Multiple bridges in Calgary shut down for police incident
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
A television executive who accused Chris Cuomo of groping her at a party 16 years ago says the CNN anchor needs a public education about sexual harassment and if he did that, "he'd be a hero instead of a cad."
The executive, Shelley Ross, said Friday she's concerned that Cuomo's reaction to her story and his role advising his brother, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, indicates that he's learned little about harassment and what it does to women.
"I don't want to see anybody lose their job," Ross told The Associated Press. "I want to see people learn and to make the news business a better place and the workplace a better place."
Her story represented another embarrassment for the host of "Cuomo Prime Time," generally the network's top-rated show. He has been criticized for his role advising his brother, Andrew Cuomo, who resigned as New York governor last month over allegations of sexual harassment from multiple women.
Ross said in an opinion piece in The New York Times on Friday that Chris Cuomo had greeted her at a going-away party in 2005 with a bear hug "while lowering one hand to firmly grab and squeeze the cheek of my buttock."
Ross said Cuomo told her, "I can do this now that you're no longer my boss," and she responded, "No you can't," pushing him off while stepping back to reveal her husband, who saw the whole thing.
In an interview, Ross called it an attempt to diminish and belittle a female executive in front of her staff.
Cuomo sent an apologetic email to Ross shortly afterward saying he was "ashamed."
Asked for comment, Cuomo told the Times, "As Shelley acknowledges, our interaction was not sexual in nature. It happened 16 years ago in a public setting when she was a top executive at ABC. I apologized to her then, and I meant it." CNN had no additional comment on Friday.
"There was no interaction," said Ross, former executive producer of the newsmagazine "Primetime Live." "An interaction has a premise that two people are involved in something. I did not want to be groped."
"I didn't know if he had changed from the years we worked together," she added, "and I see from the response that he hasn't."
Cuomo took a scheduled day off Friday from his SiriusXM radio show, the service said. It was not immediately clear if he would be on TV on Friday. CNN referred reporters to Cuomo's statement to the newspaper.
Ross said she was motivated to tell her story in part because of the fallout faced by some people who had advised the former governor. They included the resignations of Roberta Kaplan and Tina Tchen, two figures in the Time's Up organization, and Alphonso David, who was ousted as president of the Human Rights Campaign.
CNN has not commented publicly about findings from a New York attorney general's report about Chris Cuomo being involved in discussions with his brother's advisers about how to respond to the first reports of harassment allegations. Such involvement in politics is generally considered off-limits for journalists.
Chris Cuomo told CNN viewers last month that he had advised his brother to be contrite.
"I was there to listen and offer my take," Cuomo said. "And my advice to my brother was simple and consistent -- own what you did, tell people what you'll try to do to be better, be contrite. Finally, accept that it doesn't matter what you intended, what matters is how your actions and your words are perceived."
He eventually advised his brother, who has denied touching any women inappropriately, to resign. But the Washington Post reported that, when charges were first revealed last winter, Chris Cuomo had advised Andrew to take a defiant position and not resign.
The report by New York Attorney General Letitia James that precipitated the governor's resignation included an email Chris Cuomo sent to his brother's advisers last February about a suggested public statement that the New York Democrat should make.
Ross said in her essay in the Times that Chris Cuomo should have been ashamed for his conduct with her, "But my question today is the same as it was then: Was he ashamed of what he did, or was he embarrassed because my husband saw it?"
She wrote that she sees Cuomo's apology as "an attempt to provide himself with legal and moral coverage to evade accountability."
Ross has written previously of being sexually harassed by Roger Ailes, who was ousted from Fox News Channel over harassment complaints and died in 2017.
Recounting the 1981 encounter in her New York Times piece, Ross said Ailes apologized to her for insisting on a "sexual alliance" as a condition of a pending job offer at NBC's "Tomorrow" show. Ross said she accepted Ailes' apology, naively thinking she could "help reform the workplace one predator at a time."
She suggested a series of town hall meetings titled "The Continuing Education of Chris Cuomo."
------
This story has been corrected to show that the program Cuomo hosts is called "Cuomo Prime Time," not "CNN Prime Time."
Calgary police have shut down a number of bridges into and out of the downtown core as officers deal with a distraught individual.
A judge has ordered a Quebec man to stand trial on charges of first-degree murder in the deaths of two children killed when a bus rammed into a Montreal-area daycare last year.
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
Former Humboldt Broncos goaltender and bus crash survivor Jacob Wassermann has qualified Canada for a rowing event for the 2024 Paralympic games in Paris.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
Canadians will be missing out on a sweet new partnership between McDonald's and Krispy Kreme, which will see doughnuts available at McDonald's locations across the U.S. by the end of 2026.
A Calgary police officer has been charged after allegedly assaulting a handcuffed man two years ago.
The federal government is launching a new loan program to help child-care providers in Canada expand their spaces, and will be extending further student loan forgiveness and training options for early childhood educators, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced Thursday.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.
Ontario is facing a larger than anticipated deficit but the Doug Ford government still plans to balance its books before the next provincial election.