I basically wasn't allowed to pick up the phone and talk to Conservatives.
I have some Gchats here. I want to read you part of them. I'm talking to my senior producer and asking—this is an editorial discussion—if we can get a Conservative perspective. That's essentially what I'm saying. “It is a no to the Conservatives”, I'm told. “We can't chase anyone from the entire party. The chase is with P&P.” If Power & Politics is not able to secure a Conservative or somebody who presents an alternate perspective, then we are not allowed to.
I'm told at one point, “We're sure that there's a myriad of other types of interesting guests that you can chase outside of the Conservatives.” “Can I be included on conversations with Power & Politics?” I'm told, “That's not how we work.”
I said to management, “By playing petty office politics, we feed into Conservative narratives that we have a bias against them. Canada Tonight is a melting pot of news of the day, and politics and decisions from it largely impact Canadians, so we need flexibility to respond to emerging stories.”
Yes, I wasn't even allowed to pick up the phone and call to request Pierre Poilievre. Look at what happened when I had Melissa Lantsman on my show. I was threatened with being pulled off the air, and the CBC then said in a news statement that they didn't threaten to do that. There were recordings of them trying to do this.