CBC has fired marquee host Evan Solomon after the Star reported that he was taking secret commission payments related to art sales involving people he dealt with as a host.

“I regret to inform you that CBC News has ended its relationship with Evan Solomon,” executive Jennifer McGuire said in a brief statement issued late Tuesday, a day after the Star presented the findings of its investigation to the network.

Solomon, 47, was the Ottawa-based host of Power and Politics on television and The House on CBC radio, and had been one of the people touted to replace Peter Mansbridge on The National when the veteran newsman retires.

The Star found Solomon had been brokering the sale of paintings and masks owned by a flamboyant Toronto-area art collector to rich and famous buyers. Solomon, in at least one case, took commissions in excess of $300,000 for several pieces of art and did not disclose to the buyer that he was being paid fees for introducing buyer and seller.

The CBC had taken Solomon off the air Monday pending an investigation “over the next couple of days.” That move came after the Star presented the CBC with the results of its probe of Solomon.

The network severed its relationship with Solomon on Tuesday without further explanation. McGuire, general manager and editor in chief of CBC News and Centres, said in the statement that the network would “be making announcements about the interim hosting of these programs in the next few days.”

Among the people to whom Solomon has brokered the sale of paintings are Jim Balsillie, co-founder of Research In Motion (now BlackBerry) and Mark Carney, the former Bank of Canada governor and current governor of the Bank of England.

Solomon, as a journalist, has dealt with both men in his high-profile host jobs at the CBC. Carney, who is also a friend, has been a guest on both of Solomon’s shows.

Solomon met Balsillie while courting him as a journalist two years ago in unsuccessful attempts to get him on CBC to discuss sustainable development and small businesses, as well as Balsillie’s role in backing the search for the Franklin expedition ships.

In email correspondence between Solomon and art collector Bruce Bailey, Solomon uses code words to disguise the identity of each man: Carney is “the Guv” and Balsillie is “Anka,” the latter an apparent reference to a similarity in looks with singer Paul Anka.

In one email exchange from 2014 — after Carney made a purchase — Solomon tells his art collector partner that Carney’s international contacts will be very important as they move forward in their attempts to sell more paintings.

“Next year in terms of the Guv will be very interesting. He has access to highest power network in the world,” Solomon writes.

In another exchange, this one referring to Balsillie, the CBC host said in an email that “there are other Ankas out there as we build a portfolio. It will be a fun journey.”

The CBC code of ethics states that employees “must not use their positions to further their personal interests.”

In an interview Monday, Solomon first told the Star that he had no involvement in the art world.

“I have never been involved in an art business,” he said. “I have never sold any art to anyone.”

When the Star inquired further, Solomon said he was involved but had done nothing wrong. “I have been involved in an art business and it is all disclosed to CBC.”

Solomon then said: “I am no longer involved in the business. It is over.”

CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson initially said Solomon had disclosed his involvement with an art business sometime in the past two years and that CBC had no concerns.

“Evan didn’t trade on his journalistic contacts,” Thompson said, explaining Solomon and his wife have long had a personal interest in the art world. “It was made very clear he has to ensure there can be no lines crossed with the journalism.”

After the Star provided the CBC with detailed allegations, including a copy of the draft contract between Solomon and the art collector, Thompson told the Star the CBC would look into the matter.

Solomon is a two-time Gemini Award winner who came to the CBC in 1994. He was previously the editor-in-chief of Shift, a magazine he co-founded about technology and culture.

His job as host of two flagship CBC shows has brought him in constant contact with the movers and shakers on Parliament Hill. He frequently entertains at his Rockcliffe home and is often invited to dinners and events by Ottawa power brokers. To give back to the community, he is involved with the annual Riverkeepers charitable event, which raises money to protect the Ottawa River.

Solomon has been friends for many years with Bailey, a well-known patron of the arts who has been referred to in social circles as Canada’s “Gatsby,” a nod to the wealthy and popular character of the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel The Great Gatsby. Bailey is known for his generosity and love of a good party, many of which he has hosted over the years.

Bailey wanted to part with some of his pieces, including paintings and ceremonial masks. His large collection includes works by Kim Dorland and Peter Doig.

In the summer of 2013, and into the fall, Solomon was trying to land an on-air interview with Balsillie on CBC. Balsillie had received a federal appointment to chair an initiative to help small and medium-sized companies bring sustainable technologies to market. Balsillie was also a key figure in the Arctic mission to find the ships from the ill-fated 1846 Franklin expedition.

There were calls and emails back and forth. For example, on Oct. 1, 2013, Solomon asked if Balsillie would “come on” his show to discuss a Franklin mission announcement. Balsillie was not available.

On Oct. 22, Solomon emailed Bailey and told him they should finalize their contract because Jim Balsillie, known for having an interest in art, would be coming the following week to Ottawa, where Solomon lives.

“Hey Bruce, hope all is well today. Jim called me this morning and he is coming to Ottawa on Monday and wants to get together and he wants to talk art. So I think we should finalize our arrangement and get going as he wants to move fast. I’ve drawn up an agreement here based on your idea of 10 per cent,” Solomon wrote.

That day Bailey and Solomon arrived at a business arrangement, which is set out in contract form and referred to by Solomon in subsequent emails to Bailey. Solomon is described in a draft of the contract between the two men in this way:

“Whereas Solomon is a Canadian journalist and has become familiar with collectors and others who might have an interest in purchasing Canadian and other art.”

