Mounties expand probe into Pamela Wallin’s corporate work

The RCMP says Pamela Wallin committed fraud and breach of trust by billing the Senate for travel expenses related to her past work on corporate boards as well as for her role as chancellor at the University of Guelph, the Toronto Star reports. Newly released documents from the Ottawa courthouse show the RCMP is seeking records from BMO Nesbitt Burns, Inc., Bell Media Inc. and the University of Guelph related to any expenses they paid to Wallin, the newspaper says. Terrence O’Sullivan, the lawyer representing Wallin, could not immediately be reached for comment Tuesday, but has said in the past that any board-related work Wallin billed to the Senate was due to administrative error.
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Comedian Trevor Noah will succeed Jon Stewart as host of “The Daily Show.”

Trevor Noah is a 31-year-old comedian, born and raised in Soweto in South Africa to a black African mother and Swiss father. He was brought up during apartheid, meaning his parents had to hide their relationship. That difficult situation is just one touchy subject the comedian has translated into big laughs during stand-up specials.
Noah has been honing his comedic skills over the last few years, focusing on a stand-up act that landed him on “The Tonight Show” in 2012 and “Late Show With David Letterman” the following year. He has also been on “The Daily Show” three times since December, holding forth on Ebola, Boko Haram and police brutality, among other topics. He memorably played a game with Stewart called Spot the Africa, where the host had to look at two photographs and guess which one depicted Africa and which showed the U.S. (Washington Post)
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Pregnant forecaster weathers abuse from some viewers

A Global TV weather woman who is pregnant is talking about the nasty mail she is receiving from some viewers about her appearance. It seems incredible that people have a need to write to a pregnant woman about her appearance but we live in an age of social media inspired say-anything-no-matter-how-despicable. Maybe such rude and obscene sentiment has always been out there and it took the YouTube comment column and Twitter to provide a forum. The low level of the comments directed at B.C. weatherperson Kristi Gordon has prompted a colleague to tell the writers to stop watching Global. Kristi read some of the letters.  “Nowhere on North America TV have we seen a weather reader so gross as you,” one letter stated, while another read, “Your front end looks like the Hindenburg and your rear end looks like a brick s—house.” Gordon said she wasn’t surprised by the hate mail because the same thing had happened the last time she was pregnant. When she announced this pregnancy on the air, she pleaded with people to be nice to her, but that appeal apparently fell on deaf ears.

Courtesy South Bayview Bulldog

CBC eliminates 144 more jobs in new round of cuts

CBC says at least 144 more people will be out of work following yet another round of layoffs, with the West experiencing the brunt of the cuts. Jennifer McGuire, editor-in-chief of CBC News, informed her staff in a letter Thursday that 144 positions would be eliminated across the country, possibly yielding even greater job losses as remaining positions are recategorized. Positions in the West were cut the deepest, with 37 cut from Alberta and 25 from British Columbia. Ontario lost 30 positions. Most of the reductions will occur in TV programming, as local television broadcasts have been cut from 90 minutes to either 30 or 60 minutes. McGuire also said in the letter that the company will be hiring 80 new digital positions over the next year as it grows its mobile offerings.
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Kevin Crull apologizes for interfering with CTV news coverage

Kevin Crull , president of BCE Inc's Bell Media unit, apologized on Wednesday for interfering in editorial coverage after his company was harshly rebuked by the CRTC.
The apology came after the Globe and Mail reported that Crull told the head of CTV News not to conduct or air interviews with CRTC chairman Jean-Pierre Blais after the regulator had just ruled it would force distributors to unbundle cable TV packages, a decision that could prove financially painful for Bell. Crull acknowledged in a statement he reached out to the CTV News leadership team about the focus of coverage.
"It was wrong of me to be anything but absolutely clear that editorial control always rests with the news team. I have apologized to the team directly for this mistake," he said, describing his action as an "intrusion."
The CRTC had issued a harshly worded statement about the matter earlier on Wednesday. 
Link to comprehensive Star story