Lisa LaFlamme, who was a chief news anchor and senior editor for the station, was fired after 35 years at CTV, according to an Aug. 15 release. Prior to serving as an anchor, the 58-year-old was a national affairs correspondent.
The firing of Canadian news anchor LaFlamme has sparked controversy online and companies to make statements on aging.
Following LaFlamme’s termination, and the allegations that newsroom executives made comments about her hair, have angered many. More than 70 prominent Canadian journalists, activists, politicians, and artists have signed an open letter condemning LaFlamme’s dismissal.
In a two-minute video posted on Twitter, LaFlamme said that she had been let go as the anchor of CTV National News, one of the most watched evening programs in the country. LaFlamme claimed to have been “blindsided” by the decision to terminate her contract The video has now received over 4.4 million views.
LaFlamme shared, “I’m still shocked and saddened. At fifty-eight, I still thought I had a lot more time to tell more of the stories that impact our daily lives.”
Watch the video below:
I have some news… pic.twitter.com/lTe3Rs0kOA
— Lisa LaFlamme (@LisaLaFlamme_) August 15, 2022
With this, People on social media were appalled that the news company would fire a woman for having gray hair. They turned to their preferred social media platform of choice saying the following:
“I hope people realize that what happened to Lisa LaFlamme happens to many women. When there aren’t cameras to capture it, when people aren’t celebs, when they don’t have the household name recognition or the legal/financial security to come out with the full story.”
One social media user, a male, wrote: “After all is said about Lisa LaFlamme and her departure from CTV, the inescapable conclusion and indefensible network position are as follows: fifty-eight-year-old women are too old. Fifty-eight-year-old men are not.”
The controversy came about after The Globe and Mail reported the head of CTV News, Michael Melling, raised questions about LaFlamme’s hair.
At a meeting, Melling allegedly asked who approved the decision to “let Lisa’s hair go grey,” the publication reported from a senior CTV official who was in the room. According to The Globe and Mail, LaFlamme’s hair color was an issue another day on set when Melling said the studio lighting was “taking on a purple hue.”
According to AWM, LaFlamme quit dying her hair because she was sick and tired of trying to put up appearances for the sake of the show. She wanted to allow her natural gray hair to grow in because that was what her body was producing, so she wanted to highlight the person she was while living on the air, speaking the news into existence.
Sources: AWM, The Globe and Mail
