Toronto Radio: Talker Says He Was Fired For Not Being Woke Enough

Former Bell Media radio host Jamil Jivani is taking the company to court, saying that he was fired for not subscribing to certain political or social views on racial identity and that he was not “woke” enough, reports The Epoch Times.

“Many of you have heard about what transpired when Bell Media fired me in January. Well, now it’s time for them to answer for their racism,” Jivani said in a statement released on his Substack on Sept. 2.

The 34-year-old Oshawa, Ontario, lawyer and author first joined Bell Media as an independent contractor in July 2020 to host a show that focused on issues surrounding the Black Lives Matter social movement, said a statement of claim filed in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. In September that year, Jivani signed a contract to do a nightly show on Bell’s iHeartRadio, saying that he was “excited” to bring on a variety of guests from the Black community representing a diversity of views. In January 2021, Jivani entered into a full-time employment contract with Bell Media, with the company saying the host was “poised to have a long career with the company.” 

He was Bell’s only full-time black radio host in the talk radio market, with his program The Jamil Jivani Show beginning airing on Feb. 3, 2021, to coincident with the Black History Month—a central focus of the show. The show would air on News-Talk CFRB 1010 AM and across the iHeart Radio Network

But Jivani said tensions between him and Bell management began to rise over the next few month as he holds conservative views and pushed back against the “woke” agenda pushed by big corporations that try to submerge opposing views from people like him.

Tensions between Jivani and Bell Media sharpened as public interest in the Black Lives Matter movement waned. The movement gained traction over the police custody death of George Floyd, which sparked massive protests in the United States starting in May 2020. Thousands of arrests were made as the protests were marred by looting, violence, and arson.

“As news stories around Black Lives Matter and other racial issues faded from the news, Bell no longer had the same use for a Black employee,” Jivani said in his statement of claim.

“It became clear that Bell had a rigid but unspoken vision for how Black people should fit into the company. Bell wanted the Plaintiff to be a token beholden to the company’s identity politics.”

Jivani is seeking compensation of $42,500 for breach of contract and wrongful dismissal, $300,000 for the “bad faith manner of dismissal,” and breach of contractual duty of good faith and honesty, and an additional $200,000 in punitive damages.