THUNDER BAY – In many ways, 2017 was a year without precedence in Thunder Bay.
In other ways, more tragically, it was more of the same.
The new year brings hope for improvement and a chance to reflect on the year just gone by, now relegated to the history books.
The past year saw both the mayor and police chief in court facing criminal charges, and three more young Indigenous lives were lost to the city’s waterways.
Police were under fire for their handling of Aboriginal death cases, accused of systemic racism from the top on down.
It’s a year we won’t soon forget, but one we’ll hopefully learn from and emerge a better place for everyone who lives in Thunder Bay.
Here are our top 10 stories of 2018, the final segment of our year in review feature:
1. Mayor Keith Hobbs found himself in legal hot water, charged with extortion related to a sexual assault case involving lawyer Alexander (Sandy) Zaitzeff. According to court documents, Hobbs, his wife Marissa and another woman, Mary Voss, attempted to get Zaitzeff to buy Voss a home. Hobbs’s case is expected before the courts in early 2018.
2. Equally surprising was the news that Thunder Bay Police Chief J.P. Levesque had been charged with obstruction of justice related to the Hobbs case. According to testimony in December, Levesque said he let the mayor know about the pending charges against him as a buffer, claiming he believed it was his prerogative to make share the information. A verdict is expected in January.
3. Teenagers Josiah Begg and Tammy Keeash both disappeared on May 6 and later turned up dead in local waterways, two more tragic deaths that led many in the Indigenous community to claim something more sinister was going on in Thunder Bay. Police also faced criticism for how quickly the deaths were written off as non-suspicious in nature and both incidents were added to an outside investigation on how the department handles Aboriginal cases. A third body, 21-year-old Dylan Moonias, was pulled from the river later in the year.
4. A callously thrown trailer hitch in January proved deadly after it struck Barbara Kentner, an Indigenous woman, who was walking with her sister on Cameron Street. The 34-year-old woman spent months in hospital, ultimately succumbing to her injuries. Brayden Bushby, 18, was later charged with second-degree murder.
5. Faculty at Confederation College walked off the job as part of province-wide strike largely centred around a call for more job security for contract staff. Teachers would walk the picket line for more than five weeks before a deal was reached. About 400 students withdrew as a result.
6. The city and Canadian National Railway had their day in court over the James Street Swing Bridge and Thunder Bay came out on the losing end, the judge ruling the railway does not have to maintain the Kaministiquia River span in perpetuity for vehicular traffic.
7. While Thunder Bay’s homicide count dropped from nine to seven in 2017, it’s likely the city will retain its title as Canada’s murder capital, the fourth time in six years seven or more people have died at the hands of others.
8. Three days of hearings for the family and friends of murdered and missing Indigenous women and girls took place in Thunder Bay.
9. The province officially announced it would build a replacement for the Thunder Bay District Jail, a facility that will also serve as the area’s new correctional centre. There is no timeline for construction to begin.
10. Longtime Liberal MPP Michael Gravelle took a lengthy leave of absence to deal with depression. He was off the job for five months.
