Former managing editor won’t return to The National
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 contro- versial 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 said Ladurantaye’s future with The National would be reassessed in the fall.
On Wednesday, McGuire said Ladurantaye “won’t be going back to The National.”
She said Ladurantaye is now the managing editor of the CBC’s “content verticals,” which include the business, health and arts units.
McGuire said the CBC hasn’t hired a new managing editor for The National, which will relaunch Nov. 6.
In May, Ladurantaye was among a number of journalists who engaged in a late-night Twitter conversation that was sparked by a magazine article advocating for more cultural appropriation in Canadian literature.
In the Writers’ Union of Canada’s magazine Write, novelist and theneditor Hal Niedzviecki suggested “anyone, anywhere, should be encouraged to imagine other peoples, other cultures, other identities.”
Meanwhile, former National Post editor Ken Whyte responded by tweeting he would “donate $500 to the founding of the appropriation prize if someone else wants to organize.”
Ladurantaye replied that he would contribute $100. He later apologized, saying “what I did was hurtful and my apology is without condition.”