Juno News - EXCLUSIVE： Travis Dhanraj’s lawyer SPEAKS OUT on EXPLOSIVE testimony

00:00:00.000 Power and Politics, hosted by David Cochran, was given gatekeeping authority over which politicians could appear on Canada Tonight.

00:00:09.800 After I sat down with Speaker Greg Fergus for a conversation on Black History Month,

00:00:16.340 Chief Political Correspondent Rosemary Barton circulated internal communications questioning my program, 0.63

00:00:22.020 copying senior leadership, insinuating she or Mr. Cochran should have done the interview.

00:00:28.220 It was an intimidation tactic, which management ignored.

00:00:32.580 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm, and this is The Candice Malcolm Show.

00:00:35.500 So, folks, what you just saw was a clip from earlier today, Travis Stanrush,

00:00:39.520 the former CBC host, rising star at the network over there, who got pushed out.

00:00:43.960 Well, he appeared before the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage earlier today.

00:00:48.640 And wow, it was explosive. It was everything we thought it would be.

00:00:51.340 He brought receipts, named names.

00:00:53.240 And in that clip that I just showed you, I mean, what an unbelievable, absolute disgrace over at the CBC.

00:01:00.060 We heard about political access being centralized, a pattern, a standard, where David Cochran, the ridiculously biased host,

00:01:08.600 we've showed clips many, many times of him on this program and how poorly he treats conservatives.

00:01:13.800 Well, he was given gatekeeping authority over which politicians could appear on another host's show.

00:01:19.160 He talked about the toxic environment, talked about how Rosemary Barton was very unhappy

00:01:23.440 that Travis Danrush got to do an interview that she thought that she should have been

00:01:26.800 able to do, and really just like a toxic, mean girl environment over there. 1.00

00:01:30.560 I've got a bunch more clips that I'm going to show you in a minute, but first, I'm pleased

00:01:34.540 to be joined by Catherine Marshall.

00:01:36.680 Catherine is an employment lawyer, human rights lawyer, founder of Marshall Law, and she is

00:01:41.040 representing Travis Danrush in his case against the CBC.

00:01:44.620 I had her on last July when this case just came into the news and we talked about what was to

00:01:50.400 come. And so I'm very excited to have her back today. So Catherine, welcome to the program.

00:01:54.480 Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me. Okay. So, I mean, why don't you help

00:01:59.160 us understand what has happened between, you know, we had you on the show back in July and we were

00:02:04.600 talking about how, you know, there's a lot still to come. So what has happened between that time

00:02:09.360 where I first interviewed you, I think you had just started representing Travis, to this point

00:02:13.560 today where he was invited to give that explosive testimony earlier today well we've now officially

00:02:18.920 sued the cbc so we launched our human rights complaint against the cbc news they have responded

00:02:25.300 in a very uh predictable manner by denying everything deflecting the blame saying they

00:02:31.080 didn't do anything wrong the usual and today travis gave some very explosive testimony in

00:02:37.840 parliament where he was able to say a lot of things candace because he was protected by

00:02:42.980 parliamentary privilege. He could actually name names. He could disclose information that

00:02:48.440 normally the CBC would definitely be trying to sue him for. And we know that the CBC wanted him

00:02:54.920 to sign a gig order. They wanted him to sign an NDA. That was a huge part of what they did to him

00:03:00.820 and retaliated against him. So I think today was probably the CBC's worst nightmare.

00:03:05.740 Well, absolutely deserve every minute of it. Just from that testimony, we've got a few more clips.

00:03:11.640 So I just want to give the audience a bit of background on Travis Danraj.

00:03:15.520 So he's a veteran broadcast journalist with over two decades of experience, starting in Alberta, where he was Global News's first Queen's Park bureau chief, so he came back to Toronto.

00:03:23.420 He joined CBC in 2021. He hosted a show called Marketplace, and he was heading that program until early 2024.

00:03:31.060 In January 2024, Danraj became the host of the newly launched primetime show, Canada Tonight, on CBC News.

00:03:37.260 He then went on medical leave just a few months later in July 2024, initially citing health reasons, but he later revealed it was driven by the cultural pressures and that toxic work environment.

00:03:49.720 He briefly returned back, but then he was replaced in early 2025.

00:03:54.460 And then that sort of explosive news story came out in the summer where he said he was not working there.

