TVO launches probe into allegations against host Steve Paikin

The Globe and Mail's Jeff Gray reports:

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.

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