News/Canada/Thunder Bay

As the cyclists came to a halt in front of the Terry Fox National Historic Monument in Thunder Bay, Ont., the sound of cheers subsided into a moment of silence.Then came the tears.It's been 27 years since Darrell Fox last stood beneath his older brother's statue.Terry Fox was 18 when he was diagnosed with osteogenic sarcoma, known as bone cancer, in 1977. His right leg was amputated just above his knee. In April 1980, he dipped his artificial leg into the Atlantic Ocean and began his trek across the country to raise money for cancer research. However, his Marathon of Hope was cut short just outside of Thunder Bay, when his cancer spread to his lungs.Terry Fox died in June 1981 when he was 22 years old. Now, 45 years after he began his journey across the country, his younger brother Darrell...

WARNING: This article references sexual abuse and may affect those who have experienced​ ​​​sexual violence or know someone impacted by it.In the depths of her addiction, Crystal Pickering thrived on chaos.   She started using drugs as a teenager to cope with childhood physical and sexual abuse. Growing up in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., she says she wasn't encouraged to express her emotions, and the anger she felt had festered for years."I was a dealer. I did all that and it was the power of the chaos — I loved it," she said. "If I had the coke and the bags, I was the shit. If I was tough and I could beat up somebody. I was important."My aggressiveness was what made me who I was."But after years of working to get control of her life, she's set to finalize a remarkable personal achievement: get...

Before Justin Gill began working at NorWest Community Health Centres (NWCHC), he thought fentanyl was the most toxic substance impacting drug users in Thunder Bay, Ont.But he was wrong.Using the organization's drug analyzer machine, he found traces of carfentanil — which is 100 times stronger than fentanyl — and nitazenes in the substances people brought in."That was very alarming," he said. "People think they're getting one thing but there's multiple things in their substance that can kill them in very small amounts."The Thunder Bay district continues to have the highest opioid-related death rate in Ontario, at nearly five times the provincial average.Meanwhile, the region's only supervised consumption site — Path 525 — closed at the end of March due to new provincial rules about how clos...

When Paddy Peters visits his wife's grave, he says he thinks about her battle with cancer and the unique challenges she faced compared to patients in southern Ontario.The chief of Pikangikum First Nation, a remote Ojibway community more than 500 kilometres northwest of Thunder Bay, has no running water in his home."She had to endure going outside to the outhouse when she was sick," said Peters. "My wife passed away without ever seeing running water in our house."Peters was first elected into office when he was 30 years old. He turns 69 in a few weeks and said his community is dealing with the same infrastructure challenges as when he started."It really just annoys me as a leader, why the same issues are still on the table in regards to water and wastewater services in my community," Peters...

The chief of Neskantaga First Nation is calling on the federal government to quickly help set up a mobile health centre in the remote community due to flooding that has closed its nursing station.Chief Gary Quisses and the northwestern Ontario community's council declared a state of emergency on Sunday after health-care staff noticed water seeping from the walls and a strong smell of fuel.The First Nation, where fewer than 400 people live about 450 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, has also been under Canada's longest boil-water advisory for 30 years."It's our lifeline, our nursing station," Quisses said during a virtual news conference on Tuesday. "I don't have [a] proper medical facility in the community right now. We have a small interim place, but that's not good enough."The tempora...

Multiple pharmacists linked to a south Thunder Bay, Ont., pharmacy face an additional set of misconduct allegations by the profession's provincial regulator, including falsifying records.One pharmacist also faces allegations of taking or misappropriating drugs from the shop on Victoria Avenue. Fort William Medical Pharmacy and two pharmacists were already under the Ontario College of Pharmacists' (OCP) scrutiny for allegations of misconduct that allegedly occurred between roughly January 2023 and May 2023. Jaspreet Sahota and Chi (Hao) Luu are facing professional misconduct hearings related to those allegations referred to the college in 2024. They include breaking federal narcotic law and dispensing prescriptions without valid authorization, according to the hearing info on the OCP public...

Patrick Cully wasn't sure his daughter Scarlet would ever be able to say, "I love you."But she's now talking, thanks to applied behaviour analysis (ABA) therapy in Thunder Bay, Ont., where the four-year-old lives with her parents, and a $190,000 grant the family says they received under Jordan's Principle, a program run by Indigenous Services Canada (ISC).Last week, however, the family's request for continued federal coverage — amounting to $217,650 — was denied. Without the therapy, her parents fear she could become non-verbal again.Scarlet, who has autism and has experienced severe speech delays, and her family are members of Batchewana First Nation, an Ojibway community east of Sault Ste. Marie.Until recently, she had been receiving different therapies five times a week, including speec...

Community support worker Kyle Arnold says detoxing from drugs is one of the hardest things he's ever done, but seeing dozens of members of Long Lake #58 First Nation going through withdrawal together in a safe space "is absolutely beautiful."Long Lake #58 is an Ojibway community about 300 kilometres northeast of Thunder Bay, Ont. On Friday, 42 of its members arrived at the NorWester Hotel and Conference Centre — which is partially owned by the First Nation — to participate in a 10-day detox program.The community has booked more than 50 hotel rooms, where participants receive on-site medical and social support and hourly room checks, as they go through withdrawal from alcohol or drugs and prepare for a full treatment program. "Generally when people go into a detox … it's with strangers. Thi...

WARNING: This story contains references to suicide.Robert Williamson says he remembers watching his parents lose their only source of income as his neighbours started to get sick.Now, he's sick, too, but his hope is that his grandchildren won't suffer the same symptoms he does.Williamson, like roughly 90 per cent of residents in Grassy Narrows First Nation, has been impacted by mercury poisoning that dates back to the 1960s and '70s, when the Dryden Paper Mill dumped about nine tonnes of the toxin into the English-Wabigoon River System in northwestern Ontario.Drummers gather for the groundbreaking ceremony of the long-awaited Mercury Care Home in Grassy Narrows First Nation in northwestern Ontario, on Wednesday. (Sarah Law/CBC)On Wednesday, he joined fellow mercury sufferers in a groundbre...