Following a much criticized appearance on Fox News at the end of last month, Stephen LeDrew is no longer on CP24, where he served as a political commentator and co-host of the popular Live at Noon show, Bell Media confirms. LeDrew was initially suspended for a week after he appeared on Tucker Carlson Tonight for a discussion that questioned an extended acronym for the LGBTQ community used in inclusivity training for teachers. The suspension was said to be a “result of his violation of the CTV news policy and code of conduct,” according to a statement Tuesday from Scott Henderson, a spokesperson for Bell Media, which owns CTV and CP24. Although LeDrew was ostensibly defending the idea of the sensitivity training in his conversation with Carlson, he drew sharp criticism across social media for remarks concerning two-spirited individuals, who he said were “clearly confused.” A two-spirited person is someone who embodies both a masculine and feminine spirit, and it is a specifically Indigenous term encompassing gender identity and expression. Despite admitting that he didn’t know the meaning of all the terms on the list, he claimed two-spirit sounded like a word for someone who didn’t know whether “they’re fish or fowl, frick or frack.” Bell Media would not say whether the termination of LeDrew’s employment was connected to his comments or whether it was because he appeared as a guest on another news outlet’s broadcast. “I can confirm that Stephen LeDrew is no longer with Bell Media,” Henderson said. “We won’t be commenting beyond that.”LeDrew once was president of the Liberal Party of Canada, elected twice to serve from 1998 to 2003. He ran for mayor in Toronto in 2006, placing a distant third.
|
