CBC Thunder Bay Executive Producer honoured with award

By Rick Garrick

THUNDER BAY—CBC Thunder Bay executive producer Michael Dick was recently presented with CBC’s Community Builder award by CBC president Hubert Lacroix for the I Am Indigenous cross-platform project.

“It’s a really big honour,” says the Fort William citizen, noting that the 20 nominees for the award, from CBC stations across Canada, voted for the best project. “And I Am Indigenous was the best project, so it’s a huge honour. It was a really great day.”

Lacroix flew in to Thunder Bay to present the award to Dick on Nov. 9.

“It’s an honour to be in Thunder Bay to present the Community Builder Award to Michael,” Lacroix says. “The I Am Indigenous project is a great example of how we are building bridges between communities and creating opportunities to reflect their diversity. This project nurtured an online dialogue within the Indigenous community, and the population as a whole, and that’s something to be proud of. As the public broadcaster, we want to create a deeper connection with Canadians and provide content that is important to them, on every platform, on every device they own.”

Lacroix also presented CBC Thunder Bay reporter Jody Porter with the Innovator Award. Fort William Chief Peter Collins and Elder Victor Pelletier also participated in the awards ceremony.

“The Community Builder [Award] is for projects that help mend and bridge the gaps in our communities across Canada,” Dick says. “It’s nice to be recognized for something that is about building bridges and building a positive view of Indigenous people. It’s a really big feather in the cap for the station, not just me. It’s a team effort and I think that is really important to note. Although my name is on it, we all did it together.”

The I Am Indigenous project featured seven Indigenous leaders from across Ontario speaking about the challenges they face within their communities. The project is located online.

“There had been so much coverage of things in the media that were negative about Indigenous people that we wanted to have an opportunity to celebrate some of the good things,” Dick says. “Stations all across Ontario teamed up to profile seven people within different communities, different walks of life with different goals, but all tied by their deep pride in being Indigenous and wanting to make a difference in their communities.”

The I Am Indigenous profiles were featured on National Aboriginal Day over a variety of platforms, including television, radio, and online.

“Well over a million people viewed, listened or heard some of the coverage from it that day,” Dick says. “What started as a small idea to do one [feature] here in Thunder Bay grew into a national project.”

Dick says the CBC Thunder Bay contribution to the project was a feature on Raylah Moonias and her transition into her new life.

“We profiled her, we profiled athletes, we profiled police officers, we profiled just people doing remarkable things,” Dick says. “They look like average people but they are doing stuff that is significantly important.”

The I Am Indigenous Project was also promoted on social media, which sparked an online dialogue not only within the community, but with the population as a whole.

“We’ve really switched ourselves into being a digital-first station,” Dick says. “We know that there are communities up north, Pikangikum, Webequie, and Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug that are getting us now on Facebook and getting us now on Twitter. Every day we are getting more people liking our page and we are connecting people. My big goal is to connect everyone in the north to Thunder Bay and to the region.”