Time.news – In a two-minute video posted on Twitter, journalist Lisa LaFlamme announced that she had been fired as host of Ctv’s news, one of the most watched television programs in Canada. When the reporter explained her motivation, her case went viral: LaFlamme was fired because her hair turned gray.
“I am still shocked and saddened – she said – at 58 I continued to think that I would tell many other stories that impact our lives every day”. The journalist, who has successfully run the program since 2011, was one of the women who stopped dyeing their hair during the Covid pandemic.
I have some news… pic.twitter.com/lTe3Rs0kOA
— Lisa LaFlamme (@LisaLaFlamme_) August 15, 2022
Management had allowed her to go to the studio with her natural hair color, a choice she herself had called “liberating.” “I wish I had done it a long time ago,” she had added. But Thursday, The Globe and Mail site revealed that Ctv News executive Michael Melling had asked “who approved the decision to let Lisa go live with gray hair“.
He and the reporter had had a fight, Melling had told her that the contract was over. The case sparked indignant reactions among viewers also because LaFlamme is one of the most popular faces of Canadian news: on Ctv News for thirty-five years, in her career the journalist has made many reports from war zones and places hit by natural disastersas well as recently winning the Best News Host Award at the Canadian TV Oscars.
In a statement, Bell Media, the television network’s parent company, explained its decision as a response to the “changing tastes of viewers”. The choice of the replacement, Omar Sachedina, 39, considered very good and a symbol of diversity, given that he comes from an Indian Muslim family who emigrated from Uganda, did not calm the controversy