Canada

I really hope that the people of Thunder Bay recognize how fortunate they are that they have such a dedicated group of local journalists actively engaged in battling decades of systemic racism, backed by an independent journalism institution actually committed to strengthening democracy.

That sort of thing seems like it is a little less common in our western world these days. What is it that they keep saying, democracy dies in darkness?

Corrupt racist assholes. Our equivalent of the Deep South.

I have cops in the family. They have told me about this kind of thing before. It's common practice.

The police maintain two media lists. One for “local” media, and another for “national.” Last month, as the city faced a staggering tragedy with five dead bodies discovered in quick succession, those on the local list received invitations to briefings, events with the families, relevant information essential to adequately cover the ongoing search and identification efforts.

At the exact same time as these critical emails were being sent, those on the “national” media list received an invitation to a flag-raising ceremony and other self-congratulatory bafflegab. The national list, in other words, only receives updates about stories the police want journalists to cover.

Jon is not alone. We know that local, Indigenous journalists with a national newspaper and a national broadcaster have also been segregated onto what can only be described as a decoy media list. Jon is not Indigenous, but his beat is covering Northern Ontario Indigenous issues. The affected reporters that we know of represent the majority of the journalists in the region who a) cover Indigenous stories and b) have the capacity and editorial latitude to do deep investigative work that does not rely on police press releases.

Last time I was in Thunder Bay I saw a cop car run a red with lights blazing, pull a U ball in the middle of the intersection, and sped down the block to the donut shop where 5 other cop cars were already sitting having coffee.

They take their coffee breaks pretty seriously over there.

Wow... if ever there was a reason to defund a police force, this one is it. Clearly they have too much money for pulling antics like this.

Absolutely shameful.