This photo of the Kenora LCBO was taken by Robert Onysko. The area is in the midst of a tornado warning that has lasted the afternoon. For those unfamiliar, this is not normally a boat-access liquor store.

They’re calling it “Northern Shield.” As though snaking an ecological hazard across all of Northern Ontario could be interpreted in some way as protecting us from something. I’m trying to stand in the Orwellian language thing friends, but it’s getting heavy out here.

I’ve spent this afternoon sheltered without power or signal under tornado warning. I’ve never heard thunder roll for so long straight. We’ve got fire & flood evacuations. Oh, Ford signed off on a bitumen pipeline flowing all across Northern Ontario today. Imagine that. www.ontario.ca/page/norther...

I have been acclaimed as the first-ever Northern Ontario national director for the Canadian Association of Journalists. Our region has unique challenges with press freedom & professional development. I hope CAJ can be a conduit to improving our lot in every way possible. 🥂 To better stories ahead.

Clear vision.

It doesn’t get much simpler than, “This is what reporters do.” Good on the Globe & Mail for standing up in the face of Saskatchewan police aggression against the media. www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/edit...

It’s tempting to believe that nothing could have been different; that the infinite number of statistical impossibilities making up reality all hang perfectly in some inevitable and orderly balance. Yet you know struggle.

I spoke to APTN anchor Dennis Ward about the Thunder Bay police insisting on excluding media that covers its ongoing systemic racism for the new episode of InFocus. Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0ALa... Apple Music: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w... YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aX1...

I spoke to APTN anchor Dennis Ward about the Thunder Bay police insisting on excluding media that covers its ongoing systemic racism for the new episode of InFocus. Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0ALa... Apple Music: podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/w... YOUTUBE: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aX1...

For over a year, Thunder Bay police had two media email lists known as "local" & "national." The national list included Globe & Mail's Willow Fiddler & I. Neither list included local APTN reporter. We were excluded from covering Indigenous missing persons, the cases TBay police infamously fails.

Neskantaga First Nation has been on a Boil Water Advisory for 31 years, the longest in Canada. Eabametoong First Nation has been on a BWA since 2001, Muskrat Dam First Nation has been on a BWA since 2003, and Wawakapewin First Nation since 2004. www.nan.ca/news/federal...

@justinling.ca almost hits it on Conservative AI slop ads. Their angle is strong: it's not "technically" a recession, it's actually a recession. That's technically true. But to say that, they give us fake versions of true things. They're fighting lies with lies. www.thestar.com/opinion/star...

Congratulations to my boss @ethancox.bsky.social for winning CAJ scoop of the year. I’m not there tonight but I’m very honoured that he chose to share that moment with me. The reaction has been touching in the 30 hours since @ricochetmedia.bsky.social ran this story: ricochet.media/media/thunde...

My editors have released a statement about the latest transparent attempt the Thunder Bay police is using to avoid accountability, this time conjuring two media email lists to exclude national outlets with local reporters from covering sensitive stories. ricochet.media/media/thunde...

It really means a lot. Northern Ontario struggles to understand the value of media as an independent democratic estate. This validation of the efforts we’re making to prospect stories at the local and national levels tells both power structures that it’s for real. Someday, they’ll understand.

OPP has announced Const. Tarun Bali (29) of the James Bay detachment has been killed in the line of duty.

Interesting how respondents believe recommendations from their friends have an equal influence over their exposure to preferred influencers as the tech giants and their algorithms.

Thunder Bay Police have charged a local 33-yr-old man with manslaughter in connection with the death of Kelsey Anderson. Anderson was the last of four missing First Nations people to be found deceased in the city over two weeks in May. ricochet.media/indigenous/f...

Thanks so much to DPAs for standing behind the Work. Thanks @dreahouston.bsky.social and @ethancox.bsky.social at Ricochet for your patience. And to the Northwest, first, last, and always. I live to bear witness and your trust means everything.

It’s wrong when Doug Ford does it. It’s wrong if Mark Carney does it. This new consensus that the public doesn’t get to know how our leaders communicate anymore is wrong. It’s wrong and it has to be stopped. www.canada.ca/en/treasury-...

I really hate to say this. While repaving the existing Main Street in Geraldton is arguably needed, it would be a stretch to call it a significant infrastructure advancement or frame it as though it was a road to the proposed Ring of Fire. www.northernontariobusiness.com/regional-new...

Integrity commissioner finds Dryden Coun. Ritch Noel making false statements about staff and calling a constituent outside to fight does not violate the code of conduct. Yeah, this all seems totally normal.

Indigenous families call for permanent search team in Thunder Bay. Frustrations boil over between police chief, First Nations leaders following discovery of four bodies in two weeks. @jonthompson.bsky.social reports from Thunder Bay. ricochet.media/indigenous/i...

Families of missing persons found dead in Thunder Bay call for a permanent search & rescue team. ricochet.media/indigenous/i... This, as Thunder Bay police chief trades barbs with First Nations leaders over police actions & attitudes toward searchers. ricochet.media/indigenous/f...

