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Good morning, Thunder Bay — and welcome to issue one hundred and six. Sunny and 17°C, with fog patches burning off early and a south wind gusting to 40 by late morning before rain arrives after supper. In today's issue: Wake the Giant apologizes for the way its headliner closed a sober festival, a trial opens in a fatal hit-and-run on Highway 11, the city hosts its first women's cricket cup, and a local sprinter makes the last 100 in a national Olympic talent search. Plus eight things to do between now and Friday.
In this Harbour Beat Issue…
Trivia: The longest a rainbow has ever been recorded staying continuously visible was measured in Taiwan in 2017 — was it closer to one hour, five hours, or nine hours? (Answer at the bottom!)
It's Here: Pique's New Caffeine-Free Afternoon Energy
I quit my afternoon coffee. Not because I wanted to — because I found something better.
You know that wall you hit every day around 2–3 PM? I used to just accept it as the cost of doing anything. Another coffee, a quick spike, then the crash — and somehow I'd still feel dehydrated by dinner.
Then I tried X·E Fountain, Pique's brand-new electrolyte energy drink, and I genuinely wasn't ready for how good "no crash" could feel.
No caffeine jitters. No 4 PM slump. Just clean, steady energy that actually hydrates me instead of draining me. It's built with a premium Vitamin B Complex for natural cellular energy, Magnesium Malate + Taurate for real focus, and a full electrolyte blend that makes it feel like a treat, not a chore.
The cucumber-celery-lime flavor is so crisp and refreshing — it's basically stolen my afternoon coffee slot completely.
Thunder Bay Events
A craft night and a parking lot full of classic cars start the week, council sits for the last time this term on Tuesday, and by Thursday the theatre season is open. Friday is the one to circle — lunch on Squier Street and the lights on at Marina Park.
Monday, September 14
SEP 14 · Mosaic Ghost Coasters Workshop — 6 to 9 p.m., registration required · 📍 Lala's Craft Bowl, 105 May St. N. (entrance off Victoria) · Make a set of little mosaic ghost coasters — “ghoasters,” apparently — ahead of the season. Seating is limited, so sign up first. · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 14 · Dawson Diner Monday Night Cruise-In — 6:30 to 8 p.m., weather permitting · 📍 Dawson Diner, 1889 Dawson Rd. · Weekly classic-car night hosted by the Lakehead Antique Car Club, with a barbecue and ice cream. Come with a car or without one. · 📅 Add to Calendar
Tuesday, September 15
SEP 15 · City Council — 6:30 to 10 p.m., free to attend · 📍 Council Chambers, 3rd floor City Hall, 500 Donald St. E. · The last regular council meeting of this term, with the Central Avenue subdivision plan and the Adanac rezoning among the items on the table. · 📅 Add to Calendar
Wednesday, September 16
SEP 16 · Westfort Prosvita Catch the Ace — draw at 7 p.m., $5 a ticket · 📍 Westfort Prosvita, 721 West Gore St. · Weekly progressive draw at The Proz; tickets at the bar through the week and you don't need to be there to win. · 📅 Add to Calendar
Thursday, September 17
SEP 17 · Columbus Centre Spaghetti Takeout — 2 to 5:30 p.m. · 📍 Columbus Centre, 301 S. May St. · Spaghetti and meatballs to go, plus sauce, salad, roast chicken, lasagna and perogies if you'd rather stock the freezer. · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 17 · Come From Away — opening night — curtain 7:30 p.m., $36 · 📍 Badanai Theatre · Badanai's staging of the musical about the 38 planes grounded in Gander on September 11, 2001, and the town that took everyone in. Runs through October 10. · 📅 Add to Calendar
Friday, September 18
SEP 18 · Habitat for Humanity Fall BBQ — 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. · 📍 Habitat for Humanity lot, 660 Squier St. · A come-and-go community barbecue rather than a formal fundraiser, though donations and 50/50 tickets go toward the next build. Food by Fox on the Run Catering. · 📅 Add to Calendar
SEP 18 · Arts & Culture Under the Lights — 6 to 9 p.m., free · 📍 Market Square lot and the Baggage Building Arts Centre, Marina Park · The City's evening arts night at the waterfront, spread across the parking lot and the arts centre. · 📅 Add to Calendar
✅ NO WEATHER ALERTS IN EFFECT
Environment Canada had no watches or warnings posted for Thunder Bay as of Sunday evening. Two things to plan around: fog patches on the early commute, and rain that sets in after supper with a south wind gusting to 50 km/h.
🌤️ Monday, September 14 — Thunder Bay
17°C
Overnight low 12°C
Sunny, becoming a mix of sun and cloud near noon. Fog patches dissipating in the morning. Wind becoming south 20 km/h gusting to 40 late in the morning. UV index 5 — moderate.
A degree under the September normal of 18°C, and the daylight half of it is the good half — the rain holds off until evening, then settles in properly overnight with a south wind gusting to 50 and a mild low of 12°C. Tuesday reaches 20°C with a 40 per cent chance of showers, Wednesday is sunny and 19°C, Thursday tops the week at 21°C, and Friday eases back to 18°C. Sunrise 7:31 a.m., sunset 8:14 p.m. Forecast from Environment Canada.
