Evan Solomon's firing discussed by CBC president Hubert Lacroix

CBC's Mainstreet invited CBC president Hubert Lacroix to Studio A in Halifax to answer questions about the firing of Evan Solomon and about recent staff decisions at the corporation. Here's a transcript of the first portion of the conversation between Lacroix and Mainstreet host Stephanie Domet.

SD: In the past year, questions were raised about a number of CBC journalists benefiting financially for making speeches and other public appearances … including Peter Mansbridge, Amanda Lang, Dianne Buckner, Rex Murphy who is a freelancer, and Evan Solomon. Now Evan Solomon has been fired for brokering art deals and collecting commissions. How is profiting from making a speech different than profiting from connections you've made through your work?

HL: So Stephanie, I don't want to rehash. First of all, it's completely different. Because I suppose that your question is "What's different with Evan Solomon?" I don't want to go back to what we did. I mean, we dealt with that. What we did yesterday was after information came to us and our internal review found additional details around Evan Solomon's activities. We found that those activities were not consistent with our code of ethics, with our journalistic standards and practices and based on the information that we had, Stephanie, we actually acted quickly, decisively and made that announcement yesterday. So, completely different circumstances. What we did yesterday was to protect the integrity of our journalism and we showed Canadians that they still can trust it.

SD: People may wonder still why it's worse to use a connection through work to sell a piece of art compared with taking money to make a speech from a group on whom you may report on.

HL: You know, go back to what was published and I'm sure that Canadians who are looking at this and followed what you call the Amanda Lang story, went to the reports, the investigation that was done, the conclusion that journalism and the integrity of journalism was not affected there. Look at what you saw today in the quotes from Chuck Thompson who is our spokesperson on this. I'm telling you today, different circumstances, different situation. And this is why we made the decision and announced it yesterday.

SD:  So different details that people aren't privy to and we have to trust that the decision that was made was the right decision?

HL: Yes, with the information that we had.

SD:  Was Evan Solomon's reporting compromised by what he did?

HL: What I don't want to do is I don't want to get into the details of this because this is going on as we speak. But clearly, we found that his activities were inconsistent with the codes that we have, the conflicts of interest rules that we have, the ethics policy that we have, and our journalistic standards.

SD: Today we've learned that Peter Mansbridge has signed on as a "patron" of the Mother Canada monument proposed for Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This is a proposal that's controversial with some former Parks Canada managers, and some people in the area. How comfortable are you with the anchor of The National endorsing it?

HL: Frankly Stephanie, I'm learning it from you. I did not hear this. I suppose I'll have to look at that later. But this is something that is news to me.

SD: The report into the Ghomeshi scandal identified a "host culture" in which some CBC employees think corporate rules don't apply to them.… Is the situation with Evan Solomon a sign that you haven't yet sent a strong enough message that the rules are the rules — for everyone?

HL: Stephanie, I think on the contrary, what you saw and the actions that we took are proof that the standards and the practices and procedures that we have around conflicts of interest are actually robust. Because those are the processes that actually brought us to do the review that we did, found the information we found and made us conclude that they were inconsistent and we had to move on.

SD: Do you think the message is getting through?

HL: I think it is because when a person … it's really regrettable to lose a talented journalist like Evan Solomon. But you know, Canadians, they have to trust that when we find these things — and we feel that the integrity of our journalism is affected — that we will take this kind of action and as quickly as we did. So, the Janice Rubin report, which is the report that followed the Ghomeshi situation, had a bunch of recommendations. Those recommendations are being acted upon. You probably saw the note that we sent to the world, literally, a few days ago, saying that not only are we going to do the right thing and address each one of them. But we're actually going to put in charge two executives — two very senior executives of CBC and of Radio-Canada — to operationalize these recommendations and to make sure that they are deeply embedded in our culture every day.