At Old City Hall this morning, Ontario Court Justice William B. Horkins delivered his verdict in the trial of former CBC host Jian Ghomeshi, finding him not guilty on all counts: four of sexual assault and one of choking to overcome resistance, involving three complainants.
Sexual assault activist and author Jane Doe is covering the trial for NOW and will have her analysis in the coming days.
A We Believe Survivors rally at Old City Hall is planned for 6 pm this evening, to be followed by a march to police headquarters, which will presumably meet up with the Black Lives Matters protesters already encamped there.
Ghomeshi faces one further charge of sexual assault — whose circumstances were different from the others — that will be heard at a separate trial in June.
As with all criminal trials, a finding of “not guilty” does not mean that the alleged crimes did not occur — just that the Crown failed to convince the judge or jury beyond a reasonable doubt that they had.
As Justice Horkins wrote in his reasons (which you can read below), “My conclusion that the evidence in this case raises a reasonable doubt is not the same as deciding in any positive way that these events never happened.”
