Radio station based on the Lakehead University campus in Thunder Bay. The station is partially supported by the Lakehead student body. Broadcasts are at 102.7FM or can be listened to online; many programmes can also be downloaded as podcasts.
Stephen (Steve) Mantis was born in 1950 in Reading, Pennsylvania, and immigrated to Canada in 1972. After settling near Thunder Bay, Ontario, Mantis worked as a carpenter and established his own construction company. A workplace injury in 1978 resulted in the loss of his left arm. Employment in vocational rehabilitation followed, including work as an employment services manager with the Ontario March of Dimes.
Mantis founded the Thunder Bay Injured Workers Support Group in 1984. Further organizational work led to the establishment of the Ontario Network of Injured Workers Groups and the Canadian Injured Workers Alliance (CIWA), the latter formed following the 1990 National Conference on Re-Employment of Injured Workers. Mantis served as CIWA’s national coordinator from 1996 to 2002, working to build collaboration among provincial groups and trade unions. From 1991 to 1994, Mantis was appointed to the Board of Directors of the Ontario Workers’ Compensation Board.
Additional public service included membership on local roads boards and representation of rural residents on the Lakehead Planning Board. Later efforts focused on education and social inclusion through the creation of the Speakers School in Thunder Bay, a program designed to support civic engagement among marginalized populations, including people with disabilities, First Nations and Métis individuals, single parents, and those living in poverty.
Awards recognizing Mantis’s contributions include the Judge George Ferguson Award for advancing disability rights, the Ron Ellis Award for work in workers’ compensation law, the Credit Union Central of Ontario Social Responsibility Award, and the Canada 125th Anniversary Medal for service to the community and country.
Sources:
- Injured Workers Online. Steve. https://injuredworkersonline.org/stories/steve/
- CIWA. Our History. https://www.ciwa.ca/our-history/
- Steve Mantis. www.stevemantis.ca
- Lakehead Archives. Canadian Injured Workers Alliance fonds. https://archives.lakeheadu.ca/index.php/canadian-injured-workers-alliance-fonds
- Wikipedia. Steve Mantis. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Mantis
As a faculty member at Lakehead University, Dennis McPherson was instrumental in establishing Native Studies/Indigenous Learning at Lakehead, and also in critiquing Lakehead's lack of support of Indigenous faculty and students.
He is well known for visibly protesting systemic racism at Lakehead University in 1995, first by camping on the lawn on campus near the administrative headquarters, and then by walking to Ottawa. This work also served as a research project under the title "Indian on the Lawn." Prior to this protest, he had co-created the first Indigenous philosophy course in Canada, and may have been the first Indigenous person to present a paper on Indigenous philosophy at an academic conference in Canada.
McPherson is Anishinaabe (Ojibwe), a member of the Couchiching First Nation at Fort Frances, Ontario.