00:03:58.760 The CBC sort of insisted that he was still working there.

00:04:01.120 And it turned out that he had this court case coming at her since he's launched a very successful podcast called Can't Be Censored.

00:04:09.200 And I noticed that he was streaming his testimony live and he had thousands and thousands of viewers.

00:04:13.920 So congratulations to him for keeping his voice.

00:04:17.880 But we heard today that he had always wanted to be a CBC journalist.

00:04:21.520 But then when he got to CBC, he realized that CBC had really changed.

00:04:24.700 He talks about his show Canada Tonight being pulled off the air.

00:04:28.300 And he claims that he was sort of like treated as a token brown guy, basically tokenism on the airway.

00:04:34.740 And, you know, he was he was bullied for basically asking Catherine Tate, the CBC, the head of the CBC to come on his show.

00:04:41.160 So here is a clip of what that looked like.

00:04:44.140 Now, many Canadians know the story about one of my tweets.

00:04:46.840 In April 2024, I publicly stated that Canada Tonight had requested an interview with then CBC president Catherine Tate and the request was declined.

00:04:56.920 Facts.

00:04:57.360 shortly after I was removed from the air.

00:05:01.580 Now, on May 7th, 2024, Tate told this very committee

00:05:05.340 she was, quote, not aware of any repercussions.

00:05:09.860 Yet 24 hours earlier, ATIP records show

00:05:12.640 her vice president, Barb Williams,

00:05:14.660 briefed her directly about my situation.

00:05:17.980 And that matters because trust matters.

00:05:21.540 The tweet was not the beginning.

00:05:23.080 It was the breaking point.

00:05:24.980 wow so he actually contradicts the statement given by the president of the cbc pretty damning

00:05:32.260 um stuff there catherine uh do you have any comment about that yeah i mean it was all part

00:05:38.300 of the cbc's um cloak and digger approach they like to conceal a lot of things they definitely

00:05:44.440 don't operate like a normal corporation it's very cult-like um there's a lot of secrecy there's a

00:05:50.960 of control at the top by a very small group of people. And a lot of the things that we found out

00:05:56.620 in Travis's case was done through ATIPS. And we couldn't believe some of the things that we

00:06:02.520 discovered, but there'll be more that will come out, Candace. This case is going to go to a hearing.

00:06:07.580 We will eventually have our day in court. There'll be people who testify. We have former

00:06:13.720 CBC employees who really are dying for their chance to testify and speak about what they

00:06:20.480 experience, which is very similar to what Travis experienced. So I think really what Canadians are 1.00

00:06:26.420 seeing is the veil being lifted off of this giant corporation that gets so much of our taxpayer

00:06:32.540 dollars, but operates in this very bizarre way. And it is very cult-like, Candace, because they

00:06:40.040 also didn't want Travis to leave. This is the weird thing. They wouldn't accept his resignation.

00:06:45.600 even when he said I'm leaving I'm resigning they're like no you're not and they were giving

00:06:50.800 media statements saying he was still an employee when he had publicly resigned it didn't make any

00:06:57.220 sense I remember that it's such a weird sort of like we own you you can't leave kind of situation

00:07:02.000 well unbelievable I have another clip here I want to show you Dan Raj notes that his firing will

00:07:09.180 have a chilling effect on others who might want to come out and criticize management and become

00:07:13.480 whistleblowers. I mean, you're telling us that there are other whistleblowers yet to come

00:07:16.920 forward. Here's what Travis had to say earlier today about whistleblowers.

00:07:20.640 Now, inside the newsroom, the message was unmistakable and did not need to be spoken.

00:07:25.560 I raised concerns. I challenged centralized control and bias. I fought for real diversity

00:07:30.440 and equal standards. I tried to do my job as a journalist. Within months, I was pulled off the

00:07:36.280 air, disciplined, restricted from speaking, stripped of my primetime program, and eventually

00:07:41.160 out altogether. Now, if you were still working there, would you feel safe raising similar

00:07:46.760 concerns? This is how silence becomes culture. It's how whistleblowers are intimidated.

00:07:53.920 Public institutions do not weaken from scrutiny. They weaken when they avoid it.

00:07:59.100 So what do you think about what he had to say there?

