CBC radio and television host Evan Solomon has been fired after a Toronto Star story alleging he used his job to broker six-figure art deals.

Employees at the national broadcaster learned the news in an email from Jennifer McGuire, CBC’s English-language editor in chief, about an hour after the Star story went live online Tuesday evening.

“I regret to inform you that CBC News has ended its relationship with Evan Solomon host of Power and Politics and The House,” McGuire’s brief email reads. “We will be making announcements about the interim hosting of these programs in the next few days.”

Solomon, who joined the broadcaster in 1994 and has won two Gemini awards, was the host of CBC New Network’s flagship, prime time Power and Politics, a two-hour daily program. He also helmed CBC Radio’s The House on Saturday mornings, a weekly round-up of political news and was a guest anchor on CBC News’s flagship nightly newscast, The National.

The Toronto Star investigation alleges Solomon used his powerful connections — built through years of reporting at CBC — to help another friend sell high-priced art to Canada’s movers and shakers.

“Solomon, in at least one case, took commissions in excess of $300,000 for several pieces of art and did not disclose to the buyer that he was being paid fees for introducing buyer and seller,” the Star reports.

“I did not view the art business as a conflict with my political journalism at the CBC and never intentionally used my position at the CBC to promote the business,” Solomon said in a statement released Tuesday night. “I am deeply sorry for the damage that my activities have done to the trust that the CBC and its viewers and listeners have put in me.”

Buyers included Blackberry co-founder Jim Balsillie and Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, whom Solomon met during his stint at the Bank of Canada, according to the Star. The story also suggests one of the paintings was sold for millions of dollars and Solomon was working with art collector Bruce Bailey to help sell some of his collction. The piece details a relationship between the two where Solomon collected a 10 per cent fee for any art he helped Bailey sell, until a dispute sent both sides to lawyers in a dispute that has since been settled.

CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson said Solomon disclosed that he was in a business partnership with his wife and art collector Bruce Bailey in April. Solomon told CBC he was not active in the business.

“It was made clear at the time that this partnership would not intersect with his work at CBC,” Thompson said.

Thompson said after new information about the partnership was made available Monday, an internal review took place, which led to Tuesday’s dismissal.

The CBC code of ethics states that employees cannot use their positions to further personal interests.

“We have determined that (Solomon’s) activities were inconsistent with our conflict of interest and ethics policies as well as our journalistic standards and practices and in light of that, we made the decision that we did,” Thompson said.