Former Chronicle Journal publisher & Thunder Bay mayoral candidate Clint Harris accuses NAN Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler of being "divisive" for criticizing police communication & competence after four missing persons were found dead in the city over two weeks. www.tbnewswatch.com/letters-to-t...

Police Association of Ontario recognizes Thunder Bay police civilian Olivia Gater with the On-Duty Difference Maker Award. Gater increased referrals to social supports for those engaging with police by 1,000% over three years. www.newswire.ca/news-release...

For those following five missing persons found dead in Thunder Bay this month... ricochet.media/indigenous/f... All northwest Ontario's dead have to fly to Toronto for $6,000 per body because Ontario shut down post-mortem services. Our 2023 pod for @canadaland.com: www.canadaland.com/podcast/cana...

Five missing persons have been found dead in Thunder Bay this month. First Nations leaders are calling for high-level meetings over police incompetence. ricochet.media/indigenous/f... That’s the context for the daily paper running this from the LJI pool, 12 days after it happened.

In all the years I've reported on the fragile relationship between the Thunder Bay Police Service and First Nations leaders in northern Ontario, I've never once seen a police chief call out those leaders by name. This statement is in response to this: ricochet.media/indigenous/f...

Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler is calling for high-level meetings and police accountability after five missing people in Thunder Bay have been found dead in public places. ricochet.media/indigenous/f...

“The problem of missing people in Thunder Bay is not new, but it feels like we are at a tipping point,” Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa said at Queen's Park on Wednesday. “It is time to come together to end this crisis because no more families should go through this.” www.facebook.com/share/p/1GXV...

“Friends, I’ve gotta say, you can’t make a change without causing a commotion.” Dryden’s expat poet son Erik Bleich is out with his new single “Leslie Spit” for the full album he’s dropping in June. m.youtube.com/watch?v=lbK9...

K.K. Penner Tires Centers (Dryden) Inc., pleads guilty to failing to develop a safe procedure for the servicing of a skidder wheel assembly. An Atikokan worker was critically injured after a wheel assembly they were inflating exploded. Ontario fines company $55,000.

No, Smith is something different. Smith is the first Canadian politician to open the portal and let the funhouse mirror of nonsense internet politics take over actual politics. It's not grievance, it's proudly clouding accountability by obscuring the sources and motivations of political decisions.

The family of Kesley Anderson has issued this statement regarding the end of the search for the 36-year-old Webequie First Nation member. Anderson had been missing in Thunder Bay since May 9. He was in the city for job training.

Thunder Bay Police Service has issued a statement that 36-year-old Kelsey Anderson is, “no longer the subject of a missing persons investigation.” Anderson was last seen on May 9 and police have been holding a scene on the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway since Thursday.

Ontario Provincial Police had boats and divers in the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway on Sunday. Thunder Bay police have been holding the scene since Thursday, saying the site is connected to the search for Webequie First Nation member Kelsey Anderson.

Volunteer searchers looking for Kelsey Anderson near the Floodway that runs through the middle of Thunder Bay found the body of Richard Graham on Friday. Graham has been missing since July 2024. Graham was found on land. Police are also holding the river on either side of a bridge.

Thunder Bay police have pulled a body from the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway. No identity confirmation.

Thunder Bay Police Service Board has spent six times over budget on legal costs for indemnified staff in the first quarter. www.tbnewswatch.com/local-journa...

Nishnawbe Aski Nation & Mishkeegogamang First Nation statement re: search for missing persons Nodin Skunk and Ashlynn Bottle in Thunder Bay. “While we have always held out hope for a positive outcome, we must now face the sad reality that our worst fears may soon be acknowledged,” it reads in part.

For more on the three-year prison sentence a court handed to Thunder Bay Police Service officer Michael Dimini today... ricochet.media/justice/poli...

BREAKING: Thunder Bay Police Service staff sergeant Michael Dimini has been sentenced to incarceration for three years on breach of trust and two years (concurrent) on obstruction. He will appeal. ricochet.media/justice/poli...

Hauth's trial has been set back until May 13. That will give you some time to bookmark this story to read when you find yourself with silence, a window, and a hot drink.

Police arrested three people whose stories featured in the fourth episode of our "Thunder Bay" docu-series on Crave, including the Thunder Bay police chief, her lawyer, and an officer. The officer was guilty, the lawyer was not, the police chief will stand trial. Thank you for reading.

Our "Thunder Bay" Crave series showed how police, mired in Canadian policing's first anti-Indigenous systemic racism scandal, investigated their own Anishinaabe board chair. On the eve of police chief Sylvie Hauth (ret) standing trial, here's that story from the inside ricochet.media/indigenous/h...

Just a reminder for Press Freedom Day that you can't tighten your fist around sand and the harder you try, the worse this is going to get for Ontario. www.ipc.on.ca/en/media-cen...

Ricochet earns FOUR Digital Publishing Awards nominations, including best community reporting, investigative journalism, podcast and editorial achievement of the year. Read all about our nominees, and the incredible work they did to earn national recognition. ricochet.media/media/ricoch...