February 17, 2014
SHARE
CANADALAND
#20 Rex Murphy is Paid by the Oil Sands and the CBC Won’t Disclose or Discuss it
The CBC's chief conservative commentator has a glaring conflict of interest, reports investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica.

Synopsis

The CBC’s chief conservative commentator has a glaring conflict of interest, reports investigative journalist Andrew Mitrovica.

Links

One of Rex Murphy’s paid speeches for Big Oil (YouTube video)

Rex Murphy, the oilsands and the cone of silence (Andrew Mitrovica’s iPolitics column)

A Question of Conflict?  (Jennifer McGuire’s response on CBC’s Editor’s Blog)

Rex Murphy and Big Oil: friends with benefits? (PressProgress piece)

Guest

Investigative reporter Andrew Mitrovica has worked for the CBC’s fifth estate, CTV’s W5, CTV National News, Saturday Night magazine, Reader’s Digest, The Walrus magazine and the Globe and Mail. He is currently a journalism instructor and a columnist with iPolitics.ca

People mentioned 

Rex Murphy, Jennifer McGuire, Peter Mansbridge, Chuck Thompson

Topics discussed

How much money have Oil Sands companies paid to Rex Murphy? When did the CBC and The National Post learn of this? Why won’t Rex Murphy answer questions about this? Why won’t the The National disclose his relationship, when they’ve disclosed lesser conflicts of interest in the past? What’s going on at The National anyhow? How could they possibly think this is okay, or that nobody would notice?

 

More from this series
"You take the red pill - you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes." -Morpheus
March 5, 2026
“Everybody needs to know about this. We need to shut this down. This is aviation. This is training. There are safety issues here.” -Jeff Weeks, Aviation Executive
March 2, 2026
“I knew that the swarm of reporters was going to descend and that everybody wanted a little piece of somebody. So I was like, well, I will allow myself to be the bone that the news hounds chew on.” -Trent Ernst, Reporter/Editor/Publisher at Tumbler RidgeLines
February 23, 2026
“ If you think the world is better with Canada in it then you have to accept that certain things have to happen for that to continue.” -Jay Baruchel
February 16, 2026
“ That is not what we were promised. That's not what our patients expected.” -Dr. Alier Marrero
February 9, 2026
We wanted to know all of your local gossip. How toxic is your subreddit? How angry are your community Facebook groups? And boy, did you deliver.
February 5, 2026
This is a tale of revenge. It’s also a David and Goliath story, about one man going up against giant corporations and winning.
February 2, 2026
“ They said that Waleed Khan transferred property and funds to ISIS and also was doing the bidding of ISIS and was ready to counsel to commit murders and terrorism.” -Ellin Bessner
January 26, 2026
all podcasts arrow All Podcasts
CANADALAND