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The woman, who was at times tearful when speaking to a reporter, said she left the restaurant when she learned that Carmichael had targeted other women.

“I didn’t want to stay. I was angry, and I didn’t want to support Carmichael with my services as a worker,” said the former Riviera worker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Photo by Wayne Cuddington / Postmedia

Carmichael also said that in June he sought therapy for drug and alcohol addiction and that he has removed himself from the operations of his restaurants for the past five months — but did not say he would be leaving them entirely.

The admissions were all the more startling given that just last week, Riviera, a Sparks Street hot spot popular with Parliament Hill denizens, from Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on down, was feted as one of Canada’s Top 10 new restaurants of the year by enRoute magazine.

Yet, Carmichael’s admission was also not entirely surprising to many in Ottawa’s restaurant community, who had been swapping rumours for months.

If anything, the timing of Carmichael’s admission is of a piece with similar sexual harassment revelations involving prominent men in high-profile domains across North America, from film mogul Harvey Weinstein to New Orleans celebrity chef John Besh to Montreal Just For Laughs Festival impresario Gilbert Rozon.

The Riviera worker who spoke to this paper said that Carmichael messaged her that he liked certain clothes she wore. She did not respond to the message, she said.