TVO host Steve Paikin broke his silence Tuesday and denied an allegation made by Sarah Thomson that he asked her to sleep with him during her 2010 mayoral campaign.“To say I was gobsmacked by the allegations in her email is the understatement of my life,” Paikin wrote in an extensive statement on Facebook, referring to an email Thomson sent to him on Saturday, outlining her allegation.“I mean no harm to Sarah Thomson. But Sarah, you and I both know the incident you described never happened. It’s complete fiction. To be clear, I did not have sex, suggest, request, imply, or joke about having sex with you.”Thomson wrote on her website Friday that during the 2010 mayoral campaign she and her executive assistant had lunch with the host of a political talk show to discuss another appearance. She had been on the show previously along with four other mayoral candidates. Four people who worked or volunteered on her campaign, including Mayor John Tory’s sons George and John Jr. Tory, say they have no knowledge of such an incident occurring. Thomson did not identify the host by name, but TVO confirmed she is referring to Paikin and TVO’s flagship program The Agenda. “Not five minutes into the lunch, the host asked me if I would sleep with him,” Thomson wrote on Women’s Post, the website she publishes. “My assistant almost spit his drink all over the table.”She said she “politely” declined his offer, then went to the washroom and called her campaign manager, who advised her to leave, which she did.Thomson declined to comment. Before Paikin released his statement on Facebook, Thomson tweeted, “Women don’t come forward because they get attacked on social media. Did Paikin go public to scare other women from coming forward? Sad how easily he’s playing people.”Hours later she tweeted, “It’s a bit scary the number of men that are bashing me today.” In hi ...
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