CityNews’ abrupt split with Queen’s Park reporter Tina Yazdani has triggered a transparency backlash after her own public statement, a vanished staff biography, and at least two missing Ford government stories left Toronto audiences with more questions than answers.
Yazdani posted Monday afternoon that she was “no longer employed by CityNews,” adding that she was “proud” of her journalism and “stand[s] by” her reporting.
The unanswered question is why. Yazdani had reportedly been fired by Rogers Sports and Media after several years at CityNews, with her CityNews biography had been removed and emails to her Rogers address were returning an auto-reply saying she was no longer with the company.
What makes this an extra political-media flashpoint is that Two CityNews stories tied to Yazdani’s reporting on Premier Doug Ford’s government reportedly disappeared from the CityNews website, including one on Education Minister Paul Calandra’s letter to school boards warning graduation ceremonies should not express political views.
Her departure also followed a heated exchange with Calandra, who told her, “Don’t interrupt me. Let me finish and then I’ll get to you,” according to NOW Toronto.
Yazdani had been reporting aggressively on Ford government education policy. One CityNews video from December 12, 2025, still credits her on a story about a Ford-appointed school supervisor firing the TDSB’s director of education, with critics blasting the government for allowing someone with no education background to remove an experienced board leader.
By Monday, Yazdani’s byline had surfaced at The Trillium on a Ford government plan to reduce and restrict school board trustees. The Trillium homepage listed her article on the province’s plan to curtail trustee powers, and a syndicated version said the government planned to cap trustee compensation at a $10,000 honorarium and reduce trustee counts, including cutting the TDSB from 22 trustees to 12.
That same report said the province planned to replace directors of education at English-language boards with a CEO and chief education officer structure, with the CEO handling budgets and the minister stepping in when trustees cannot agree. It also said eight school boards had been placed under supervision in the past year, including Toronto, leaving trustees sidelined even after future elections.
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