Debates chief cancels post-debate Q&A after Rebel News clashes with reporters

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This article was published 17/04/2025 (219 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA – The head of the Leaders’ Debates Commission cancelled a planned question-and-answer session between journalists and party leaders scheduled to take place after Thursday’s English-language debate, following heated exchanges between reporters and representatives of the right-wing media group Rebel News.

The commission’s executive director Michel Cormier also said Thursday he was not aware that Rebel News had registered as an official third party in the federal election when the commission gave the group more opportunities to question leaders following Wednesday’s French debate than most mainstream outlets.

“I’m sorry to announce there will be no scrum tonight with the leaders, because we don’t feel that we can actually guarantee a proper environment for this activity,” Cormier told reporters immediately after Thursday’s debate. 

He refused to explain the decision.

Rebel News and other right-wing media outlets dominated the question-and-answer sessions with federal party leaders after Wednesday’s French-language leaders’ debate.

Rebel News posted on its website Wednesday that it had put legal pressure on the commission to give it greater access to the debates and was allowed to have five reporters ask questions.

Other outlets, including The Canadian Press, were permitted to have just one reporter at a time ask questions of leaders after Wednesday’s debate.

Third parties are groups that seek to influence elections but aren’t parties or candidates, and they’re required to register to run ads.

Cormier told CBC News Network’s Power & Politics on Thursday that he “wasn’t aware” that Rebel News had registered as an official third party.

The group is affiliated with ForCanada, an organization that is also registered as a third party and has been fundraising to operate trucks displaying ads about Liberal Leader Mark Carney that some have said are based on conspiracy theories.

Cormier noted that Rebel News won court injunctions in 2019 and 2021 allowing it into the debates. He told CBC that the commission failed to convince the courts that Rebel News was not a journalistic outlet, despite showing the group undertaking political advocacy.

“There’s only so much we can do to control free speech,” he said.

Right-wing media outlets stacked the long lines for Wednesday’s post-debate Q&A session with the leaders and managed to get in questions to each of the leaders. NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh refused to answer questions from Rebel News representatives and said the organization spreads disinformation.

The Canadian Association of Journalists and a similar Quebec federation said the commission did not consult them on the rules for media access this year, despite the organizations asking to help shape the criteria.

Last September, a Federal Court judge upheld Ottawa’s decision denying journalism tax credits to Rebel News because it doesn’t produce enough original news content.

There was a series of heated exchanges Thursday inside the media centre at the debate site, with Rebel News staff saying they followed the instructions of the commission and journalists arguing they violated the principles that allow media to ask fact-based questions of leaders.

The Green party — which the commission disinvited from the debates on Wednesday — posted on social media that something “doesn’t add up” because Greens were silenced while Rebel News and True North got press credentials.

The commission said it dropped the party from the debates because it made a strategic decision not to run candidates in every riding after initially telling the commission it would.

Cormier told CBC the Green party had “cooked the books” by telling the commission it intended to run candidates in the vast majority of ridings while telling media that it chose not to run candidates in some ridings to avoid splitting the vote.

Cormier said Wednesday’s debate was “very successful” and the commission will “take stock of all these issues” and outline recommendations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 17, 2025.