A prominent news reporter who was suspended after a woman made sexual misconduct allegations against him is no longer with CTV News.
Bell Media says Paul Bliss was no longer with the company.
A spokesman, however, refused to provide further details.
Bliss, who worked at CTV's bureau in the Ontario legislature, was suspended in late January hours after allegations made in a blog post by Bridget Brown, who describes herself as a Calgary-based entrepreneur and former CTV employee.
Bell Media had said it was investigating the allegations against Bliss.
Brown later released a statement on the CTV decision to part ways with the former Queen's Park bureau chief.
In part, it reads:
"Since then, three women reached out to me and said they had experiences similar to mine between 2007–2017. I won’t share the details of what they told me, but I will say that they were understandably concerned about maintaining their privacy if they chose to report what happened, after seeing how I was treated after reporting. I do not know if they chose to come forward.
Bell reps said they would keep my report confidential. I was, of course, prepared to face the person I was accusing. In my opinion that is only fair with a report of this nature.
However, I was not prepared for CTV public relations to publically name my harasser before even commencing its investigation, and name me as the instigating source for the investigation. Since when do corporations speak to the media about internal HR issues?
All parties involved in a complaint like this (accused and accuser) should have the right to privacy, until such time as a thorough investigation is done.
I can see CTV’s lack of discretion having a chilling effect on people being willing to report harassment. Given the additional harassment I experienced online after CTV named my harasser and me, why on earth would anyone want to come forward in the future? I should say that I did not experience threats like some women have recently, and my years as a reporter have completely hardened me to random criticism, but it was difficult for my family to see so much online hate.
I truly have empathy for any family who experiences job loss. Period. However, I also believe that we are all responsible for our behaviour and sometimes, even years later, bad actions have repercussions. I know I have been held to account for a variety of choices I’ve made in my life. We all are."
You can read the full statement HERE