CTV News drops “fact-checker” Rachel Gilmore after just one appearance

CTV News has dropped programming plans with TikToker and former Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore, ending her role as an election “fact-checker” after just one appearance on the ‘Your Morning’ show.

Source: X

CTV News has dropped programming plans with TikToker and former Global News reporter Rachel Gilmore, ending her role as an election “fact-checker” after just one appearance on the ‘Your Morning’ show.

Gilmore announced her firing yesterday, claiming she was “devastated” by the decision.

The network’s hiring of Gilmore only recently sparked significant controversy online among Canadians due to her history of misleading reports targeting Conservatives.

In particular, her false claims linking the 2022 Freedom Convoy protests to an arson attempt in Ottawa were frequently mentioned online.

Her reporting, which was later debunked by Ottawa police, was never retracted.

Criticism of CTV News’ decision to hire her in the first place grew rapidly on social media.

Writer and Quillette editor Jonathan Kay called attention to her past allegations that “convoy truckers tried to burn down an Ottawa apartment building.”

Pierre Poilievre’s media relations staffer Sebastian Skamski called Gilmore a “disinformation peddler” in reaction to her previous hiring.

The backlash led Your Morning executive producer Jennifer MacLean to cancel Gilmore’s segment.

According to Press Progress, MacLean informed Gilmore via telephone that the segment had become too much of a “distraction.”

“I’m sure you’re well aware of the pushback we received after your first appearance on the show,” MacLean reportedly said.

“The tricky thing for me is it just ends up being a distraction from what we are trying to do.”

MacLean added, “I knew that you had that troll base and I knew that we would get some sort of reaction, but I really did not realize the extent of the volume of that pushback that we had.”

Gilmore responded to her firing by calling it an “attack on press freedom.”

“If opportunities can be stripped from journalists simply because enough people repeat the same bad-faith narrative,” she said in a video statement, “how can anyone withstand the career impact of doing work that matters?”

She also mentioned during the phone call that “this is why there is going to be fewer women and people of colour, people like me on these shows.”

Gilmore, who was laid off from Global News in 2023, has since moved to TikTok and other social media platforms to report on so-called “far-right extremism.”

In December 2024, she testified before a Commons public safety committee, alleging that the Freedom Convoy may have been influenced by Russian interests, claims that were contradicted by court records and the Public Order Emergency Commission’s findings.