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Jon Thompson

@jonthompson

Journalist. Belongs to Northwestern Ontario. Ricochet Media. “Thunder Bay” now streaming on Crave. Past words & baritone for Canadaland, CBC, TVO, APTN.

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31.08.2023
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Latest posts by Jon Thompson @jonthompson

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Is Doug Ford planning to axe elected public school boards in Ontario? Communities fear the province may soon eliminate trustees in Ontario, impacting disabled, First Nations, and other marginalized students.

School board chairs in Thunder Bay & Sault Ste. Marie say Ontario intends to permanently dissolve elected public boards this legislative session, ending over 200 years of local accountability in education.
ricochet.media/indigenous/i...

10.03.2026 15:40 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

SIU is investigating after Kenora OPP shot a man "armed with an edged weapon" on Monday.
The individual was pronounced deceased.

10.03.2026 13:03 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

While the open mic went around and Thunder Bay folks shared stories of near-death experiences, and lost family and friends, there was a collision on Hwy. 17 west of Dryden and Hwy. 655 closed north of Timmins.

09.03.2026 23:54 👍 4 🔁 2 💬 0 📌 0

Rachel exposes dangerous, violent and unhinged people online so you and your family don’t have to deal with them in-person

She’s not just doing journalism, she’s providing a valuable community service – you can support her work here:

www.patreon.com/cw/RachelGil...

09.03.2026 23:02 👍 337 🔁 78 💬 2 📌 3
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Speaking in Thunder Bay tonight, ONDP leader Marit Stiles calls for northern highways 11 & 17 to be named a “nation-building project.”

Stiles says she has heard about lost lives on northern highways every time she has been to northern Ontario, says she’s never seen anything like it.

09.03.2026 23:04 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1
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Sizeable turnout in Thunder Bay for the Ontario NDP’s tour across dangerous northern highways 11 and 17.

09.03.2026 22:48 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

In case you missed it... market forces in journalism being what they are... long story short, I do TikToks now.

Follow me there @
www.tiktok.com/@jonsthompson
And you can follow the whole @ricochet_en gang @
www.tiktok.com/@ricochetmedia

08.03.2026 18:53 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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I'm getting down with this new wolf mug the Kinna-aweya Legal Clinic gave me for speaking about media literacy at their staff retreat on Friday.

It’s not about "trusted sources," it’s learning to see the cables that bind the ideas to the players and acting in your own interests.

08.03.2026 14:48 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Up until last week, Ontario’s “special economic zones” legalized by Bill 5 were about reducing regulatory red tape.

After Doug Ford appeared at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada conference, it’s less clear what “special” circumstances we’re talking about.

07.03.2026 15:09 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

OPP is investigating 11 bomb threats to schools of the Keewatin-Patricia District School Board in Dryden, Red Lake and Sioux Lookout.

06.03.2026 19:46 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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OPP has “located” both males located in connection with a suspected shooting death in Atikokan on Wednesday. Police has lifted a shelter-in-place order.

06.03.2026 13:51 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

We often talk about how the lies have become so big that they're wrestling each other to the death for the right to supplant reality.

But in terms of how our leaders are openly using processes for their ends, we actually live in remarkably honest times.

04.03.2026 19:37 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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'Canada's national newspaper' calls for Northern Ontario highway improvements The Globe and Mail published an editorial calling on governments to "upgrade the Trans-Canada at all due speed".

NOMA on Globe & Mail editorial:
"Once all the government people start reading the article & their staffers read the article, they'll see it is really bang-on in regards to what the messaging was from us, so we believe now we'll get some really good traction."
www.snnewswatch.com/local-news/c...

04.03.2026 19:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 1
Ontario Newsroom

Provinces and territories to integrate energy transmission grid, expanding inter-provincial energy trade and fast-tracking "intertie" projects between provinces.
news.ontario.ca/en/release/1...
Ontario says IESO believes our energy demand could increase 90 per cent by 2050. That seems high.

04.03.2026 19:01 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

NAN Deputy Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum said today’s physical presence is partly to assert the family’s rights to timely justice in the face of a system that has drawn out both the investigative and judicial processes.

04.03.2026 16:38 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Nishnawbe Aski Nation issued this statement on behalf of the Deborah Anishinabie’s family this morning. It says the health worker, “had much love to give and she poured every ounce of her compassion into her work and the people she cared for.”

04.03.2026 16:34 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Deborah Anishinabie's family & supporters gathered in ceremony at the Thunder Bay Courthouse prior to the preliminary hearing for Levi Lawson, accused of second-degree murder & indignity to a human body in connection with her Dec. 2024 death.

