Ladurantaye not returning to CBC’s ‘The National’

TORONTO The former managing editor of “The National” who was reassigned in the wake of a cultural appropriation controversy will not be returning to the CBC's flagship news program.

Steve Ladurantaye was reassigned in May for what the public broadcaster called “an inappropriate, insensitive and frankly unacceptable tweet” he made as part of a controversial online debate over cultural appropriation.

At the time, the CBC said Ladurantaye had been reassigned to work on digital “storytelling strategies” and added that he would reach out to Indigenous communities “as part of his learning process.”

In a memo to staff, CBC News editor-in-chief Jennifer McGuire also said Ladurantaye’s future with “The National” would be reassessed in the fall.

On Wednesday, in an interview with The Canadian Press, McGuire said Ladurantaye “won’t be going back to ‘The National.’”

McGuire said the CBC hasn’t hired a new managing editor for “The National,” which will relaunch Nov. 6 with Adrienne Arsenault, Rosemary Barton, Andrew Chang and Ian Hanomansing as co-hosts.

In May, Ladurantaye was among a number of journalists who engaged in a latenight Twitter conversation that was sparked by a contentious magazine article advocating for more cultural appropriation in Canadian literature.

In the Writers’ Union of Canada’s magazine Write, novelist and then-editor Hal Niedzviecki suggested “anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities.”

The opinion piece also suggested there should be an appropriation prize in literature.