Evan Solomon moving to New York

Evan Solomon is leaving his roles at CTV’s “Power Play” and “Question Period” to join a digital media company.

Solomon announced Monday on Twitter that he has been hired as publisher at the online political news outlet Gzero Media and will be based in New York. He will also join the management committee of its owner, Eurasia Group. The post begins Oct. 17.

CTV’s owner Bell Media said Solomon will continue to “report regularly” on Canadian politics and global affairs as a special correspondent for the network.

Bell Media will announce a new host for “Power Play” and “Question Period” in the coming weeks.

Toronto Star ownership before the courts

The Star's business reporter John Rubin reports that  one of the partners in the company which controls the Toronto Star has applied to the courts to break up the partnership and order its assets auctioned off.

The suit, led by Paul Rivett and his holding company Tevir Investments Inc., is seeking a court order to dissolve NordStar Capital, the partnership created by Rivett and Jordan Bitove to purchase Torstar in 2020.

In the application, filed on Sept. 2, the relationship between Rivett, chairman and co-proprietor of Torstar, and Bitove, publisher of the Toronto Star and co-proprietor of Torstar, is described as “irrevocably impaired.”

“There is complete deadlock between Rivett and Bitove. ... They can no longer work together,” the application said.

Neither Bitove nor Rivett responded to a request for comment.

Under a draft court order filed with Rivett’s lawsuit, the two sides would each have a chance to bid for NordStar’s assets, either as a whole, or piecemeal. If neither is interested in a particular asset, the draft order proposes to sell it in a public auction.

The timeline for a potential auction wasn’t immediately clear.

According to an online database, no court hearing has been scheduled and no orders have yet been issued.

The Star's story

Lisa LaFlamme says she was "blindsided"

 Veteran news anchor Lisa LaFlamme says she’s been “blindsided” by Bell Media ending her contract as the company shakes up its flagship CTV National News program with a new anchor at the helm.

In a video posted on social media, LaFlamme says she remains “shocked and saddened by Bell Media’s decision,” which cuts her ties to CTV after 35 years.

Bell Media announced her departure Monday, but LaFlamme says she was told of the exit on June 29.

In a separate announcement, Bell Media says Omar Sachedina will replace LaFlamme starting on Sept. 5. Sachedina is the CTV News national affairs correspondent and joined the network in 2009.

“Recognizing changing viewer habits, CTV recently advised LaFlamme that it had made the business decision to move its acclaimed news show, CTV National News, and the role of its Chief News Anchor in a different direction,” Bell Media said in a statement. (CP)

CBC's National back to single host

 The CBC’s National has gone back to a single host. It has named Adrienne Arsenault as its chief correspondent who will anchor the broadcast from Monday to Thursday. Ian Hanomansing will host Friday and Sunday and will be the permanent host of radio's Cross Country Checkup. He will also hold a weekly interview series on The National. Andrew Chang will host “a free-streaming” news channel to be launched in the fall. Obviously, the multi-host program that replaced Peter Mansbridge has not worked. It took several years to go back to a single host.

Russia closing CBC bureau in Moscow

Russia's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was closing the Moscow bureau of Canada's CBC and withdrawing visas and accreditation from the public broadcaster's journalists after Ottawa banned Russian state TV station Russia Today (RT).

"With regret we continue to notice open attacks on the Russian media from the countries of the so-called collective West who call themselves civilised," Maria Zakharova, Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters.

"A decision has been taken to make retaliatory, I underscore retaliatory, measures in relation to the actions of Canada: the closure of the Moscow bureau of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, including the nullification of the accreditations and visas of their journalists."

Zakharova said Ottawa had chosen what she cast as a "Russophobic" path including censorship of the media. Canada in March removed Russian state-owned channels RT and RT France, the French version of RT.

In a statement, the CBC and its French language unit Radio Canada said they had operated a bureau in Moscow for 44 years and were "deeply disappointed" in the decision. (Reuters)