''Thunder Bay'' is 2018 podcast hosted by Ryan McMahon on the

Canadaland Canadaland is a Canadian company that operates a news site and a network of podcasts. It was founded by Jesse Brown in 2013. Canadaland has produced podcasts on Canadian media, art and culture, cooking, medicine, and politics. Podcasts include ...

network. The podcast critiques the government and police responses to systemic racism and violence directed toward

Indigenous peoples Indigenous peoples are culturally distinct ethnic groups whose members are directly descended from the earliest known inhabitants of a particular geographic region and, to some extent, maintain the language and culture of those original people ...

in the

northern Ontario Northern Ontario is a primary geographic and quasi-administrative region of the Canadian province of Ontario, the other primary region being Southern Ontario. Most of the core geographic region is located on part of the Superior Geological Pro ...

town of

Thunder Bay Thunder Bay is a city in and the seat of Thunder Bay District, Ontario, Canada. It is the most populous municipality in Northwestern Ontario and the second most populous (after Greater Sudbury) municipality in Northern Ontario; its population i ...

, in Canada.

Production

The podcast builds on information contained in the 2017 book ''

Seven Fallen Feathers ''Seven Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death, and Hard Truths in a Northern City'' is a nonfiction book by Tanya Talaga, published September 30, 2017 by House of Anansi Press. The book won the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing in 2017, as ...

'' by investigative journalist

Tanya Talaga Tanya Talaga is a Canadian journalist and author of Anishinaabe and Polish descent. She worked as a journalist at the ''Toronto Star'' for over twenty years, covering health, education, local issues, and investigations. She is now a regular colu ...

of ''

The Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

''. ''Seven Fallen Feathers'' documents the unexplained deaths of seven Indigenous youth, all found in rivers close to Thunder Bay. The podcast is presented in five parts, produced by Canadaland, and hosted McMahon, who grew up near Thunder Bay. The production costs of the show were

crowd-funded Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance. In 2015, over was rais ...

via

Patreon Patreon (, ) is a membership platform that provides business tools for content creators to run a subscription service. It helps creators and artists earn a monthly income by providing rewards and perks to their subscribers. Patreon charges a com ...

Synopsis

The podcast documents systemic racism and corruption in Thunder Bay and the unexplained deaths of young Indigenous people, whose bodies were found in the

Kaministiquia Kaministiquia () is a community in the Canadian province of Ontario, located in the Thunder Bay District on Highway 102 approximately 30 kilometres west of Thunder Bay. A designated place served by a local services board, Kaministiquia had a p ...

and McIntyre Rivers. It documents Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs' rejection of the

Ontario Human Rights Commission The Ontario Human Rights Commission (OHRC) was established in the Canadian province of Ontario on March 29, 1961, to administer the Ontario Human Rights Code. The OHRC is an arm's length agency of government accountable to the legislature through ...

concerns about the lack of municipal support for the Indigenous population in the town. It discusses the killing of local Indigenous woman, Barbara Kentner. The local police chief and a former Ontario Crown Prosecutor are also criticised.

Critical reception

Jim Wilson, writing in Canadian Dimension praises McMahon's passion, notes his appropriate anger and how it captivates the listener. ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' listed the podcast as one of the best 50 podcasts of 2018. A four-part documentary series follow up of the same name was produced by McMahon. ''

'' premiered on Crave in February, 2023.Connie Thiessen
"‘Thunder Bay’ investigative docuseries to premiere on Crave next month"
''Broadcast Dialogue'', January 19, 2023.

References

{{Authority control Canadian podcasts Culture of Thunder Bay Crime podcasts Works about racism Works about corruption 2018 podcast debuts Podcasts adapted into television shows