Rick Garrick

Marten Falls delivered an update on its proposed all-season Community Access Road during a Public Information Centre session at the Valhalla Inn in Thunder Bay.

“Marten Falls has been wanting an all-season road to the community for a long time and they’ve been working on it for a number of years now,” says Bob Baxter, Marten Falls citizen and member of the Community Access Road project team. “We’re just in the environmental assessment stage and consulting stage right now to collect feedback from the public and the communities that will be affected.”

Although the James Bay Winter Road connecting Attawapiskat, Fort Albany, Kashechewan and Moose Cree First Nations is set to open for full loads on Feb. 3, concerns are being raised about the winter roads in northwestern Ontario.

This fall’s Wake the Giant Music Festival will feature a variety of musicians, including Metric, July Talk, Crown Lands and Thunder Bay local Coleman Hell, on Sept. 14 at Prince Arthur’s Landing in Thunder Bay. The music festival will also feature Nick Ferrio, Wolf Saga, Ansley Simpson, Battle Nation Drum Group and local band Luke Warm and the Cold Ones, as well as some Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School (DFC) student performances.

The Ontario Native Women’s Association (ONWA) released its Journey to Safe SPACES: Indigenous Anti-Human Trafficking Engagement Report at the Italian Cultural Centre in Thunder Bay.

“Together, we have been able to look deeply at what is needed to safely exit Indigenous women and girls from human traffickers and gangs,” says Cora-Lee McGuire-Cyrete, executive director of ONWA.

The report includes input gathered from people who were most directly impacted by human trafficking and survivors who were willing to share their stories.

A grandmother originally from Deer Lake attended the 2019 Dennis Franklin Cromarty First Nations High School (DFC) graduation to watch her grandson graduate even though she had just been released from hospital.

“My grandson graduated today and I am so proud,” says Delilah Quill, grandmother of DFC graduate Morley Quill. “All of my kids graduated from DFC. I have three kids and this is my first grandson that graduated from there.”

Quill says she made it just in time for the graduation, which was held at the Canadian Lakehead Exhibition Coliseum building in Thunder Bay.