Wendy Mesley has been disciplined after an internal investigation discovered the CBC News host used “offensive language on two separate occasions during editorial meetings,” according to the CBC.
The news outlet reported that Chuck Thompson, CBC’s head of public affairs, said the first incident took place last fall “while discussing a book title, and then again more recently in preparation for a piece on anti-racism.”
Thompson has not clarified what punishment Mesley was handed, the CBC said.
The company said Mesley was suspended from hosting on June 9 after she said she “used a word that should never be used” during an editorial discussion about race.
Mesley posted a statement on Twitter on Thursday following the investigation.
Please take a look at the following pic.twitter.com/2qSVbzmdSV
— Wendy Mesley (@WendyMesleyCBC) June 25, 2020
“I used a word, and, yes, it’s the word people think,” she wrote. “I thought that by saying the word, I was somehow exposing the truth. I now realize that my abuse of the word was harmful. I hurt my colleagues, my team and the CBC. For that I am deeply sorry and ashamed.”
Mesley also described an incident from September 2019 when she said she used the same racial epithet while preparing for an episode of “The Weekly,” regarding Bill 21, a law in Quebec barring civil servants from wearing religious headwear such as hijabs or turbans at work.
In Mesley’s statement, she said she referenced “White N— of America,” what she called “one of the more influential tomes of Quebec political thought.”
