Journalist Rachel Gilmore wishes CTV 'had her back' after backlash ends her segment
Independent journalist Rachel Gilmore says she’s disheartened by CTV Your Morning‘s decision to cancel her fact-checking segment after backlash from Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre’s team and right-wing supporters.
“This is the real impact of the harassment that I have to deal with,” she stated in a video shared to X on Tuesday.
Gilmore is a former CTV Power Play chase producer and Global News national online journalist who gained a large social media following when she began posting short-form videos covering COVID-19, the Freedom Convoy, far-right extremist groups in Canada, and conspiracy theories.
“I’m devastated, but I’m also angry. I’m angry because this is an attack on press freedom,” reads her post on X.
She told Daily Hive that producers from Your Morning, CTV’s daily current events and lifestyle program, emailed her on Friday, March 21, asking her to front a weekly fact-checking segment during the election campaign.
A producer invited Gilmore to do the segment on Tuesday, March 25, to fact-check claims that Prime Minister Mark Carney is “unelected” and explore the historical precedent of someone becoming prime minister without a general election.
She did the interview without a hitch, and Your Morning even announced the weekly “fact-check Friday” segment at the end of her live hit.
Gilmore was reassured by this announcement, so she went ahead and shared the news on her social media channels. That’s when she says the online harassment started flooding in.
“A lot of really big right-wing accounts were tweeting about me. One of my trolls who once dressed up as me for Halloween was tweeting about me,” the journalist told Daily Hive.
One prominent name she highlighted in her video is Sebastian Skamski, Poilievre’s media relations director. He accused Gilmore of being a “disinformation peddler” and of lying to CTV’s viewers “under the guise of ‘news.'”
The day after her first live hit, Gilmore says Your Morning emailed her and said it “went really well,” but that they had to postpone her upcoming Friday segment because they had booked an interview with a premier whose time was limited.
She replied, offering a different time slot if needed and also apologized for the “social media uproar” her segment caused.
“Sorry about that. I have some really dedicated trolls, but I have to admit, I was shocked to see the zero-evidence allegations from Pierre Poilievre’s spokesperson,” Gilmore wrote.
She didn’t hear back from Your Morning until the call from the executive producer on Monday, March 31, telling her that they decided to cancel her segment.
The independent journalist says she recorded the call on video because she was “worried that they were going to be spineless.”
During the call, the executive producer says the reason they decided to scrap the segment was because they “don’t have the bandwidth” to deal with the backlash Gilmore’s appearance received.
“The who we’re talking to is kind of drowning out the what we’re talking about right now,” the producer told her. “I know that is super disappointing and crappy… and we were really looking forward to the segments together, but I just don’t feel right about moving forward with it because it just ends up distracting from the work and the coverage that we’re trying to do.”
The producer ended the call by offering to pay Gilmore for the scheduled appearances.
I’m devastated, but I’m also angry.
I’m angry because this is an attack on press freedom.
If opportunities can be stripped from journalists simply because enough people repeat the same bad-faith narrative, how can anyone withstand the career impact of doing work that matters? https://t.co/4eCko3Y4aA pic.twitter.com/gyu6ULiz79
— Rachel Gilmore (@atRachelGilmore) April 1, 2025
In an email statement to Daily Hive, a Bell Media spokesperson noted that Your Morning “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 stated.
Gilmore says that, ultimately, Your Morning‘s decision has bad implications for democracy.
“I wish they had my back,” she told Daily Hive. “These newsrooms are creating a disincentive for reporters to cover these issues that are fundamental to the disinformation crisis facing our society.”
The independent journalist says she’s no stranger to online harassment and has been receiving it from the right-wing community ever since she posted a TikTok talking about how to stay safe during Thanksgiving when the Omicron COVID variant was at its peak. That escalated when she began covering the Freedom Convoy and reporting on the Canadian alt-right extremist group Diagolon.
She says her safety has been at risk numerous times, whether it’s threats to her life or people following and recording her.
“[Newsrooms are] telling you that if you cover these kinds of stories, become hated as a result by people who believe those kinds of conspiracies, we won’t have your back, and you will be deprived career opportunities,” explained Gilmore.
She thinks that uproar from the far-right makes her seen as a “headache,” so she doesn’t even get considered for many opportunities.
Gilmore isn’t letting the cancellation of her Your Morning segment set her back. She continues to report on Substack, Patreon and her podcast.
“It would have been an incredible opportunity to reach a broader audience, but I’m not going to let it take the wind out of my sails,” she said.
The journalist told Daily Hive that she’s already received a lot of offers from organizations who want to pick up where CTV left off.
Gilmore hopes her experience won’t deter young journalists.
“Know that I’m going to be okay and that you should absolutely still want to go into this work because we need more people who really care,” she said. “Don’t be disheartened because we need journalists now more than ever.”