Leslie Roberts

Personal Life and Education

Roberts was born in Montreal, Quebec.

Lauren Roberts, Roberts' daughter, is his only child. She worked as a producer for CTV's eTalk for many years until leaving in 2016 to follow her ambition of performing, writing, and directing in cinema and television. Lauren was named Director of Fundraising Events at the PK Subban Foundation (a charity founded by former Montreal Canadiens player PK Subban) in January 2020. The PK Subban Foundation raises money for the Montreal Children's Hospital. Roberts came out as gay in October 2019 to commemorate National Coming Out Day.

Family

Roberts comes from a family with a journalism background. His grandfather was a journalist and writer, and his father, Bill, was a Morning host on CJAD for Montreal for more than 20 years. His mother worked as a personal assistant to a Minister of Parliament.

Leslie's great-grandfather, John H.Roberts, was the founder of The Axe, a very controversial tabloid published from 1922 to 1924. He was a Canadian historian. After serving the Canadian Prime Minister as a special advisor, he became editor-in-chief of Montreal's radio. Leslie has an uncle, Grant, who worked for the Globe, Mail, and Montreal Star. Leslie himself was later the executive editor and anchor of Global Toronto's News Hour until 2015. Leslie was an obese child in his early years. The kids at his school were constantly bullying him because of his obesity. Roberts's brother Rob was an editor in Toronto, and he was working for an influential and popular newspaper called The National Post. Besides being a journalist and anchor, Roberts focused on lending his hands to many non-profit organizations and charities.

Career

When Roberts was 18, he became a part of Montreal's newsroom CKGM Radio, and he was proficient in covering the 1980 Quebec Referendum. He interviewed many famous faces. Once after completing his schoolings, Leslie was immediately appointed as a medical reporter for CFCF TV in 1985 and worked as a CTV affiliate. Roberts served at CFCF for more than 12 years, and he gained intense experience in various segments. Right from hosting the morning shows and having evening talks, his career was so smooth and successful. He enjoyed every piece of work that he bestowed as a journalist and an anchor.

In 1996, Roberts was brought down to New York while he served as an anchor presenting the infotainment show known as A CURRENT AFFAIR. Later he switched to the Fox News Affiliate in WNYW. Later after three years, Roberts turned to CTV Montreal and worked as a full-time anchor there. During the year 2000, Leslie became a part of Global Quebec, and he worked as a news director and served as a co-host in the evening news.

From 2001, Leslie anchored Global Toronto's News Hour, and he hosted a CFRB Radio program. During the season 2008, Roberts authored a National Post titling "The Five things I learned this week."

After leaving Global in 2015, Roberts returned to Montreal in 2016 to host a weekday show on CJAD. In June 2019 he joined Bell Media in Ottawa as co-host of CTV Morning Live and host of a show on CFRA, leaving both in May 2022. He later worked as a freelance columnist for the National Post and Montreal Gazette, and in November 2025 he was elected to Montreal City Council for Peter-McGill as an Ensemble Montréal candidate.

Awards

During the year 2010, Roberts got the "Man of the Year" Consumers Choice Award. He was also a team member that reached prestigious Canada's Best Newscast from the RTNDA (Radio & Television News Directors of Canada). Also, he was a part of the OAB (Ontario Association of Broadcaster) community award. Also, in the year 2011, Roberts was nominated for the prestigious Gemini Award for his best work serving as Canada's Best News Anchor. Roberts and the Global team in Toronto won the Best Newscast award from Canadian Screen Awards 2013.

Resigning:

In January 2015, Leslie announced that he has resigned after an investigation has been done when clients from a public relations company he owns appeared on his other show. He said that he left his position as a news anchor and executive editor of Global Toronto; he mentioned that he regrets the circumstances that led to this outcome. On the other side, Global said that they conducted two investigations, one of them was led by Ron Waksman and the other one from the HR department.

Global's integrity:

A spokesperson for Global said that the Network takes journalistic integrity very seriously. It is the toughest gain and the most effortless loss in journalism, and it's the trait essential for producing quality work. He said they have witnessed other networks try to protect their star hosts regardless of what they do. Despite being the center stone for the Network's coverage, proper procedure must have been taken to ensure the Network's integrity. The internal investigations were swift, and the results came out early.

Suppose Roberts ever works as a journalist again. In that case, he'll always be the one who brought his own company's clients to his show, even if this incident didn't affect except 5 percent only of his audience, they are not obliged to trust him anymore. That arose a trust matter forever that will not go away quickly. However, Roberts told the Star that he is the creative director and a co-founder in Buzz PR; however, he has never taken a dime for hosting clients on the show and credits their appearances to the work of other entities. Most people entering journalism school have big dreams of taking positions at advertising and PR companies. They will have a salary that fulfills their every need; this type of person usually either gives up or reaches a lot more than they want. Some may be for and some maybe against what happened, some see that Roberts didn't have to say that those were his customers because it may be already known to everyone, and the other states that this benefits his own business.