Lloyd Robertson speaks out on Lisa LaFlamme’s firing from CTV

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Former CTV Nationwide Information anchor Lloyd Robertson has spoken out after his successor Lisa LaFlamme was ousted from her internet hosting gig on the community’s night information broadcast earlier this month.

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“She held to her personal integrity, all by with the outdated man. From the start, saying, ‘My bond is our father-daughter relationship.’ Proper to the tip, she was there for him,” Robertson, 88, said, evaluating LaFlamme’s expertise to that of Cordelia in William Shakespeare’s King Lear.

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“You don’t go shedding that individual the best way you laid off Lisa LaFlamme,” Robertson added throughout a panel entitled Staging Democracy on the Stratford Competition’s Tom Patterson Theatre, in line with Guelph Today. “These individuals are good human beings, speaking with the general public in an actual method, and being true to their very own identities and their very own integrity as they go alongside.”

Robertson was chief anchor of CTV’s nationwide night information program from 1984 to 2011 earlier than LaFlamme, 58, took over the position. She knowledgeable viewers her contract was not being renewed in a video assertion posted to Twitter on Aug. 15.

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In a Twitter post, the Canadian Display Award-winner mentioned she was knowledgeable June 29 that her contract was not going to be renewed and it was a “enterprise determination.”

“I used to be blindsided and I’m nonetheless shocked and saddened by Bell Media’s determination,” LaFlamme mentioned. “I used to be additionally requested to maintain this confidential from my colleagues and the general public till the specifics of my exit may very well be resolved.”

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In a press release, Bell Media mentioned it was “recognizing altering viewer habits” because it moved “the position of its Chief Information Anchor in a unique route.”

In her video, LaFlamme, who started her profession in 1989 in Kitchener, Ont. mentioned the job has meant “the whole lot” to her.

“Reporting on the darkest days of struggle — from Iraq, Afghanistan and this yr, Ukraine — to overlaying pure disasters, this pandemic, federal elections and so many different consequential occasions, together with this summer time’s papal apology tour to residential college survivors and their households, is a belief I’ve by no means taken as a right,” she mentioned. “I’m eternally grateful to you — such loyal viewers — for sharing within the perception that information delivered with integrity and fact strengthens our democracy.

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“At 58, I nonetheless thought I’d have much more time to inform extra of the tales that influence our every day lives. As a substitute I go away CTV humbled by the individuals who put their religion in me to inform their story. I assume that is my log out from CTV.”

LaFlamme’s departure has been met with anger coast-to-coast, with Michael Melling, the vice-president of stories for Bell Media, asserting a go away of absence from the corporate final week.

Bell Media has additionally been compelled to take care of claims that was ousted due to her gray hair with a quantity CTV Information journalists asserting that her firing was primarily based “extra on private malice than any business-related causes.”

On Saturday, an open letter printed within the Globe and Mail and signed by notable Canadians together with Sarah McLachlan, Anne Murray, Jann Arden and Romeo Dallaire, pointedly requested Bell to “make issues proper.”

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“Bell Media’s ‘enterprise determination’ to fireside CTV Nationwide Information anchor Lisa LaFlamme, within the very prime of her profession…struck on the coronary heart of not solely who we’re as Canadians, however who we aspire to be,” mentioned the letter addressed to the board of administrators and administration of BCE and Bell Canada.

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“In making their ‘enterprise determination,’ Bell confirmed one unhappy fact: even after all of the progress girls have made, they proceed to face sexism and ageism at work on a regular basis in a method which is unacceptable.”

Since asserting her departure, LaFlamme has courted assist from mainstream companies. Wendy’s, Dove and Sports activities Illustrated all waded into the fray backing the journalist.

Wendy’s modified its red-headed mascot’s hair to gray, whereas Dove pledged to donate $100,000 to a Canadian group that helps construct higher workplaces for girls.

In the meantime, Sports activities Illustrated retweeted a canopy that featured 74-year-old mannequin Maye Musk.

Following its announcement that it’s changing LaFlamme with Omar Sachedina subsequent month, Bell Media mentioned in a press release it “regrets” the best way during which LaFlamme’s departure was dealt with.

mdaniell@postmedia.com