Report: CBC president lives in Brooklyn, NY

A new report from Canadaland shows that CBC president and CEO Catherine Tait lives in a $5.4 million (CAD) home in the Boerum Hill neighbourhood of Brooklyn, New York City.

Tait took up a second home in Ottawa as a condition for her appointment to the position with the state broadcaster, and has been travelling back and forth between her homes in New York and Ottawa throughout the pandemic.

The pandemic travelling contradicts travel advisories issued by the Canadian government in response to the pandemic. Since March, the Canadian government has warned Canadians to avoid non-essential travel. Tait did not break any laws by travelling, as the advisory is simply a warning to travelers.

Nevertheless, she did violate CBC policy which has suspended non-essential travel. The CBC has an ongoing policy stating "as instructed by the Government of Canada, we strongly recommend that you refrain from travelling abroad" during the pandemic.

Tait returned to her home in Brooklyn at the end of March and remained there for over two months, only coming back to Ottawa in June. She returned to Brooklyn in mid-November, where she has remained since then.

Tait refused to respond to concerns on the matter, but CBC spokesman Chuck Thompson claimed that "Ms.Tait did not receive any special exemption from the government for her travel." Rather, she has been travelling to take care of her husband who has a condition "which makes him extremely vulnerable to the virus." Tait insists that she has been quarantining every time she returned to Canada, although did not make any such specification upon her arrivals in the United States.