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Wake the Giant apologizes for how its headliner closed the night
Saturday at Marina Park was, by the numbers, a good day: about 8,000 people, a sold-out waterfront, sets from Tia Wood, Sebastian Gaskin, Shawnee Kish, Lov and the Wallflowers, and a tribute to Norma Kejick, the Northern Nishnawbe Education Council director and festival co-founder who died last month. Then Flo Rida closed it. By Sunday organizers had issued an apology: members of his entourage sprayed liquid from tequila bottles into the front rows and poured it down fans' throats, and the headliner brought minors onto a stage where he was grinding with adults.
“The props used were not approved by organizers, and we clearly communicated to the artist's team that this was a sober event and that alcohol is not permitted on our stage,” the statement reads. It goes on to say the performance “does not align with the values of Wake the Giant or Northern Nishnawbe Education Council,” and that the festival takes responsibility for the booking. A spokesperson said organizers believe the bottles held water, not tequila. The festival exists to make the city safer and more welcoming for Indigenous students who move here to finish high school — and it is already scheduled to take 2027 off while the City rebuilds the Marina Park festival grounds, with a return planned for 2028.
🗳️ Your call: an apology and a lesson learned, or a booking that should never have been made. Where do you land?
Wake the Giant apologized after Saturday's Flo Rida set. Where do you land?
- 🙏 The apology was the right call — own it and vet the next headliner harder
- 🚫 Bigger than one act — a sober youth event shouldn't book that kind of show at all
- 🤷 Overblown — the artist misread the room, the festival did nothing wrong
- 🎶 Don't lose the day — 8,000 people, a sold-out waterfront, the movement's point stands
- ✏️ Other (tell us below)
A trial opens in the Highway 11 death of Kathleen Desmoulin
Kathleen Desmoulin, 41, of Long Lake #58 First Nation, was found in a ditch near Highway 11 on the afternoon of November 18, 2023, beside a red running shoe, a Red Sox cap and a backpack. Paramedics tried CPR; there were no vital signs. On Friday, nearly three years on, a trial opened in a Thunder Bay courtroom before Justice Robin Lepere. Gurmeet Singh Brar of Edmonton has pleaded not guilty to failing to stop at a collision causing death.
The Crown's agreed statement of facts traces how investigators got there: a tractor-trailer stopped the day before for a burnt-out marker light and a logbook full of gaps, a zone alert with surveillance images, a symbol on the truck's side recognized, the vehicle seized in Alberta and searched under warrant. Blood found on the front corner panel could not exclude the victim as its source, and a broken piece of hood mirror recovered at the scene matched a mirror missing from the truck. Brar was arrested in May 2024 after U.S. border officers turned him back to Canadian authorities; he told police he was sorry and that he “didn't see anyone.” That recorded statement is expected in court when the trial resumes this week. None of the allegations have been proven in court.
Thunder Bay's first women's cricket cup drew 25 players to Chapples
Cricket Canada called the Thunder Bay Cricket Council to ask whether the city could host a Criiio Cup — an International Cricket Council program aimed at getting women onto the pitch. The answer was yes, and the city's first one ran Saturday at Chapples Park. “They provided all the equipment, jerseys, food, and beverages, everything is sponsored,” said Abhiram Giri, the council's marketing and communications director. “The only thing we have to do is commit to it, and we are ready.”
Roughly 25 women have signed up so far, and the plan is a permanent local team, outdoors in summer and indoors through the winter, with the Cup becoming an annual fixture. Zahra Limkhetawala, who has lived here three years and last played about five years ago, saw an Instagram post and signed up. “It brings the community together,” she said. “You make connections and friends with people who share the same interests.” The council has run youth cricket at Chapples on Tuesdays and Wednesdays since 2023; equipment and instruction are provided for anyone starting from zero, and they take sign-ups through their social channels.
One of 100: a Thunder Bay sprinter makes the national final
Three thousand athletes aged 14 to 25 went through free local qualifiers for RBC Training Ground, the Canadian Olympic Committee's talent-identification program. A hundred made the national final. Niko Dowhos, a recent Lakehead Thunderwolves graduate with back-to-back OUA 60-metre titles, is one of them — and, as far as he can tell, the only one from Thunder Bay. He was not expecting the call. “I didn't actually, truth be told, I didn't think I did that well,” he said. “There was one part of it that I didn't do very good at.”
The final is October 3 in Toronto, where 35 athletes can earn a place in a national development program with one of 16 sport organizations, or funding for the sport they already have. Part of the program's job is moving athletes between sports, and Dowhos is open to it: “I would for sure do a different event, 100 per cent.” He trains at the LU track in winter and the Legion track in summer, grew up playing soccer and basketball, and had parents who never pushed him into anything. His advice to younger athletes is about the losing: “you're going to lose. I've lost a lot of races — that's a part of life.”
Meme of the Day
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Trivia answer: About nine hours. A rainbow seen from Chinese Culture University on Yangmingshan, overlooking Taipei, stayed visible for 8 hours and 58 minutes on November 30, 2017 — the longest continuously observed rainbow on record, helped along by a steady monsoon wind holding a fine mist in the air all day.
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