Amanda Palmer drops Ghomeshi from Toronto event

After several days of mounting public pressure, former CBC radio host Jian Ghomeshi, who's become the subject of numerous sexual assault allegations in recent days, will no longer be a guest at the Toronto stop on Amanda Palmer's book tour. In a blog post this afternoon, the musician and author wrote:

"thank you to everyone for sharing forward all of the articles and content, you've helped me. the story is incredibly, incredibly sad. given everything i've learned, and especially given how upsetting it would be to so many, jian will not be coming to the show in toronto."

The former Dresden Dolls singer, who is coming through town next month to promote The Art of Asking, an account of what she learned through her infamous Kickstarter campaign, had originally invited Ghomeshi to be a special guest at the Toronto date of the tour. After Ghomeshi initially claimed his innocence on Sunday in a lengthy Facebook post, Palmer shared the statement and added, "for those asking, yes, of course he will still be guesting at the toronto show".

As increasingly damning accounts of alleged sexual abuse surfaced, and Palmer's fans urged her on social media to boot Ghomeshi, she maintained in a follow-up statement on Facebook that she was "still figuring out what to do about this". That wasn't enough for many of her fans, who accused her of putting professional commitments to Ghomeshi before their own feelings of safety - and critics, who accused her of using the controversy to promote her book.

Photo via Amanda Palmer on Facebook.