Jian Ghomeshi

Jian Ghomeshi (born June 9, 1967) is a Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and former CBC personality.

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 1983, Ghomeshi and friends Murray Foster, Tracy Jones, Reno Manfredi, and John Ruttle formed a band called Tall New Buildings.

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").

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.

From 1990 to 2000, he was a vocalist and drummer in the Thornhill-based folk-pop band Moxy Früvous.

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.

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.

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.

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 the 2000s, he became a television and radio broadcaster.

Ghomeshi released his first solo EP, The First 6 Songs, in July 2001.

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, until he was fired by the CBC.

In 2014 and 2015, Ghomeshi was the subject of allegations of sexual assault and sexual harassment; 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 April 2017, Ghomeshi launched a new online venture, The Ideation Project.

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.

Jian Ghomeshi was born in London, England, United Kingdom, to Iranian parents Farhang (Frank), a civil engineer, and Azar (Sara) Ghomeshi.