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Toronto Sun
6 hours ago
- Toronto Sun
LILLEY: Former CBC host blasts state broadcaster on way out the door
Travis Dhanraj accuses CBC of bias, lack of diversity of opinion, in scathing resignation letter. Get the latest from Brian Lilley straight to your inbox Travis Dhanraj. Photo by @Travisdhanraj/X / TORONTO SUN CBC loves diversity, just not diversity of opinion. That mistake has now cost them a former top host and perhaps created an enemy. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account In a scathing letter announcing his resignation, now former CBC journalist and television host Travis Dhanraj is taking aim at Canada's state broadcaster. 'This is an involuntary resignation,' Dhanraj said. 'I am stepping down not by choice, but because the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation has made it impossible for me to continue my work with integrity.' The 20-year broadcast veteran had worked for Bell Media, Global and was recruited to CBC to report on Parliament Hill, Marketplace and then eventually was chosen as host of Canada Tonight with Travis Dhanraj . His show was announced with great fanfare in November 2023, hit the airwaves in January 2024 and was done within the year. '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, which will be key as Canada Tonight sharpens its focus on stories that matter at home and make a difference in this country,' said CBC executive Andree Lau in a statement at the time. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Quickly though, CBC realized that Dhanraj wasn't the kind of host CBC wanted; he actually welcomed a diversity of opinion. And while other shows like Power & Politics faced a boycott at the time by MPs from the federal Conservatives over their blatant pro-Trudeau, Liberal bias, those same Conservative MPs would speak to and appear on TV with Dhanraj, something CBC's 'top talent' wouldn't allow and blocked from happening. Appearances by people like me, not normally welcome at CBC HQ, didn't go over well either. 'When I joined CBC, I did so with a clear understanding of its mandate and a belief in its importance to Canadian democracy. I was told I would be 'a bold voice in journalism.' I took that role seriously. I worked to elevate underrepresented stories, expand political balance, and uphold the journalistic values Canadians expect from their public broadcaster,' Dhanraj said in his resignation letter. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. 'But what happens behind the scenes at CBC too often contradicts what's shown to the public. Performative diversity, tokenism, a system designed to elevate certain voices and diminish others.' Dhanraj says he was denied access to key newsmakers and says 'a small circle of senior Ottawa-based journalists' — read that as David Cochrane and Rosemary Barton – used internal booking and editorial processes to block him from booking key guests. 'I was fighting for balance and accused of being on a 'crusade,'' Dhanraj says. Those who know Dhanraj know that he is far from someone pushing a conservative agenda. During his time covering Queen's Park, he was a constant thorn in the side of Ontario Premier Doug Ford. As a show host though, Dhanraj wanted to reflect the viewpoints of the whole country. Liberals, New Democrats, Conservatives and people who didn't fit into neat, tidy boxes. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. That made CBC executives uncomfortable. They obviously thought when they hired a self-described brown dude from Calgary whose parents had immigrated to Canada from Trinidad that they were getting someone with a certain point of view. That's the kind of diversity CBC wants, the diversity that rests on the surface, with skin colour, not the diversity that allows other views to be aired to CBC's audience. CBC executives, fully immersed in the DEI culture, didn't know how to handle the man they had actually hired and so they fought him the entire time he hosted the show. Shortly after the show launched, certain segments were cut – especially those showcasing diverse opinion – the interference from Ottawa only intensified. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. His decision to criticize CBC President Catherine Tait for defending executive bonuses while cutting front line jobs brought about retribution, including a demand that he sign a non-disclosure agreement. By November, Dhanraj was off the air, but his name was still on the show. CBC initially refused to comment, then in early 2025 they said they were going in a new direction with a new host, Ian Hanomansing. After trying to demote Dhanraj, the journalist and state broadcaster were at a standstill. Now, he has made it clear that his relationship with CBC is over. 'My departure is not the end of this story. There is more to come — and it will be shared when the time is right. You have taken away my job, but you cannot and will not silence my voice,' he wrote in his letter. That sounds like there will be more stories, interesting stories, about CBC in the future. Sunshine Girls Toronto Raptors World Columnists Toronto Maple Leafs
CTV News
7 hours ago
- CTV News
Paris couture week opens with Cardi B holding a live crow at Schiaparelli's spectacle
PARIS — Paris couture week opened not with sequins or red carpet pageantry, but with a black-feathered omen. Cardi B, wrapped in a custom Schiaparelli gown of graphic fringe, stood beneath the gilded columns of the Petit Palais, holding a live crow on her arm. The bird squawked, glared, and nearly lunged — setting the tone for a show that soared straight into the surreal. It was a fitting image for Schiaparelli. Elsa Schiaparelli, the house's founder, built her legend in the 1930s by weaving the unexpected —l obster dresses, shoe hats, and, yes, animals — into the heart of high fashion. That legacy pulsed through Daniel Roseberry's Fall 2025 collection, a spectacle in pure black and white, staged as if the city itself had been drained of color, leaving only stark contrast and raw emotion. Inside, the mood was cinematic — sharp tailoring, sweeping gowns, hints of disco sheen flickering like film across the runway. But if the house has been criticized in the past for relying on extreme corsetry and body manipulation, this season marked a shift. Roseberry, perhaps heeding the critics, abandoned his signature corset silhouette. In its place: a freer, more elastic exploration of the body, echoing Schiaparelli's own restless spirit. Schiaparelli helped create the mold Roseberry said the collection was inspired by the moment in 1940, when Elsa Schiaparelli fled Nazi-occupied Paris for New York — a period 'when life and art was on the precipice: to the sunset of elegance, and to the end of the world as we knew it.' Here, that tension was alive in every look: archival codes reimagined, but with a restless push toward the future. Dresses undulated like car bodies, hips arced in impossibly engineered shapes, ribbons from antique Lyon couture fluttered as kinetic sculptures. Yet the show was more than spectacle. This was couture at its most essential — an ideas factory for the entire fashion industry, unfettered by trends. 'Chanel was interested in how clothes could be of practical use to women; Elsa was interested in what fashion could be,' Roseberry added. It is this what-if energy, the transformation of memory, myth, and sheer technique into something never seen before, that keeps couture vital, even as the world rushes toward AI and disposable fast fashion. The origins of couture The setting only heightened the effect. The Petit Palais is currently home to an exhibit on Charles Worth, the 19th-century Englishman who invented haute couture by bringing artistry and handcraft to Paris. The symmetry was irresistible: in these halls, Schiaparelli's past collided with fashion's future, reminding all why couture matters: not as museum piece, but as living laboratory for risk, reinvention, and radical beauty. A decade after its relaunch, Schiaparelli has found commercial traction and become a fixture on the world's red carpets, a rare feat in today's luxury market. But above all, the brand's power lies in its ability to surprise. On opening day, as Cardi B's crow threatened to take flight, Schiaparelli proved that in Paris, fashion's most potent magic is still the unexpected. Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press
CBC
13 hours ago
- CBC
What you need to know ahead of Bluesfest 2025
News Duration 3:05 CBC's Nkele Martin has all the details on how to get there, what time the gates open and what fans can and cannot bring into the festival.