00:08:03.880 I mean, he's absolutely right that there's a lot of fear for being a whistleblower.

00:08:07.980 And we have another case that my law firm, Marshall Law, launched involving Carl Johnston.

00:08:13.980 He will be testifying at a future committee hearing for this same committee that's been reporting on these issues.

00:08:23.820 And, you know, he talks about there being a crying room in one of the CDC offices where employees are encouraged to go there to cry when they've been intimidated, bullied or abused.

00:08:34.240 this is part of the normal culture at CBC. The NDA thing, that's all normal. They try and force

00:08:41.840 those down so many people's throats. I mean, this is all normal at CBC, of course, but it's not

00:08:48.080 normal in the real world. I have seen hundreds of workplaces as an employment lawyer. I've never

00:08:56.120 seeing stuff like this um so you know travis is doing something very brave to speak out like that

00:09:05.080 i mean that's scary for most people in media well you know canis there's a there's that fear of

00:09:10.360 being blacklisted it's it's very real um and we've also heard from other cases and other whistle

00:09:18.200 blowers who are coming forward that cbc does have a no hire list that they keep on record

00:09:26.120 of the list of people who are not allowed to be hired at the CBC. And it's very openly talked

00:09:33.260 about. There's emails. I'm in possession of emails. I reference it. I'm not surprised at all.

00:09:39.720 Well, it sounds like it wasn't just internally, right? We know that they really loathe certain

00:09:43.940 people who are independent-minded or independent-spirited, as Travis bravely proved. And

00:09:48.720 just again, folks, he testified in front of a heritage committee. So this wasn't in front of

00:09:53.380 court. This wasn't to do with his own case. This was just an opportunity that he had because I

00:09:57.860 believe a conservative invited him to testify and it gave him the ability to sort of like,

00:10:02.500 you know, like pull back the curtain a little bit and unveil some of the nastiness that happens at

00:10:07.700 the state broadcaster. But this is just the beginning and hopefully his case will go to

00:10:11.540 court, the Human Rights Tribunal, and then we'll just hear more and more. But, you know, it's not

00:10:15.860 just a blacklist of people that won't be hired there. Based on his testimony, it sounded like

00:10:21.220 They iced out having even conservative guests on his program.

00:10:25.060 So here, I've got two clips for you.

00:10:26.500 First, here is Dan Raj talking about how he was told he could not have conservatives on his show.

00:10:33.060 He was told that, hey, you could have as many NDP MPs as you want.

00:10:36.380 They're more than welcome on your show whenever, obviously, liberals do. 0.96

00:10:39.660 But no to conservatives to play that clip. 0.92

00:10:41.540 But there were repeated attempts over and over and over again.

00:10:45.400 At one point, I heard, okay, well, maybe you can have NDP folks on, but conservatives are a no.

00:10:51.220 I mean, it should blow the Canadian public's mind that this was the stuff that was going on.

00:11:00.420 It should blow our minds, right?

00:11:02.700 Conservatives were, whatever, 40% of the country voted Conservative in the last election,

00:11:07.240 and yet the country's public government-funded broadcaster will not allow them on one of the top political shows.

00:11:14.700 It makes no sense, Catherine.

00:11:15.620 Just one more clip for you.

00:11:16.920 Conservative MP Kerry Dioit was asked specifically if he was allowed to have Pierre Paulyev on, and this is what Travis Danaroj had to say about that.

00:11:26.680 You mentioned at one point that CBC management actually prevented you from interviewing Conservative leader Pierre Paulyev on your show.

00:11:36.260 Can you describe what happened there?

00:11:38.680 Well, I mean, I basically wasn't allowed to pick up the phone and talk to Conservatives.

00:11:45.860 I have some G-chats here, which I just want to, you know, read you part of this.

00:11:51.220 I'm talking to my senior producer.

00:11:53.200 I'm saying, okay, you know, this is an editorial discussion.

00:11:57.120 Can we get a Conservative perspective on this is essentially what I'm saying.

00:12:01.000 It is a no to the Conservatives, I'm told.

00:12:03.340 We can't chase anyone from the entire party.

00:12:06.380 The chase is with PNP.