The charges haven’t been tested in court.

04.03.2026 16:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 1
Wag the Dog - Original Theatrical Trailer
Wag the Dog - Original Theatrical Trailer YouTube video by Warner Bros. Rewind

You guys remember Wag The Dog? The one about the president starting a war to avoid a sex scandal? Man, great cast but that premise was just wonky.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NiYW...

04.03.2026 12:31 👍 5 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
Redirecting...

Doug Ford was briefly interrupted this moring:

“Grassy Narrows is still being poisoned. Will you compensate Grassy Narrows for the ongoing mercury crisis?”
www.facebook.com/share/r/1FoF...
They're calling for the Dryden Mill to be shut down & for mercury compensation.
you.leadnow.ca/petitions/me...

02.03.2026 21:43 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says "don't be fooled" by Premier Doug Ford's statements earlier today on whether he will designate the Ring of Fire a "special economic zone."
"Bliil 5 does not supercede the rights First Nations have. First Nations have a bigger hammer & they will stand up to Bill 5."

02.03.2026 18:37 👍 10 🔁 4 💬 0 📌 0

"There hasn't been any meaningful discsusion in terms of settitng up how [discussions with Ontario] could look like because ultimately, this is about fast-tracking their processes." - former Neskantaga First Nation Chief Wayne Moonias

Says Neskantaga has not given consent to Ring of Fire.

02.03.2026 18:33 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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‘Unsafe and unacceptable:’ ombudsman demands ‘immediate action’ for fly-in First Nation Conditions on the Neskantaga First Nation prompt Ontario ombudsman to call on federal and provincial governments to act

For more: ricochet.media/indigenous/u...

02.03.2026 18:30 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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‘Bringing them home in coffins': Ombudsman finds unsafe conditions in Fly-in First Nation Jon Thompson accompanied Ontario’s ombudsman on a shocking tour of Neskantaga First Nation. This is what they saw

Ontario ombudsman Paul Dube was in Neskantaga First Nation last summer, finding "unsafe and unacceptable" conditions, including a boil-water advisory that has stretched over 11,000 days, a condemned health centre, a cramped school, and a litany of systemic challenges.
ricochet.media/indigenous/b...

02.03.2026 18:28 👍 4 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 0
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“Our community is being excluded from these decisions, these very important decisions that are happening. It’s happening too fast & decisions are being made too fast without us.” - Neskantaga First Nation Coun. Coleen Moonias on proposed Ring of Fire

02.03.2026 18:25 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Northern Ontario First Nations are building a village in the path to the Ring of Fire Communities along the Attawapiskat River are reclaiming the land to stop Doug Ford’s massive mining project — and finding evidence of ancestral burial grounds

Doug Ford announced today that the community access road network toward the proposed Ring of Fire development will be built five years ahead of schedule.
Neskantaga & Attawapiskat members are building a permanent village in the path of that road's middle section.
ricochet.media/indigenous/l...

02.03.2026 18:21 👍 3 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0
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Canada is not for sale — And neither is Neskantaga First Nation, says chief ‘This is a genocide:’ no clean water, healthcare as drug pandemic rages

Speaking at Queen's Park, Neskantaga First Nation Chief Gary Quisess points out Doug Ford and Mark Carney have been saying "Canada is not for sale."

He has consistently said Neskantaga's land is not for sale either.
ricochet.media/indigenous/c...

02.03.2026 18:15 👍 7 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 0

Speaking with Neskantaga First Nation leaders at Queen's Park, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa says, "There will be no development [in the proposed Ring of Fire] unless there is free, prior, and informed consent."

02.03.2026 18:13 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

No, not the late Chief Cobiness.

He’s referring to newly-elected Webequie First Nation Chief, Lorraine Whitehead, who signed a Statement of Economic Partnership with Ontario today.

That will include a new airport for her community and education/training opportunities for young people.

02.03.2026 17:42 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0
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Speaking at PDAC this morning, reporters asked Doug Ford if he still intended to make the Ring of Fire a "special economic zone," which would enable proponents to circumvent any regulation under Bill 5.

Ford said it's not necessary when those projects have local buy-in.

Wow.

02.03.2026 16:43 👍 5 🔁 4 💬 1 📌 1

This is Ford's first admission that the "special economic zones" provision in Bill 5 is designed to push over resistance to specific developments or economic interests of the government of Ontario, if there isn't local buy-in.

02.03.2026 16:07 👍 4 🔁 3 💬 0 📌 0