Canada’s reaction to one of its most beloved news anchors being fired has been disbelief and anger. As Lisa LaFlamme grew older, her hair slowly started to turn gray. Despite this, she remained a popular news presenter in her home country of Canada. LaFlamme was fired by her news company after she stopped dyeing her hair and allowed it to go gray because they did not want a woman on air with that hair color.
LaFlamme was unexpectedly fired and felt confused because she never anticipated being let go due to the color of her hair. To her surprise, she quickly learned that sexism and ageism were rampant at her new news company. Unlike their male counterparts, women in the workforce are not able to rock gray hair and maintain their jobs – they’re expected to look young or get fired.
LaFlamme said, “I’m still shocked and saddened. At fifty-eight, I still thought I had a lot more time to tell more of the stories that impact our daily lives.”
LaFlamme has been appearing on the Canadian news program since she began in 2011.
People on social media expressed their outrage that the news company would fire a woman for having gray hair. They took to their preferred social media platform of choice, stating:
“I hope people realize that what happened to Lisa LaFlamme happens to many women. When there aren’t cameras to capture it, when people aren’t celebs, when they don’t have the household name recognition or the legal/financial security to come out with the full story.”
LaFlamme eventually stopped dying her hair because she was exhausted of conforming to society’s unrealistic standards. She decided to let her natural gray hair grow in because it was what her body was producing. She wanted to highlight the person she was while living on the air and speaking the news into existence.
A male social media user commenting said: “After all is said about Lisa LaFlamme and her departure from CTV, the inescapable conclusion and indefensible network position are as follows: fifty-eight-year-old women are too old. Fifty-eight-year-old men are not.”
After LaFlamme was callously fired, CTV executive Michael Melling “asked who had approved the decision to ‘let Lisa’s hair go gray.”
LaFlamme and Pelley disagreed about more than just her hair color; they had different interpretations of what the news should look like for Canadian audiences.
LaFlamme worked at CTV News for over three decades and was even honored with a Canadian Screen Award during her time there before she was let go. Since the firing of the popular news anchor, Canadians and business owners are outraged, demanding to know why she was let go. Many believe that her job shouldn’t have been at risk over a few gray hairs.
