National Post (National Edition)
FIRST SUSPENDED, NOW CBC'S WENDY MESLEY WITHOUT A SHOW.
THE WEEKLY WON'T BE RETURNING
CBC's The Weekly with Wendy Mesley will not return this fall. “With respect to what Wendy will do next at CBC, we're just discussing that with her now,” CBC's head of public affairs, Chuck Thompson, said in a phone interview.
Thompson said the decision is unrelated to Mesley's use of controversial language.
“We had a look at the schedule and the decision was made that The Weekly would not be coming back in the fall.”
Mesley used the N-word during an editorial meeting in 2019 while preparing for a segment. Mesley said in an apology on Twitter the word was not used as a slur, but in an attempt to share outrage with anti-Black racism.
“I thought by saying the word, I was somehow exposing the truth,” Mesley said on Twitter in June.
“I now realize that my abuse of the word was harmful. I hurt my colleagues, my team, and the CBC.”
In the apology, Mesley acknowledged she had used the N-word before.
During a 2019 meeting in Quebec, Mesley said the name of a book by Pierre Vallières that has the N-word in its English title. The book argues white francophones are also victims of discrimination.
Mesley said she was using the word while quoting a journalist who was being considered for a panel on The Weekly.
“Shortly after, my colleague told me that using that word had made people deeply uncomfortable,” Mesley said. “I wish I'd treated that more seriously.”
Imani Walker, a Black CBC associate producer, heard Mesley use the word over the phone during the meeting, Walker said in a tweet one day after the apology.
“White journalists who think it's okay to say “n-----” (in any context) speak with an undeniable amount of privilege & power that Black, Indigenous & POC journalists will never have,” Walker said. “Saying `N-word' is sufficient — it's a term BIPOC journalists use, no matter the context.”
Walker added Mesley was only disciplined on June 9 after an internal investigation because there was a Black person on the call, but it is not the first time a white journalist at CBC has used the word.
The Weekly covered topics such as finance, the #MeToo movement, trade deals and COVID-19 during the months leading up to the controversy.
Mesley, 63, is an award-winning broadcaster who has spent decades at the CBC. She worked as a backup host for the network's premier nightly newscast, The National, formerly hosted by her former husband Peter Mansbridge.
The two were married from 1989 to 1992. Mesley then became the regular Sunday host for the program before taking on The Weekly in 2018.
Mesley also hosted several CBC shows, including the consumer advocacy program Marketplace and the investigative newsmagazine show Disclosure.
In January 2005, Mesley revealed she had been diagnosed with breast cancer. She returned to CBC in March 2006, the same time that her documentary Chasing the Cancer Answer was released.