A Canadian journalist is calling out CTV’s national morning show for cancelling an election fact-checking segment she hosted following online backlash she faced for her coverage.
Rachel Gilmore, who’s based in Montreal, has previously been on the receiving end of online criticism for her progressive reporting before, but did not imagine it would cause her to lose her recently earned position at CTV.
The independent journalist signed on to join the network’s “YOUR MORNING” show for a weekly fact-checking segment during the length of the federal election.
Dubbed ‘Fact-Check Friday,’ Gilmore made her first and only appearance on March 25 after a stellar introduction from show host Anne-Marie Mediwake, with promises of being back on the air very soon.
Gilmore says the network reached out to her for the segment, noting that the producers said they were “big fans” of her work as a digital content personality. She described working with CTV as a “full circle moment,” one that she was excited to share amongst friends and family.
“One of my early jobs in journalism was producing for CTV… It was one of those moments of, ‘Hey, I’ve kind of accomplished something here. Now, I’m on this side of it, and I’m booked as an expert,’” Gilmore explained to Now Toronto on Wednesday.
“It was just like a little segment that I thought was going to be really fun and really important.”
Unfortunately, the segment didn’t last long. By the following Friday, Gilmore revealed a “YOUR MORNING” producer notified her that her March 28 segment was being bumped due to a scheduling conflict with a Canadian premier.
On the next Monday, she got the official call that the segment would be axed all together.
A Bell Media spokesperson told Now Toronto that the decision to cut Gilmore from the show was made by the show’s Executive Producer Jennifer MacLean, who also informed the journalist of the decision in a phone call.
However, Bell Media made no mention of the controversies following the fact-checking segment led by Gilmore.
“YOUR MORNING is a daily current events program which delivers perspectives on various lifestyle topics and headlines of the day and is not a division of CTV News. The decision to not have Ms. Gilmore return to YOUR MORNING was an editorial call made by the show’s Executive Producer. This decision was communicated directly and respectfully to Ms. Gilmore,” they said in an email statement on Wednesday.
Gilmore said she had an inkling that CTV would suddenly cancel the program, especially after the slew of negative reactions she received online in the days after her initial television appearance.
Despite some positive feedback about her segment, Conservative Party spokesperson Sebastian Skamski spoke against her work in an X post that has since gone viral.
“In a shocking new low for @CTVNews, they are having this disgraced disinformation peddler lie directly to their viewers under the guise of ‘news.’” he said.
In a shocking new low for @CTVNews, they are having this disgraced disinformation peddler lie directly to their viewers under the guise of “news”.
— Sebastian Skamski (@Skamski) March 25, 2025
The Liberal media will do anything to ensure a fourth Liberal term.
Remember that the next time they “fact check” Conservatives! https://t.co/gYWmVeIKzG
The post, shared last Tuesday, led to a flood of comments speaking out against the segment.
“This is so embarrassing for CTV,” a user commented in response to Scamski’s post.
Now Toronto reached out to the Conservative Party multiple times for comment but didn’t receive a response.
GILMORE CALLS ON MORE PROTECTIONS FOR JOURNALISTS
For Gilmore, she said she’s grown used to the typical online hate, but never expected to feel so unsupported by the network which was quick to drop her.
“Big accounts seem to very effectively use me as click bait… there were a lot of people who were using it to dunk and go viral with anything ranging from just totally non-evidence claims to outright lies about me,” Gilmore said.
“I was pissed, because the reality is they just proved all of these trolls and bad actors online right… they showed them your playbook works, no matter how made up your claims are, no matter how bad faith your outrage is, if you drum up enough of it, newsrooms will cancel a segment.”
The journalist worries that acts of staying silent by major corporations will only further embolden internet trolls, which in turn will contribute to the harassment of marginalized groups and uproot democracy and free speech.
“These campaigns disproportionately affect not only women, but people of colour… they’re going to disincentivize the kind of reporting that I do, reporting on disinformation, reporting on trans rights, reporting on conspiracy theories and far right extremism, because that elicits a lot of online rage,” Gilmore said.
There’s currently an online petition calling for the reinstatement of Gilmore’s fact-checking segment, but she assured Now Toronto that the ship has sailed. Moving forward, her only wish is for news outlets to better protect their journalists instead of shying away from outrage.
“There have been so many journalists who have dealt with these kinds of campaigns and been totally thrown to the wolves by their newsrooms because the newsrooms don’t want to tarnish their corporation’s names, so they let the journalist bear the brunt of it,” she said.
“Newsrooms need to recognize that and need to learn how to stand up to it, because right now, it’s a playbook that works, and it only works because the media is complicit in it.”
VERY excited about my NEW fact-check Friday with @NatObserver and Emily!!!!!
— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) April 3, 2025
😇 https://t.co/6ybzeUbJYc
Since being let go, Gilmore announced on Thursday that she has since joined the National Observer for a brand-new biweekly fact-checking segment.
Editor’s Note: This article incorrectly stated that Rachel Gilmore was based in Toronto but has since been corrected.
