Solomon returns to media two months after dismissal
Two months after being fired by the CBC for using his contacts to broker sales for an art dealer, for which he received commissions totalling an estimated $300,000, Evan Solomon is returning to journalism.
Solomon has been hired by national weekly news magazine Maclean’s, with his first column appearing in its Aug. 5 edition.
Solomon has also joined satellite radio company SiriusXM Canada, where he will host a show covering the federal election.
The radio show, called Everything is Political: Campaign 2015, debuts Thursday at 6 p.m. and will air weekly throughout August before going daily from Monday to Friday from September to Nov. 5.
In June, the Star revealed that Solomon, the former host of Power & Politics and The House on CBC Radio, was acting as a broker for art collector Bruce Bailey, connecting him with contacts he’d met through his job.
They included former Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney and businessman Jim Balsillie. Solomon, a two-time Gemini Award winner who came to the pub- lic broadcaster in 1994, was considered a possible successor to veteran anchor Peter Mansbridge before his dismissal.
Janice Neil, associate chairwoman of the at Ryerson School of Journalism, said Solomon’s actions were an “obvious breach” of journalistic ethics, but that she’s not surprised to see his return to journalism.
“It’s one thing to be friendly with the people that you are interviewing. That happens on every beat, it happens in the sports department and it happens in politics. But this went beyond that,” she added.
But Neil noted the veteran journalist has “paid a price” for his mistakes.
Neil said she is surprised Maclean’s didn’t insist that Solomon level with readers about his departure from the CBC, calling it a “missed opportunity.”
A spokesperson for Maclean’s did not respond to a request for comment.