CBC host Ghomeshi arrested

On Wednesday, Toronto police announced in a statement that they had charged Jian Ghomeshi, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.'s former star radio host, with four counts of sexual assault and one count of what they called "overcome resistance - choking." The former presenter had withdrawn a lawsuit worth $49 million (39 million euros) for wrongful determination against the CBC on Tuesday and agreed to enter into binding arbitration proceedings with Canada's national public broadcaster, The Toronto Star reported Wednesday.

CBC had fired Ghomeshi in October, announcing the emergence of "graphic" evidence that he had caused physical injury to at least one person. At the time, Ghomeshi defended his actions in a 1,500- word statement on Facebook, saying that he had consensual "rough sex" with women and calling himself the victim of a disgruntled ex-girlfriend. However, after initial anonymous accounts, at least nine women have come forward publicly with allegations of sexual abuse against Ghomeshi, saying that he had strangled or slapped them.

The allegations, first reported in the media in October, rocked the CBC, a vaunted Canadian institution. The case also triggered an uproar across Canada's social strata, leading to an urgent public debate on sexual violence, as well as a rise in the number of complaints.

As part of her support for an actress who was one of Ghomeshi's accusers, writer Antonia Zerbisias launched #BeenRapedNeverReported, a Twitter campaign in which women across North America and the world shared their experiences with sexual violence. Zerbisias has since left The Toronto Star, which has followed the Ghomeshi story closely, but has continued to document sexual violence in Canada.

Since the national discussion began in October, the opposition Liberal Party of Canada has suspended two federal members of parliament over allegations that they had harassed fellow lawmakers. Former Deputy Prime Minister Sheila Copps has also said that a fellow member of the Ontario provincial legislature sexually assaulted her in her first year as a lawmaker over 30 years ago.

mkg/rc (AFP, AP)