A CBC executive managed the fallout from the Northland Tales prank-show scandal in an encrypted group chat with the show's producers. Messages in the chat discussed leaving information off production call sheets after learning CBC had received an access to information request. That's according to access to information records obtained by Rebel News.

The chat, titled “Nlt,” was created on May 12, the day Lindsay Shepherd and Frances Widdowson went public about being deceived by the CBC-APTN production. It includes Yasmine Abbasakoor, CBC's executive in charge of development for unscripted programming, and members of the production whose names are redacted. A notice at the top says the chat was end-to-end encrypted.

“Hi All- the media requests keep rolling in. The latest from The Toronto Sun,” Abbasakoor wrote that evening. She asked how the producers planned to respond.

“We have had requests, at the moment we are just sitting on it,” a production member replied. “Do you have any requests for how we respond?”

The production side later promised to send a list of the media requests “over this channel of course,” and sent a “secured link” that night.

Earlier that afternoon, CBC communications staff had settled on their own response. In an email to CBC executives, CBC PR director Katherine Wolfgang said CBC would “respond with the comment that we have already discussed” and was waiting to brief APTN's communications team.

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On May 13, a chat participant wrote that “hearing that the CBC has been atipped” had them thinking about something. The rest of that message is blacked out. The next morning, a message said call sheets “will have all our info,” followed by: “For the next two eps we will leave this info off.” The sender's name on that message is redacted, and the records don't show whether that was done.

On May 15, after CBC paused the production, Abbasakoor told the producers to “stop editing and get us all the dailies.” A production member sent passwords for episode dailies and outlines requested by Jennifer Dettman, CBC's executive director of unscripted content, and CBC executive Sally Catto. “We are being extra protective,” the producer wrote.

On May 25, Abbasakoor asked the producers for the video they originally pitched at the Banff World Media Festival. “I know it's not on YouTube anymore,” she wrote. “I'll call you later and tell you why. All good reasons.” The records don't say what those reasons were.

A separate chat exported from Dettman's phone shows she used a default disappearing-message timer. New messages in her chats “will disappear from this chat 7 days after they're sent, except when kept,” the notice reads. It is dated April 21, three weeks before the show became public. The records do not show which of her messages, if any, were deleted.

The access to information request that produced these records was filed on May 26 and asked for texts, WhatsApp, Signal and Slack messages about the show. CBC answered on October 8, after taking an extension.

Thirty-nine pages were withheld in full under section 23 of the Access to Information Act, which covers solicitor-client privilege. CBC also excluded other material under section 68.1, which shields its “journalistic, creative or programming activities.”

The release also includes 41 complaints sent to the CBC about the show.