Unifor says it’s ”extremely concerned” about alleged editorial interference at Queen’s Park Briefing (QP Briefing) that led to the resignations of Editor-in-Chief Jessica Smith Cross and writer Charlie Pinkerton. The allegations surfaced last week following purported interference from the top down around the controversial story on Premier Doug Ford’s daughter’s stag-and-doe where a number of developers were on the guest list. Permission to publish the story as written was denied despite journalistic due diligence, according to the union. The story was subsequently picked up by other media outlets. Cross and Pinkerton’s resignations coincide with layoffs at QP Briefing, including Jack Hauen, Aidan Charmandy and Sneh Duggal. QP Briefing and iPolitics were acquired by Paul Rivett in the splitting of NordStar’s assets as determined by court arbitration last November, while Jordan Bitove retained full ownership of Torstar. iPolitics employees – including QP Briefing staff – organized under Unifor in December.

BBTV Holdings, the Vancouver-headquartered content creator tech solutions provider, has announced that it has closed on a US$16.1 million senior secured term loan from New York investment capital firm, MEP Capital Holdings. The company intends to use the proceeds for working capital and to pay off its overdraft with a Canadian chartered bank. In Q4 2022, BBTV signed agreements with Hispanic Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) franchise, Combate Global, and Wondery, Amazon’s subsidiary podcast network.