CTV Cancelled a Fact-Checking Segment in Response to Political Pressure From Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives

CTV has cancelled a segment on its national morning show fact-checking “election misinformation” after an online backlash from Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives and right-wing alternative media outlets targeting a prominent journalist.

An audio recording obtained by PressProgress shows the show’s executive producer made the decision over concerns that the “volume of that push back” targeting the journalist had become a “distraction” for CTV.

Rachel Gilmore, a former parliamentary press gallery reporter who recently launched her own digital media company, was over the moon when CTV Your Morning invited her to do a weekly fact-checking segment during the federal election.

“I was so excited about this opportunity,” Gilmore told PressProgress. “It felt like a full circle moment in my career because one of my early jobs was producing for CTV and now I was being booked by CTV as an expert reporter on disinformation.”

Gilmore received a glowing introduction from CTV Your Morning host Anne-Marie Mediwake during her first appearance on March 25.

“If you want to make an informed decision, it’s best not to do it on mis- or disinformation,” Mediwake told viewers. “Journalist Rachel Gilmore, it’s great to have you on Your Morning and I want to let everybody know – you’re going to join us every week through this campaign for a ‘Fact-Check Friday’.”

“You’re going to fact-check it for us every Friday, can’t wait for that.”

Lil 💞personal news💞 today!

I’ll be joining @ctvyourmorning.bsky.social every Friday for the election to fact check the campaign.

SO stoked for this! Thank you for having me, CTV 🥰

[image or embed]

— Rachel Gilmore (@rachelgilmore.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 12:31 PM

Despite the on-air announcement, it would prove to be the first and last fact-checking segment CTV would ever air.

Shortly after Gilmore shared a clip of her appearance on social media and thanked CTV for the opportunity, Sebastian Skamski, a senior campaign official for Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives, denounced CTV News for letting a “disgraced disinformation peddler lie directly to their viewers”:

“In a shocking new low for CTV News, they are having this disgraced disinformation peddler lie directly to their viewers under the guise of ‘news’. The Liberal media will do anything to ensure a fourth Liberal term.”

Sebastian Skamski (X, the Everything App)

Skamski’s tweet provided nothing to substantiate his description of Gilmore as a “disgraced disinformation peddler” or as a liar – nor his suggestion that CTV News is working to help elect the Liberals.

Neither Poilievre’s campaign nor Skamski, who served as Poilievre’s spokesperson until recently being quietly shuffled out of that position, responded to requests from PressProgress asking for information to substantiate Skamski’s statements or to clarify if his statements were pre-approved by Poilievre’s campaign.

The tweet – which has been viewed nearly half-a-million times – inspired a pile-on by far-right influencers and right-wing alternative media outlets, including the Western Standard.

One day after Skamski’s tweet, a CTV Your Morning producer contacted Gilmore and notified her that her next planned fact-checking segment was being bumped due to a scheduling conflict with a Canadian premier.

During this period, Gilmore says she received no communication or support from anyone at CTV about the online harassment and right-wing media content inspired by Skamski’s tweet, despite an email to the show’s producers flagging she was “shocked to see the zero evidence allegations from Pierre Poilievre’s spokesperson.”

A week later, on March 31, CTV Your Morning Executive Producer Jennifer MacLean contacted Gilmore and told her a decision had been made to “call down the segment” altogether.

Gilmore says she received no criticism or negative feedback from CTV on the quality of her work and was told that the decision to cancel the segment was made purely to avoid the “distraction” created by her online “troll base.”

“I got really positive feedback after the initial appearance,” Gilmore told PressProgress. “The main thing was that this is too much of a distraction.”

Emails between Gilmore and CTV Your Morning producers following her first and only appearance show CTV told her the segment “went really well” and that “everyone loved having you on.”

“I was cancelled because there was so much outcry online,” Gilmore said.

In an audio recording of the call between Gilmore and MacLean, the CTV Your Morning Executive Producer is apologetic and indicates she is fully aware of the online harassment targeting Gilmore.

