A former CityNews political reporter is suing Rogers Communications for $650,000 for wrongful termination, alleging she was just doing her job holding politicians to account when she was fired.
Tina Yazdani, 36, was based at Queen’s Park and had been employed by CityNews for eight years. In her statement of claim, filed on May 28, she alleged that her firing amounted to a wrongful termination after new management took issue with her confrontational style with politicians in the Ontario government.
She had never before been “subject to negative performance reviews or had her work negatively scrutinized,” her statement of claim said.
Rogers Communications has not yet filed a statement of defence, but a spokesperson said the company will fight the allegations.
“This lawsuit is without merit, and we will vigorously defend these baseless allegations in court,” said Charmaine Khan, spokesperson for Rogers Sports & Media.
Yazdani’s claim explains that Rogers told her “long-standing reporting style was inappropriate, unnecessarily confrontational with politicians and violated Rogers journalistic standards, thus providing the basis for her wrongful for-cause termination.”
The claim speaks about a few specific incidents, including a Dec. 18, 2025, press conference in Buffalo with Premier Doug Ford, shortly after the integrity commissioner launched an investigation into the Skills Development Fund.
Yazdani’s claim said she was sent with instructions to ask about the fund, but was unsuccessful and instead captured footage of her trying to get the Premier’s attention as he was departing. According to her claim, her subsequent story aired but was later pulled from the station’s website without explanation.
On Jan. 8, 2026, Yazdani claims, she was pulled into a meeting with two managers and told that the Buffalo story was “a serious breach of journalistic standards and unnecessarily confrontational in both tone and approach,” according to her statement of claim.
She alleges she received a formal written warning, despite the story going through the standard editorial process.
On March 25, 2026, Yazdani was in a scrum with Paul Calandra, the minister of education, when he told her not to interrupt him — an exchange she included in her story “because it provided essential context about the Minister’s demeanour.”
Two days later, she claims she was called into another meeting with management and told that “including the clip was a serious breach of journalistic standards” and a violation of Rogers News policy.
She was fired a week later, on April 2, 2026.
Yazdani claims that “she reported in the same, assertive accountability-focused manner” during her time at CityNews and that she followed all established editorial processes and that “her actions were neither insubordinate nor reckless, and do not remotely approach the high bar required to justify summary dismissal for cause.”
Her claim is seeking 18 months of lost salary, $500,000 in total damages and the cost of legal fees.
In her statement to the Star, Rogers Sports & Media spokesperson Khan said: “CityNews is committed to responsible practices and editorial standards in our reporting that reflect truth, accuracy and objectivity. Repeated breaches of our news and social media policies did not meet the journalistic standards we expect in serving our audiences.”
She continued: “This includes reporting that changed the tone and context of a politician’s remarks. These breaches were identified internally and independently by the senior news editorial team.”
Yazdani’s lawyer, Kathryn Marshall, rejected those allegations, saying her client’s reporting “accurately reflected what was said” and ”was produced using standard editorial practices, and was reviewed and approved through Rogers’ established editorial process before broadcast.”
After she was terminated, Yazdani joined the Trillium, and continues to report on Queen’s Park. Her lawyer, Marshall, has also recently represented other media clients, who have taken on their former employers, including Patricia Jaggernauth versus Bell Media and Travis Dhanraj and the CBC.
