomeshi case, and they were certainly criticized for not acting swiftly…on the Ghomeshi allegations, which are a much different type of allegation, but allegations nonetheless,” Kevin Donovan, the Star reporter who broke the news, said on CBC’s The Current Wednesday morning.

“I suspect that the CBC realized that they had a situation…where a person was not biding by the code of conflict of interest with the CBC and they should rip the band-aid off really quickly rather than let it linger,” he said.