According to the draft, “Solomon agrees to, from time to time, introduce (Bailey) to such persons as Jim Balsillie, Reza Satchu and others who might be interested in purchasing the works of arts carried by (Bailey) or who have a relationship with (Bailey).”

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Balsillie, in an email response to questions from the Star, recalled: “Evan first reached out to me to appear on his show and discuss my new role as the chair of Sustainable Development Technology Canada and the organization’s work.”

He opted not to be interviewed but recalled he told Solomon he would be happy to talk to him on background about the federal initiative. The two men agreed to get together for a drink on Wednesday, Oct. 23, to discuss Solomon’s interest in Balsillie’s work with the federal initiative and the Franklin expedition. That turned out to be the day after the Bailey-Solomon contract was signed. Solomon and Balsillie were going to be at the Writer’s Trust event in Toronto, Balsillie as a guest, Solomon as a judge.

They met at a pub across the street from the Art Gallery of Ontario, where the gala was being held. Balsillie recalled that Solomon had earlier asked if he could bring a friend. That friend was Bruce Bailey, the art collector.

Balsillie and Bailey hit it off immediately. Balsillie recalled that while he and Solomon talked about a mutual love of artwork, there was no discussion that Solomon was an art broker.

Over the next two years, Balsillie purchased numerous art pieces from Bailey. Documents obtained by the Star show that Solomon was earning a commission on each sale, to a total of about $300,000 over two years. Balsillie said he paid Bailey directly for the paintings and had no idea the CBC host was taking a cut.

“I was not aware of any commissions paid to Mr. Solomon as a result of my purchases from Mr. Bailey,” Balsillie recalls, adding he had no knowledge that Solomon was involved in the transactions.

Documents, including invoices, emails and statements relating to the sales transactions, reveal Bailey paid Solomon his commissions by sending payments to Four T Productions, a personal company run out of Solomon’s Rockcliffe home.

Many of those payments were by bank transfer but one email from Solomon to Bailey states “thanks for the Anka envelope.” The Star asked Solomon if that was a reference to a cash payment and, if so, was it disclosed to the Canada Revenue Agency. Solomon has not yet replied to those questions.

Around the same time, Solomon was trying to sell Bailey’s art to Mark Carney, who in 2013 left the Bank of Canada to become governor of the Bank of England. Carney has been a guest of Solomon’s on CBC over the years, the last time in April, 2014.

In the fall of 2014, Solomon was successful in brokering a deal for Bailey to sell a $22,500 painting to Carney, who lives in England. A previous attempt in the summer to sell another painting had fallen through.

The sale was finalized on Dec. 18, 2014.

“Good news my partner,” Solomon wrote in an email to Bailey. “We just sold the Kim Dorland to Mark Carney! A great client and his circle is very wide. He liked our 10 per cent off!”

Carney would not speak with the Star. His spokesman at the Bank of England said that “Governor Carney has no enduring professional relationship with Mr. Solomon. He never comments on matters relating to his personal life.”

The five-by-six-foot oil painting by Dorland, an artist from Alberta, was originally priced at $25,000. Bailey agreed to reduce the price to Carney by 10 per cent because Carney and Solomon were friends.

Solomon, in an email to Bailey, noted Carney has a “super sensitive” position in England and Carney had advised him that he had to be very “discreet” about this purchase. Solomon provided Bailey with Carney’s home address for shipping and Bailey handled those arrangements.

In another email, in December 2014 after the Carney deal, Solomon reiterated that Carney could help them access the “highest power network in the world.” Solomon concluded by saying “contacts for other buyers — Doig size — will be in the offing.”

Solomon’s reference to “Doig size” was in connection with the works of Peter Doig, a Scottish artist who spent most of his early years in Canada and now lives in Trinidad. Doig’s paintings have been rising in value and by March this year one would sell for almost $26 million (U.S.) at an auction in New York.

Another Doig painting was sold to Balsillie earlier this year for an undisclosed amount that a source said is “in the millions.” Balsillie would not reveal the price.

That deal, in February, led to a bitter dispute between Solomon and Bailey, which was resolved last week by way of a confidential settlement. Documents obtained by the Star show that Solomon wanted a 10-per-cent commission on the sale, but given the high price fetched by the painting Bailey wanted to pay a lower commission rate.

According to emails between Bailey and Solomon, Bailey was prepared to pay Solomon $200,000 as a “finder’s fee on this one-time transaction to make the deal happen.” A source close to the deal said Bailey paid one-half of that amount before the dispute broke out.

However, Solomon wrote to Bailey on Feb. 19 saying he was owed $1,070,000 as a “commission” for brokering the sale of the Doig between Bailey and Balsillie.

Both men hired lawyers and a settlement was reached this week. The terms of the settlement are confidential.

According to emails sent by Solomon to Bailey, Solomon had also tried unsuccessfully in the summer of 2014 to sell a $15,000 painting to the departing Belgium ambassador.

Solomon issued a statement Tuesday night in which he said he “formed a private business partnership with a friend to broker Canadian art” in 2013 and disclosed it to CBC earlier this year.

“The business involved only two clients,” the statement goes on to say.

“This month, following a difficult dispute with my partner, I took steps to end our business relationship. I did not view the art business as a conflict with my political journalism at the CBC and never intentionally used my position at the CBC to promote the business.

“I am deeply sorry for the damage that my activities have done to the trust that the CBC and its viewers and listeners have put in me. I have the utmost respect for the CBC and what it stands for.”

Kevin Donovan can be reached at (416) 312-3503 or kdonovan@thestar.ca

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