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Lisa LaFlamme was a fixture in living rooms across Canada for years up until her summoned dismissal this week.
The abrupt firing of one of the country’s most prominent television journalists — she has helmed Canada’s most-watched nightly news program since 2011 and won the Canadian Screen Award for Best National Newscaster this year — has sparked both a backlash and a nationwide discussion of sexism and ageism in the media.
LaFlamme, who covered the biggest stories of her time including elections, wars and natural disasters, posted a video to Twitter Monday announcing that she had been informed in late June that her career at CTV News was over, after parent company Bell Media decided to end her contract. She had worked for the network for 35 years and had just under two years left on her contract, according to the Globe and Mail.
“I was blindsided and I am still shocked and saddened by Bell Media’s decision,” LaFlamme said, adding that she had been asked to keep her firing confidential for weeks.
“At 58, I still thought I had a lot more time to tell more of the stories that influence our daily lives,” she told her followers. “While it is devastating to be leaving CTV National News in a manner not of my choosing, please know that reporting to you has truly been the greatest honor of my life and thank you for always being there .”
In a statement Monday, CTV said it made a “business decision” to take a “different direction” for the chief news anchor role, citing “changing viewership habits.” The network announced on the same day that national affairs correspondent Omar Sachedina, 39, would fill the role.
LaFlamme’s firing drew condemnation from viewers, peers in the media industry and prominent figures in Canada, including the retired Grammy winner Anne Murray.
The Canadian media has continued to cover the aftermath, with reports suggesting various factors behind LaFlamme’s firing, including but not limited to clashes between the anchor and CTV News head Michael Melling over resources to cover the war in Ukraine.
But one speculation has struck a chord among Canadian women, who are wondering: Was it the hair?
LaFlamme made headlines when she stopped dying her hair in 2020. During a special year in review broadcast, she told viewers that the pandemic has prevented her from visiting her hairstylist and she’s tired of spraying her roots every day before going on the air, according to the Globe and Mail. “I finally said, ‘Why bother? I’m going grey,’ she said. “Honestly, if I had known lockdown could be so liberating on that front, I would have done it much sooner.”
The move resonated with Canadian women who faced societal pressure to dye their hair. But it apparently ruffled the feathers of CTV News’ top executive Michael Melling, The Globe and Mail reported.
A senior CTV official told the newspaper that Melling asked who approved the decision to “go gray with Lisa’s hair” and later commented on the purple hue of LaFlamme’s tresses under studio lights.
Shortly after Michael Melling became head of CTV News, he asked questions about host Lisa LaFlamme’s hair. According to a senior CTV official who was present at the meeting, Mr Melling asked who approved the decision “to turn Lisa’s hair grey”. https://t.co/XQb9zb9N65
— Robyn Doolittle (@robyndoolittle) August 18, 2022
Canadian women took to Twitter this week to celebrate the former presenter for embracing her gray hair and acknowledging her age.
“Lisa LaFlamme allowed herself to age in front of the camera and in doing so gave me the confidence to shine in my natural beauty as I aged,” wrote one Twitter user, Sarah M, on Monday, calling CTV News’ decision ” a massive mistake.”
Others worried about LaFlamme firing would send a message Middle-aged women that they could face professional consequences if they choose to look more natural.
hey @CTVNews At the start of the pandemic, I gave up being a bottled blonde and embraced gray. I was inspired by women like Lisa LaFlamme, who we watched every day.
We turned gray together.Women across Canada will remember the message you sent us with your release. pic.twitter.com/s6NQUAfvIB
— Christine Cooper 💪🙋♀️🦹♀️ (@coopSpeak) August 18, 2022
Many suggested that sexism and ageism played a role in LaFlamme’s firing. Some media pundits pointed out that her predecessor, Lloyd Robertson, retired from the role of main presenter at 77 and was fired from the show.
Bell Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Friday.
LaFlamme “has been a major contributor to Canadian television news for the past 35 years,” reads one expression Bell Media posted on Twitter Monday, signed by company president Wade Oosterman and senior vice president Karine Moses. The company will initiate an independent “internal workplace review of our editorial team” by a third party, the statement said.
LaFlamme’s firing led some to do so Call for Melling’s falland Canadian media reported that CTV News was forced to use its own staff to conduct damage control.
Moses said in an email to staff that LaFlamme was given the opportunity to say goodbye to viewers before leaving the presenter’s chair, but that she “choose not to say goodbye to the public.” reported the Canadian broadcaster Canadian Broadcasting Corp. The anchor shaking was part of a shift toward digital content creation at the news agency, Moses wrote.
The backlash to LaFlamme’s firing has sparked a backlash of its own. On the right are figures such as Maxime Bernier, leader of the far-right People’s Party of Canada, seize the moment to draw attention to Canadian companies laying off thousands of workers who turned down coronavirus vaccines.
Some prominent media figures, meanwhile, have complained that the controversy surrounding LaFlamme’s ouster has blurred the importance of hiring her successor. Sachedina, an award-winning reporter who has worked at CTV News since 2009, was born in Canada to parents of Indian descent from Uganda – a background underrepresented in Canadian media.
“A Muslim man who runs the biggest national news program – history,” said Global News journalist Ahmar Khan twelcomes. “But diversity doesn’t fill the gaps in abuse.”
Sammy Westfall and Amanda Coletta contributed to this report.