I don’t know who’s telling the truth and who’s lying. I don’t know if Steve Paikin made a stupid joke and Sarah Thomson took it seriously.

But I do know that, amidst the tsunami of allegations of sexual impropriety against high-profile individuals, at least one employer has not taken shelter from the storm by pre-emptively firing or suspending or cutting off at the knees the alleged perpetrator.

Keeping Paikin on the air as host of TVO’s The Agenda until an independent investigator — Rachel Turnpenney, a lawyer specializing in workplace investigations, employment litigation and human rights law — finishes her probe of the complaint is the proper response. Because nobody should be taken down, have a lifetime career trashed, on the allegations of one person, even when, as in the case, the complainant has been identified.

Read more: TVO investigating sexual harassment allegation against Steve Paikin

“Based on the evidence to date, TVO sees no reason to remove Mr. Paikin from his role of host for The Agenda pending the outcome of the investigation, CEO Lisa de Wilde said in a statement released Monday.

Former mayoral candidate Thomson did not name Paikin in a series of posts she made on her personal website last week, recounting a lunch she’d had with the veteran journalist during the 2010 mayoral campaign. Her assistant, she said, was also present, with the host of a “political talk show”.

“Not five minutes into the lunch the host asked me if I would sleep with him,” Thomson wrote. “My assistant almost spit his drink all over the table.”

Thomson claimed “the host” had posed the lunch invitation to discuss her coming on the show, where she had earlier appeared with the other top four candidates.

“In 2010, the host made it harder for me to compete with the men I was up against because they were invited to appear on his show while I wasn’t,” Thomson wrote, “They didn’t have to sleep with him to get on the show.”

It was Paikin who informed TVO about the allegation on Saturday, after he received an email from Thomson.

The Star has obtained a copy of that email:

“I am sorry but I could not let you carry on — what you did to me wasn’t fair — and with the elections this year, I don’t want you doing it to other women candidates.

“Part of me thinks that you just don’t realize how wrong it is to use your position of power over women. But I know you are smarter than that. So perhaps you need to get help?

“Try to put yourself in our shoes. Think about how me EA went back to our office after our lunch and told my entire campaign team that the lunch ended when we discovered you weren’t interested in discussing the show but instead wanted to sleep with me. Then a few weeks later my team watched our competitor — George Smitherman — on your show and were disgusted. Not an easy thing for a woman running for mayor to have to deal with.’’

The email continues:

“Using your position to try to get women to have sex with you is wrong on EVERY level — and you should not have that kind of power over women. So I am gathering letters from other women with similar experiences of you — we’ll add a letter from my EA and my own letter and will be sending to your board and CEO next month.”

It should be recalled that in 2013, Thomson had publicly accused Rob Ford of grabbing her from behind at an event. Ford denied it. But the late Ford lied a lot, as we’re all now well aware. Thomson has said her subsequent vilification, especially on social media, was horrendous.

In the email to Paikin, Thomson certainly strikes a threatening tone, urging him to step down voluntarily — or else.

“Steve I sincerely hope that you don’t have to face the court of public opinion as I did with Rob Ford. It was a terrible experience and I would not wish it on my worst enemy. You have time to step down without having to face the public shaming that could come out as more women step forward. I can’t control how the other women will want to handle their issues with you — they may want to expose you.

“My advise to you is to step down now, before this blows up. That is the right thing to do.

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“Do the right thing.”

Thomson did not return a message left on her cell phone.

Paikin, who has not yet responded to the accusation, declined to comment to the Star. With lawyers now involved, he’s likely been instructed to refrain from commenting.

As crude and distasteful as the purported sex bid from Paikin was, Thomson does not exactly have clean hands either when it comes to sloppy sexual banter. In 2002, she offered to sleep with since-disgraced media baron Conrad Black in exchange for an interview. More than a decade later, Thomson told the Star the comment was made as — ha-ha — a joke.

(Actually I once made the same joke to Black, although not in exchange for an interview. I was trying to dissuade him from leaving a party we’d both attended. As I recall, Black said that was reason enough for him to depart post-haste.)

As a female with zero power, I doubt whether anyone to whom I have made innumerable come-on cracks in the past could, years later, weaponize those remarks in a sexual complaint. But who knows? It’s not just men who might be targeted for throwaway remarks from a less litigious era. I’ve never had the heft to exploit a power imbalance. And we’re talking here about words, not actions. Though Thomson, in her posts, has clearly implied that the words Paikin allegedly spoke, in front of a supporting witness, had manipulative intent behind them.

To be clear: I don’t know Paikin personally. Even in a small media circle, it’s possible for journalists never to cross paths. I have been invited on his show but always declined.

It is pointless to jump ahead of the investigation’s findings. And it is a tricky thing, trying to distinguish clumsy humour from predatory intent – the difference between how a comment is issued and how it’s received, especially in the current toxic environment.

Nobody is entitled to pre-emptive belief and credibility. That’s what is dangerously amiss about the #MeToo movement, as heads roll from untested accusations.

Let the investigator investigate.

But kudos to TVO for not caving under pressure. If Thomson is brave for coming forward, then #SoToo is the public broadcaster for not cowering.

Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.