The fallout from CTV News’ airing of an altered clip continues, as Bell Media Vice-President Richard Gray faced a barrage of questions from a House of Commons committee on Thursday.
The contention stems from an edited clip that aired on CTV News last month that misrepresented what Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre had said in the House of Commons, leading to a blanket Conservative boycott of the Bell Media-owned news network. After two CTV News employees were let go, and two public apologies from the broadcaster, Poilievre lifted his boycott last week.
The clip of Poilievre that misrepresented his comments had been spliced together to give the impression the Tory leader was introducing his non-confidence motion to get rid of the Liberal government’s dental care program. His words were edited from different parts of his speech to form a sentence he did not actually say.
In reality, the Conservative leader had said he was putting forward a motion to trigger a “carbon tax election.”
Poilievre and his team have maintained that the spliced clip was a malicious twisting of his words — going so far as calling it a “deepfake” — while CTV News, in its first public apology posted Monday, said the editing mistake was due to a “misunderstanding.”
A spokesperson for Bell Media, the parent company of CTV News, said “we have no further comment.”
Gray alleged that a reporter had altered a script after it had been approved by a producer, altering the meaning of Poilievre’s words to better suit the story being told. Then, Gray went on, an editor spliced two segments of a statement together to cover a technical issue in the original recording.
Reporting from Star contributor Stephen Maher later identified the reporter as Cristina Tenaglia and the editor as Derrick Thacker. According to Maher, the original quote from Poilievre — “That’s why it’s time to put forward a motion for a carbon tax election” — had been altered due to a 1.5-second blank spot in the clip on CTV’s server, and then later cut for time, omitting the reference to the carbon tax election.
Gray confirmed that both employees were “terminated” from CTV News and are no longer employed by any Bell Media entities.
“You said you’re sorry but we know that you’re only sorry that you got caught, isn’t that right?” MP Michael Barrett asked Gray in the opening minutes of the committee meeting, asserting that CTV News had spread “blatant disinformation” with its edited clip.
“I disagree with your characterization,” Gray said flatly. “We’ve apologized twice for a mistake that occurred.”
“It’s our job to present all sides of public policy issues in a balanced, accurate and fair way,” Gray added, noting repeatedly that in his 33 years in broadcast news he had never dealt with an issue like this previously.
When asked by a Liberal MP about future measures to prevent something similar from occurring again, Gray emphasized that the spliced clip would have been “impossible in this case to catch” as the clip was altered after the script was approved by a producer.
Maher’s reporting, as well as the union representing one of the terminated employees, suggested that part of the blame for the mishap lay at the feet of Bell’s historic layoffs in February, which saw thousands, including 440 people in its news division, let go.
Despite being hammered by Conservative MPs who alleged the spliced clip was an malicious attempt to misinform viewers, Gray said “from my perspective, this was two people who were acting independently to make a particular story work on a given day.”
Gray did confirm, however, to the surprise of MPs of all stripes in attendance, that he had only had an “initial conversation with the reporter” during the investigative process, while being “apprised at all steps as to what discussions were occurring.”
Asked by MPs if CTV News would be reviewing previous clips from the two employees, Gary said he “didn’t feel it was necessary to.”
What did CTV News do?
After airing the edited clip on its evening broadcast on Sept. 22. Poilievre’s spokesperson was quick to point out the clip on X.
On Sept. 23, CTV issued an apology for taking Poilievre’s remarks “out of context,” and attributed the error to a “misunderstanding during the editing process.”
However, the apology wasn’t enough to satisfy the Conservatives; Poilievre’s spokesperson demanded that until the network directly acknowledged its “malicious editing and omission of context to undermine Pierre Poilievre, Conservative MPs won’t engage with CTV News and its reporters.”
In a post to X on Sept. 26, the network said an investigation was launched “to determine whether a breach of our editorial policies and practices had occurred in this case.”
“The investigation found that two members of the CTV News team are responsible for altering a video clip, manipulating it for a particular story,” the statement continued, saying the actions that violated editorial standards were “unacceptable.”
“We are allowing our caucus members to speak with CTV again,” Poilievre said on “The Morning Rush,” a Bell Media radio show hosted by Bill Carroll, on Oct. 2.
Poilievre, in the radio hit, added that he was “glad” the CTV journalists involved were no longer employed with the news network. He went on to allege that there is an “anti-Conservative bias” within the Parliament Hill press gallery.
It continues a theme from Poilievre, who, in the days following CTV’s error, has accused the network of favouring the Liberals in its coverage, a claim the Conservative leader has also previously falsely levied against other outlets including the CBC, The Canadian Press and the Toronto Star.
In the House on Sept. 24, Poilievre also alleged the CEO of Bell Media, Mirko Bibic, “and his cronies at that company (CTV) are going after me … because they know that I am standing up for the people against crony capitalists and insiders like them.”
According to Elections Canada records, BCE’s Bibic has donated many times to the Conservative party and once to one-time Tory leadership candidate Jean Charest. He has also twice donated smaller amounts to both the Liberal party and one of the party’s riding associations in Ottawa.
How have others responded?
Canada’s largest private sector union also jumped into the fray yesterday. Unifor President Lana Payne, whose union represents some workers at Bell Media (as well as the Toronto Star) laid the blame for the incident on job cuts Bell Media has made in recent months.
“Unifor has repeatedly warned of the consequences of the erosion of journalism across the country. Newsrooms have been devastated everywhere, including by the latest round of massive cuts by Bell Media earlier this year,” said Payne.
“Any politician who aspires to be prime minister or hold any other elected position should first acknowledge the important role media plays in holding truth to power. Canadian media is in crisis.”
