Canadian resigns after behaviour allegations

Complaints of inappropriate conduct

Steve Ladurantaye, a former journalist at the Globe and Mail and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, has resigned from a media job in Scotland following allegations of inappropriate behaviour, reports British newspaper the Times.

The complaints against Ladurantaye, who was working as the head of news and current affairs at STV, the Glasgow- based broadcaster, came from female staff members, the Times reports.

Ladurantaye had joined STV in 2018. Prior to that he was well-known in Canadian media circles, working as a media reporter at the Globe and Mail and as a top editor at the CBC.

Ladurantaye left the Globe and Mail in 2013, and following a brief stopover at Twitter Canada, joined the CBC as the managing editor of The National nightly news broadcast in 2016.

He left the CBC in 2018, in the fallout over an appropriation controversy on Twitter that impacted several high- profile Canadian journalists.

After that, he crossed the ocean, landing with STV in Glasgow.

In a piece for the Royal Television Society, Ladurantaye wrote he’d received a job offer to “uproot my life and move across the ocean to lead a newsroom in a country I’d rarely visited, full of stories I’d ( mostly) never heard.”

He writes about the professional challenges of working in Scotland, and the different newsroom culture.

“The professional challenges have been daunting, and the cultural changes intimidating. Has it been worth it?” he wrote. “Oh, aye.”

An STV spokesperson told the National Post by email that Ladurantaye “has resigned as STV’S Head of News and Current Affairs for medical reasons around mental health, for which he is receiving treatment. Deputy Head of News, Linda Grimes Douglas, will oversee STV’S news and current affairs operation.”

“We take complaints about inappropriate conduct at STV extremely seriously. We will always investigate fully, while respecting the duty of care we owe to all parties involved,” the spokesperson added.