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“Very few young single women lasted on the show,” he said, and many were brought to tears by Mr. Ghomeshi’s behaviour, “and not because he was being violent or overtly harsh with her, just subtly denigrated, overly critical.

“He’s always, like, drenched in cologne and breathing on you and hands on,” he said. “He also sweat a lot, and by the end of the day, out of his office would come an almost visible wave of perspiration and cologne. You could literally, in the building, step into an empty elevator and be like, ‘Oh, Jian has been here in the last half an hour.'”

CBC announced late Friday that its executives have been aware of the allegations against him for months, and believed his denials, but that changed last week when they saw “graphic evidence that Jian had caused physical injury to a woman.”

Mr. Ghomeshi has described approaching the CBC last week with what he said was exculpatory evidence, proving the impugned sexual encounters were consensual.

Arif Noorani, executive producer of Q, flatly denied the claim, reported Friday in the National Post, that he was aware of a workplace sexual harassment claim and told the victim, a former producer, that Mr. Ghomeshi is “never going to change,” so the solution was to work around it.

“I can tell you unequivocally that no one has ever approached me about any allegations of inappropriate sexual behaviour,” Mr. Noorani said.

No charges have been filed. Toronto Police Chief Bill Blair has encouraged any alleged victim to come forward as a witness to support possible criminal charges.

Even the presumption of innocence, though technically in place, has eluded him in public. Penguin Canada said in a statement Friday it had decided against publishing Mr. Ghomeshi’s next book “in light of recent events.” The singer Lights, whose career he launched and guided, fired him as her manager. The crisis public relations firm he hired to contain the scandal dropped him, reportedly because he lied to them. His former band mates issued a statement saying they are sickened and saddened by their friend’s actions.