CTV fires Rachel Gilmore and has once again demonstrated whose voices carry weight in their newsroom. Spoiler, it’s not those of dedicated women journalists, and it’s not the Canadian public.
In 2022, they unceremoniously dismissed Lisa LaFlamme, a respected, award-winning journalist, in a move that smacked of ageism and sexism. Lisa’s supposed transgression? Embracing her natural grey hair. The public’s backlash was swift and warranted.
Now history is repeating itself with Rachel Gilmore. A seasoned journalist with experience at Global News, CTV, and CPAC, Rachel was brought on by CTV’s Your Morning to host a weekly fact-checking segment during the federal election. The goal? To help voters cut through the noise and navigate the steady stream of misinformation; a service that’s desperately needed, especially since politicians can, and will, lie, distort, and omit until there’s a law that says they can’t.
Rachel’s inaugural segment was met with positive feedback. However, it wasn’t long before the forces of political intimidation mobilized. Sebastian Skamski, a senior campaign official for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, publicly denounced CTV for featuring Rachel, labeling her a “disgraced disinformation peddler” without providing any evidence to substantiate his claim.
This baseless attack opened the floodgates for right-wing trolls and alternative media outlets to launch a coordinated harassment campaign against Rachel, again. The pressure was intense and unrelenting. In response, CTV’s executive producer, Jennifer MacLean, informed Rachel that the network would be canceling her segment, citing the “distraction” caused by the online backlash, while fully admitting it was a bad faith campaign against Rachel. Given the opportunity to stand by their journalist and uphold the principles of press freedom they chose the path of least resistance, effectively validating the tactics of political bullies and online harassers. Another nail in the coffin for democracy.
Truly, I want you to pause here and sit with this for a moment. CTV has effectively just hired online trolls as their editorial board, and hence forth they will be deciding what you see and hear.
But what makes this especially galling is that Rachel is one person. One woman. She has no massive newsroom backing her. She faces these mobs alone, while CTV has an entire team, a communications department, lawyers, HR, and executives. And still, they caved. If they can’t take any criticism or stand up for a journalist doing her job, they don’t deserve to call themselves a news organization.
Rachel, without the backing of a media conglomerate, has consistently held herself to a higher standard than the very people who let her go. She’s reported on far-right extremism, misogyny, disinformation, and online abuse—topics that have made her a target time and time again. She’s received threats not just to her own safety, but to her family’s. And still, she keeps showing up, telling the truth, and exposing the lies others would rather keep buried.
There’s a reason she draws this kind of backlash. You don’t get flack unless you’re over the target. That’s exactly why her voice matters.
If anything, this public smear campaign against her should have been a clear sign to CTV that she was doing her job well. You don’t attract this kind of hate unless you are hitting a nerve. Rachel has been exposing the darker corners of modern political discourse, and that scares people, especially those who depend on chaos and lies to survive.
In 2025, the media space is crowded. Everyone has access to a microphone, an opinion, and an internet connection. I include myself in the din. And let’s be clear, I am not a journalist, and I don’t pretend to be one. I’m a writer with a platform. I’m politically left-leaning. When people listen to my show or read what I write, they know exactly where I stand. That transparency is part of the deal. I don’t hide it, and I don’t owe a side I don’t agree with my objectivity. And while I personally strive for truth in everything I bring you, not everyone in this space can claim the same and they don’t have to. Bottom line, you can’t call it journalism unless it comes from an accredited journalist, otherwise, it’s just sparkling commentary.
So when it comes to accredited journalists like Rachel and outlets like CTV, CBC, or Global or any media claiming the mantle of news, there is a responsibility to serve the public—not political interests, not advertisers, not whoever yells the loudest online. These outlets are meant to be held to a higher standard. They’re supposed to stand for truth and facts. If they can’t do that, then what separates them from any random person with a camera and a Wi-Fi signal?
And this is the crux of the matter. When news organizations yield to political pressure and online harassment, they don’t just fail their journalists, they fail us and democracy itself. News outlets have a duty to inform the public, present verified facts, and resist political interference. When they bow to the loudest, most aggressive voices, they cease to be news organizations and become purveyors of entertainment, no better than the likes of Fox News—which, by their own admission, is not a news outlet but an entertainment entity.
And with that, I think it’s fair to say we now know where CTV stands. They folded like a cheap deck of cards, even turning their Threads account private this morning because they can’t handle the backlash. I mean, if you can’t take the heat, maybe get out of the kitchen—and let Rachel cook.
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