00:12:08.320 So if Power in Politics is not able to secure a Conservative

00:12:12.100 conservative uh or you know somebody that presents an alternate perspective then we are not allowed

00:12:18.600 to i'm told at one point we're sure that there's a myriad of other types of interesting guests that

00:12:23.560 you can chase outside of the conservatives so what do you know what do you have to say about that

00:12:28.180 i mean it's completely insane cbc gets so much money they're supposed to be doing journalism

00:12:37.840 and the things with Travis he when he's not a conservative when he started at CBC that was his

00:12:44.480 dream to work at CBC it was a big deal for him he truly was excited to be there and he just wanted

00:12:51.000 to do good journalism he wanted to have his show have voices on it have a diversity of opinions

00:12:57.780 you know present an issue have conservatives and liberals and NDPers come and speak and to be

00:13:04.340 prevented from doing his job and what he was hired to do is deeply concerning. And you can

00:13:09.640 really see from Travis's testimony, and maybe you'll play these clips later, but the political

00:13:15.740 bias of the CVC is really being run by a small group of Ottawa-based correspondents who are

00:13:23.640 very hostile to conservatives. And I think there was also some jealousy that Travis was actually

00:13:29.200 able to get some of these guests because he, you know, wasn't sand begging them with unfair

00:13:35.500 questions. And these other journalists weren't because, you know, they would bring conservatives

00:13:42.120 on their show and it would be so unfair and so biased and they wouldn't even try and hide their

00:13:48.680 biases. Well, 100%. I just, just on that point that, you know, the entire political network is

00:13:55.440 being run by a small handful of very insider type, liberal types in Ottawa. One other thing

00:14:02.700 that Travis made aware of, which I find this just to be so repulsive in its snobbery, Catherine,

00:14:09.520 he claimed that former CBC, sorry, he claimed that CBC host David Cochran made off-color comments

00:14:16.680 about Freedom Convoy organizer Tamara Lich, referring to her like as trailer park something,

00:14:23.020 saying she lives in a trailer, she has multiple last names,

00:14:26.120 just dripping with contempt, looking down his nose 0.97

00:14:29.780 at these unwashed Canadians.

00:14:32.180 It just drove me absolutely crazy to hear him speak that way

00:14:35.620 about someone who I consider to be a Canadian hero.

00:14:37.860 But regardless of your opinion of the Freedom Convoy,

00:14:39.880 I mean, the fact that they just have this opinion of Canadians,

00:14:43.160 like they're beneath them, like, oh, she's from the trailer park. 0.98

00:14:45.480 It's just really disgusting.

00:14:46.920 Let me just play that clip for you quickly here.

00:14:49.440 When it came to Mr. Cochran, you know,

00:14:51.080 this is during the convoy, for example.

00:14:53.020 We were talking about Tamara Litch, who was an individual who was involved in the convoy. 0.78

00:14:59.020 We were doing a story around that.

00:15:01.020 And, you know, off-the-hand remarks can be made at times.

00:15:05.020 And I said, I think that she has a couple of different last names. 0.98

00:15:09.020 People who live in trailers usually do.

00:15:12.020 You know, okay, off-color remark.

00:15:16.020 But if this is a pattern, right, you have to, if your staff on your own show are raising this, if people are leaving the program, you have to look a little bit deeper into it, as opposed to pulling me off the air for saying it's unfortunate the president didn't come on the show.

00:15:35.440 I just, I just find it so appalling.

00:15:37.640 What do you think, Catherine?

00:15:38.380 I mean, it's really uncomfortable and disturbing to hear that in secret behind closed doors, this is these are the things that were being said about the Canadians that these journalists were covering and their stories, their job is to be objective.

00:15:55.620 And the fact that these really malicious comments are being made behind those closed doors is very troubling.

00:16:04.540 And it, of course, leads to other questions like, well, what else is being said?

00:16:08.660 And, you know, thank goodness we have ATIPS.

00:16:11.020 We can get some of this stuff.

00:16:13.540 But that's just offensive.

00:16:16.200 That's, you know, it doesn't matter what your view on the convoy is to to say that about a certain demographic of people when you don't even know them and you don't know their background or their, you know, the shoes they've walked in is deeply offensive.

00:16:31.360 100 percent. So help us understand the ATIP process.

00:16:33.900 I know when you're working in government, all of your emails are subject to this kind of disclosure and they could be ATIP.

00:16:39.740 But does the same thing apply to members of the CBC?

