Citytv launches Canadian edition of Dateline, Diana Swain to host
Posted October 14, 2026 7:55 am.
Last Updated October 16, 2026 10:10 am.
Citytv is bringing the internationally known Dateline franchise to Canada for the first time with a new investigative news special focused on one of the country’s most enduring unsolved cases.
Dateline Canada will premiere Nov. 26 at 8 p.m. ET/PT, marking the first international expansion of NBC’s long-running Dateline newsmagazine franchise. The two-hour special will air on Citytv and Citytv+ and will be led by award-winning journalist Diana Swain.
The inaugural episode will revisit the disappearance of Elizabeth Bain, a University of Toronto (U of T) student who vanished in Scarborough in 1990. More than three decades later, the case remains one of Canada’s most high-profile unsolved mysteries.
“I’m proud to bring this story to Canadian audiences,” Swain said in a statement. “With Dateline Canada, we have an opportunity to re-examine a complex story through a fresh lens, connect pieces that may have been overlooked, and bring viewers a deeper understanding of the events that shaped this case and investigation.”
The program will explore several aspects of the Bain case, including the wrongful conviction of Robert Baltovich, subsequent reviews of the evidence and newly uncovered information identified through extensive examination of police records.
“Dateline” first aired in 1992 on NBC as a general interest program, but eventually evolved to focus primarily on true crime investigations.
“I’m not sure there is anything else that would have pulled me out of what I was doing,” Swain told The Canadian Press. Notably, she worked on the investigative team during her tenure at CBC before leaving to start her own communications consulting firm in 2024.
“I was happily winding down my professional life, but it’s ‘Dateline’ and it’s the legacy of that program. It’s the power of that program and it is the chance to tell a story in a fulsome way.”
Baltovich, Bain’s former boyfriend, was convicted of second-degree murder in 2000. However, the conviction was later overturned, and prosecutors ultimately chose not to proceed with a retrial. Bain’s disappearance remains unsolved.
“For more than three decades, Dateline has been telling stories that resonate with audiences,” longtime NBC correspondent Keith Morrison said in a statement. “To see the franchise expand with Diana Swain leading the new Canadian edition is an exciting evolution for the broadcast.”
Morrison was born in the Alberta-Saskatchewan provincial border city of Lloydminster and got his start working in local news before landing national roles with CTV and CBC. He joined “Dateline” in 1995 and has been a fixture on the series since.
“I’ve always been a Canadian and I will remain a Canadian until I die,” Morrison told The Canadian Press. “That’s what my blood is and that’s how I feel about things, so to be associated with this makes me very happy.”
Rogers is the parent company of CityNews
With files from The Canadian Press