“I’m sure you’re well aware of the push back we received after your first appearance on the show,” MacLean told Gilmore during the call. “The tricky thing for me is it just ends up being a distraction from what we are trying to do.”

“The ‘who’ we are talking to is kind of drowning out the ‘what’ we’re talking about right now,” MacLean continued. “I don’t feel like we have the bandwidth to deal with it.”

In a statement to PressProgress, a Bell Media spokesperson said “the decision to not have Ms. Gilmore return to Your Morning was an editorial call made by the show’s Executive Producer.”

“The decision was communicated directly and respectfully to Ms. Gilmore.”

As Canadian newsroom leaders have contemplated their moral obligations and duty of care to journalists targeted by harassment in recent years, Gilmore has frequently shared her experiences with journalism schools,  governmental institutions and the United Nations, while also being honoured by journalism organizations.

The audio recording shows CTV management acknowledged it was already aware of the harassment Gilmore regularly faces before offering her the weekly segment, but then balked after management was put in a position to respond.

“I followed you for a long time, ” MacLean told Gilmore. “I’m well aware of the trolls that you deal with and it is really shocking and disappointing.”

“But I have to say, I knew that you had that troll base and I knew that we would get some sort of reaction, but I really did not realize the extent of the volume of that push back that we had.”

Sonya Fatah, the Associate Chair of Toronto Metropolitan University’s School of Journalism and co-chair of the Canada Press Freedom Project, says the recording demonstrates the threat pressure campaigns pose to press freedoms in Canada.

“It’s a sacrifice of a journalist,” Fatah told PressProgress. “They don’t want to have to deal with the reaction from the trolls.”

“We know from a number of different cases that these kinds of campaigns are run by interest groups, particularly right-wing interest groups, that are trying to dominate the conversation or shut down certain perspectives,” Fatah said. “This kind of pressure is resulting in exactly the kind of thing these interest groups have in mind, which is to shut down the conversation.”

Fatah said there “used to be a time when media would push back against this kind of pressure,” but given the struggling financial situation many newsrooms increasingly find themselves in, it’s not surprising CTV would “buckle under pressure.”

“It’s a reflection that newsrooms don’t feel confident standing up for what they believe in,” Fatah said.

“This experience where Rachel is invited by the media organization and introduced on national television, then the reaction to having Rachel in that role is to succumb to the pressure immediately? That is a very distressing sign.”

The Canada Press Freedom Project is tracking incidents violating freedom of the press in Canada, including incidents of “chilling statements,” which include situations where political actors make statements that have the potential to thwart, derail or prevent a media worker or organization from continuing to pursue their work.

Fatah says Skamski’s tweet would likely qualify under that definition. “We are seeing a rise in chilling statements in the Canada Press Freedom Project, essentially statements that are intended to create a chill and prevent stories from being told in some shape or form.”

Gilmore says she worries about the message CTV is sending to other journalists, especially women, people of colour and younger journalists, who will feel chilled about covering issues impacting vulnerable communities and democracy for fear they will suffer professional consequences if they become a target too.

“Newsrooms should stand by their journalists,” Gilmore said. “These campaigns are disproportionately deployed against women and against people of colour, and that means that those are the people who will be disproportionately taken off of the airwaves when newsrooms give in to these bad faith campaigns.”

“The only way you can control it is by reducing your presence online and not covering the kinds of stories that piss these people off … The reason these people initially hated me was because I covered vaccines, the Freedom Convoy, the far-right and rising neo-Nazi and white supremacist movements within our country.”

Despite the threat of online harassment and pressure campaigns designed to make journalists pay a price professionally for using their voices and exercising their right to free expression, Gilmore says she will “not stop telling stories about things threatening our democracy and our society.”

“I didn’t get into journalism because I wanted to see my name on CTV News,” Gilmore said. “I got into it because I want to make the world slightly less shitty.”

“I cover these stories because they help people.”