00:16:43.380 like their texts their emails are all available if if they're a tipped in the correct way

00:16:48.980 yeah so because cbc is a crown corporation they are subject to the access to information laws so

00:16:54.980 we were able to a tip them we ate of them all the time and um now you're going to get heavily

00:17:00.740 redacted emails but we've received so many emails and i have to say the things that they put in

00:17:07.300 emails it's like they don't even care they know they're being a tempted but i think they probably

00:17:12.180 the arrogance is they think that they're impervious to any kind of repercussion right

00:17:18.300 that they'll never get held to account so you can just file like a regular ATIP

00:17:25.820 and to CEC and you will get information it will be redacted but we have been able to find a lot

00:17:33.020 of things through that mechanism that we would never have been able to get any other way

00:17:38.200 interesting interesting so has there been any response i've been sort of monitoring and looking

00:17:43.520 to see whether the cbc i should to their credit they they did live stream it on their on their

00:17:47.280 youtube page i think juno news had more live viewers than the cbc but uh you know i don't

00:17:52.860 think they wanted live viewers i think that they would prefer that people weren't watching it and

00:17:55.940 they certainly didn't air it on their actual uh news network despite travis denrush daring them

00:18:01.380 and and telling them that they that they should um have you seen any response or have you heard

00:18:05.820 anything from the CBC yet? Not from today, but you'll, this is the first time I'm going to share

00:18:11.500 this publicly. It'll be on your show. Um, and I think this is really, when we talk about the

00:18:17.580 arrogance and just the attitude that they have in their state of defense, the CBC, which they

00:18:24.680 recently filed a few weeks ago, they claim that Travis has only launched his lawsuit in order to

00:18:33.340 quote-unquote, embarrass certain journalists at the CDC, that he has done this all in bad faith.

00:18:42.860 It's absurd. The idea that someone would fight like Travis was doing internally,

00:18:49.660 like he was going through all the channels internally. He was trying to save this job.

00:18:54.300 He was trying to do his job. He then finally manages to leave. They still don't let him leave.

00:19:00.940 they claim he can't resign and then they force him into litigation and to have them claiming

00:19:09.160 that he did all of this just to embarrass a couple of journalists I think tells you everything you

00:19:16.280 need to hear about where their mindset is. Wow that that is quite shocking and not surprising

00:19:22.100 though because this is exactly how the CBC operates. Okay Catherine so what are the next

00:19:26.900 steps. What's next for Travis Danraj and when will we be finding out more about this incredibly

00:19:32.060 explosive, unbelievable tell-all from Travis Danraj? Well, we've just filed a reply to their

00:19:39.260 statement of defense and the CBC is asking the Canadian Human Rights Commission to dismiss

00:19:44.360 Travis's entire claim on the basis that they claim it's just a bad faith effort to embarrass

00:19:50.860 a couple of journalists. And they're also claiming that, you know, he could have gone to the union,

00:19:56.440 And even though the union, by the way, was in bed with the CBC and was complicit in a lot of the bad things that happened to Travis.

00:20:03.960 So we're going to be waiting to hear the outcome of that preliminary motion.

00:20:08.880 So we'll keep you updated on that.

00:20:11.660 And hopefully we'll have a court date sometime soon.

00:20:15.700 Excellent. Well, we'll have to keep you coming on.

00:20:18.720 Catherine, so great to hear from you.

00:20:20.920 Thank you so much for making time for us tonight.

00:20:22.520 And please pass along our good wishes to Travis.

00:20:24.780 We hope to have him on the show soon.

00:20:26.620 I know he's not really doing media right now, but when he's available, we'd love to have

00:20:29.740 him on as well.

00:20:30.820 So thank you so much.

00:20:32.240 Thanks for covering it.

00:20:33.560 All right, folks, that's Catherine Marshall. 0.98

00:20:35.220 She is representing Travis Danraj in this case against the CBC.

00:20:38.700 It's all the time we have for today.

00:20:39.800 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:20:40.800 I'm Candace Malcolm.

00:20:41.400 This is the Candace Malcolm Show.

00:20:42.260 Thank you and God bless.

Juno News - March 11, 2026

EXCLUSIVE： Travis Dhanraj’s lawyer SPEAKS OUT on EXPLOSIVE testimony

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