LILLEY: Travis Dhanraj's testimony against CBC met with silence by Liberals

· Toronto Sun

CBC allegedly has a toxic culture rife with intimidation that management is aware of, but ignores. That was some of the Tuesday testimony from CBC’s former prime-time TV host Travis Dhanraj before the House of Commons heritage committee.

Dhanraj’s testimony on what goes on inside of Canada’s state broadcaster should have been of interest to the government, but Liberal MPs didn’t ask a single question of him or about what seems to be their favourite broadcaster.

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In the space of five minutes, Dhanraj seemed to accuse former CBC president Catherine Tait of lying to them during previous testimony. He also said that CBC’s political programs engaged in partisan bias , that there was a black list of guests who were not allowed to appear on the network and that intimidation was allegedly a regular practice at CBC.

Dhanraj soured on inner workings

Dhanraj has worked across the Canadian television media landscape for the last 25 years, including several stints at CBC. In 2021, the network recruited Dhanraj to become their senior parliamentary reporter and named him host of Canada Tonight with Travis Dhanraj in 2023.

“Travis’s engaging curiosity and incredible range of experience allows him to translate complex stories into personal terms and help audiences make sense of the news,” said CBC executive Andree Lau when they announced the new show.

While the show had Dhanraj’s name in the title and his face was part of all of the publicity, he said he quickly found out that he wasn’t in control of who he could talk to.

“ Power and Politics , hosted by David Cochrane, was given gatekeeping authority over which politicians could appear on Canada Tonight ,” he said.

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Pushback over ‘intersection panel’

At another point, Dhanraj told the committee that Rosemary Barton, one of the key political journalists for CBC in Ottawa, complained widely to management after Dhanraj interviewed then-House Speaker Greg Fergus about Black History Month. He said she insinuated that she or Cochrane should have done the interview.

It wasn’t just interference from Ottawa, Dhanraj said he also faced pressure over his “intersection panel” that brought guests with diverse viewpoints together for debate. He held up a page with the images of everyone who had appeared on the panel and said you wouldn’t find this elsewhere.

“We’ve got here one with Raheem Mohammed and Rachel Gilmore. I don’t know if you can get two people very far apart on the ideological spectrum as that. Sheila Copps, Brian Lilley and Faye Johnston, right? We were having the Canadian conversation and this panel was cancelled,” he said.

Attempts to fix issues ignored?

He said his attempts to raise these issues with management were allegedly met with intimidation and demands that he sign non-disclosure agreements, an agreement that his rights were not being violated and more.

“CBC silenced and intimidated me for simply trying to do my job and fulfil my public service role to Canadians,” Dhanraj said.

CBC has denied Dhanraj’s allegations that he was silenced and intimidated by senior leadership.

While Conservatives asked questions, Liberals ignored Dhanraj and focused on other witnesses less hostile to the Mark Carney government’s favourite broadcaster.

The Liberals, first under Justin Trudeau and now under Carney, have consistently increased CBC’s funding. In last December’s budget, CBC saw a funding increase of $150 million despite the government saying it was time to rein in spending.

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Management destroying CBC: Dhanraj

CBC’s total budget has grown under the Liberals to over $1.4 billion and CBC News has seemingly shown its gratitude for the extra money with increasingly favourable and partisan coverage. As Dhanraj pointed out, CBC should be for all Canadians and it should be a unifying force, but instead it has become a highly polarizing institution in Canada.

“I don’t have to be wanting to destroy the CBC because management and executives are doing a great job of that on their own,” Dhanraj told the committee.

The government, by ignoring the allegations and letting CBC rot from the inside, is also helping destroy CBC. The issues raised by Dhanraj aren’t partisan and the Liberal government should be interested in fixing them.

Instead, they appear to be too busy basking in the glow of all that positive coverage CBC gives them.

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