Find out why she thinks she got fired.
Journalist Lisa LaFlamme was a fixture of the Canadian news network CTV for 35 years. But last summer, she became the face of female outrage when she was unceremoniously let go from her job anchoring the evening news — especially because of the speculation that her gray hair had something to do with the termination.
Katie recently caught up with LaFlamme to chat about the challenges they’ve both faced as broadcasters and the unequal pressures women face in the workforce. Plus, LaFlamme also discusses why she decided to go gray (spoiler alert: Quarantine played a major role).
Here are some of our favorite moments from the podcast, which you can listen to in full here.
Katie Couric: Now that eight months have passed since you learned your contract was not going to be honored — you had two years left on your contract — do you have any better understanding about how it happened, why it happened, and why it was handled the way it was handled?
Lisa LaFlamme: I would say that everything I said in that tweet is actually what stands to this day. That’s how I would answer that question. It was a business decision. What can we do? We’re in this industry that we both love and we know business decisions happen every single day. People lose their jobs every single day. Many of my dear friends in this industry have lost their jobs. The nature of the industry is change, and it is a very changing industry right now, as we both know.
You started going gray in your 20s, right?
I did. I’ve been coloring my hair forever. And I had very dark hair. You get used to coloring your hair…and [then you get] tired of it.
Many times over the years, especially when I was in specific war zones, I realized, “Oh God, I’ve got three weeks.” That’s the window: If you have really dark hair, you have three weeks before the roots start being obvious.
I reached my max when all of the salons closed in Toronto because of the pandemic. You’re covering the weirdest, craziest story you’ve ever covered — all of a sudden the city shuts down, the world’s shutting down, and you’re watching what’s happening in Wuhan and Italy — the last thing you’re thinking about is your hair.
How can we support women as they age, in any field, and appreciate their wisdom and experience?
Lisa LaFlamme: I think that what we can do is continue doing what we’re doing. Talking out loud, calling it out when we see something encouraging young women.
So what can we do? We’ve got voices, platforms, and ways of expressing how we feel when we see this kind of misogyny and sexism. We have to keep naming and shaming to try to expose a patriarchal society. I’m not kidding you, I was in Tunisia where we were working on stories about — believe it or not — normalizing the idea of women on TV, and normalizing the idea of women politicians.
In North America, we actually have made enormous strides. But it’s clear there are hurdles, age is one, and race is a bigger one. I guess it’s just the support network. We just can’t let our side down.
There was so much support for you from women everywhere, and many men as well, who thought you were treated very shoddily. People got mad and protested. It makes me mad that they didn’t reverse their decision or that we’re not seeing you on another network delivering the evening news. What more can be done to make sure the message is being heard loud and clear and that people are voting with their remote controls?
I will say in general terms, in society, we don’t realize, recognize, or utilize the voice we have as consumers in this world. Especially where we are.
I’m not going to talk about that because I can’t. But I will say these things — over time — make a difference.
