Friends, colleagues and others who knew Jody Porter shared memories and messages of love, gratitude and admiration for the longtime CBC reporter.
The messages that remember Porter touch on her life, friendships and commitment to telling hard, necessary truths about residential schools and colonialism in Canada and their continuing impact on Indigenous peoples in Northern Ontario.
Porter, 50, died Tuesday after living with ovarian cancer for several years.
Michelle Desrosier, an Anishinaabe filmmaker and close friend of Porter’s, said she was drawn to her not only because of the stories she tells through her journalism, but how she holds and shares those stories.
“She became a safe place in the community early on for me as a member of the community, as a Native woman,” DeRozier said.
Michelle Desrosier, left, says her friend Porter, right, held and told stories with “grace, integrity and love.” In this May 2022 photo, the two work on Derosier’s upcoming clay film titled A Boy and His Loss, narrated by Porter. (Submitted by Michelle Derosier)
“As a storyteller, I often went to her in the early days of our relationship with stories, whether they were something that would become part of a story or there was just a story I wanted her to hold. would do that, and she would do it with such grace and integrity and love.”
Her early career
Raised in southern Ontario, Porter graduated from Centennial College with a degree in journalism. She spent a short stint as a journalist in the Northwest Territories before moving to Sioux Lookout, Ont., in 1998.
In Sioux Lookout, she was editor of the Wawatay Native Communications Society, an independent, self-governing media organization dedicated to telling the stories of the 49 First Nations that make up the Nishnawbe Aski Nation in Northern Ontario.
Garnet Angekoneb, an Anishinaabe elder and former journalist, was interim executive director at the time. Angeconeb recalls hiring Porter for the position “within hours, maybe even minutes” of her interview.
In a 2020 essay she wrote for Maisonneuve magazine, Porter said it was during this time that she began visiting First Nations in the region and “I got the education I was so missing.”
“I started covering stories from these communities: of homes without drinking water, overcrowded houses filled with disease, mold and anguish. For reserves without adequate schools. For boarding schools, the last of which was only recently closed,” she wrote in her essay.
Porter’s friends remember her as someone who was fun to be with and who had a great sense of humor and an infectious laugh. Wearing his bike jacket in this photo, Porter loved his motorcycle, being outdoors and spending time with friends and family. (Jodi Porter/Facebook)
It was a time when the Wawatay News faced many challenges just trying to stay afloat, but Porter’s work helped turn things around for the better, Angeconeb said.
“She was a gifted storyteller. She was a professional journalist in every way: firm, decisive, sincere, honest and sincere. She believed in what she was doing,” Angekoneb said in an email to CBC News.
Started with CBC in 2000
Porter moved to Thunder Bay in 2000 to continue this work for the CBC.
“She had a remarkable ability as a seer,” Derosier said, adding that she told stories that forced Canadians to confront their own history and the oppression of Indigenous peoples at a time when others either weren’t looking or were afraid to do so .
“As a settler and as a white woman in our communities, she wasn’t afraid of it. She stepped up to it with courage, long before anyone else really did. I know that I and many others have deep gratitude, respect and love for her for going to these places.”
While out of work due to cancer, Porter participated in events and interviews and wrote essays and academic articles to address racism in Thunder Bay, Ontario, and to improve the quality of journalism. She is pictured at right with First Nations Kukum Tina Munro, Michelle DeRozier and Ma-Nee Chakabi after the four spoke at a 2021 event in Thunder Bay on policing and safety in public places. (Submitted by Michelle Derosier)
Throughout her career, Porter has won numerous awards and accolades for her work on Indigenous issues and social justice in Northern Ontario.
In 2011, she won the Radio Television Digital News Association’s (RTDNA) Adrienne Clarkson Award for Diversity for her series Common Ground Café, which brought strangers together to cook a meal and discuss race relations in Thunder Bay. This was one of her many honors at RTDNA.
In 2013, the Anishinabek Nation awarded Porter a Debwewin Citation, one of the few non-Indigenous journalists to receive the honor for excellence in reporting on First Nations affairs. That same year she received a prestigious scholarship to Massey College.
Her reports were also cited by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada and two reports – the Office of the Director of Independent Police Review report on broken trust and the Murray Sinclair report to the Thunder Bay Police Service Board – which uncovered and documented detailed evidence on systemic racism in the Thunder Bay Police and Board of Supervisors.
A statement from Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) Grand Chief Derek Fox added: “Her exemplary reporting was highlighted during the 2015 investigation into the deaths of seven NAN youth, which was followed across Canada. She presented complex and painful issues with truth and accuracy and compassion. Her unflinching work presented the tragic circumstances surrounding these deaths and highlighted the challenges First Nations youth face as they pursue their education.”
Michael D’Souza worked closely with Porter as national assignments editor at the CBC before his retirement in 2016. They also became close friends.
“Her sources were impeccable,” D’Souza said. “Jodie had a way of getting people to talk to her, like she was open and listening. She didn’t tell them what to say – she listened very carefully and empathized with them.
“When people talk to you as a journalist, they’re entrusting you with their life story, and a lot of what she wrote wasn’t nice. To be honest, it was downright evil. And yet people would tell her all the hurt and pain she had. There were happy things she wrote about, but she always listened and then took what they gave her, that precious commodity, and weaved a story.
As for her journalism, D’Souza said, “She doesn’t preach. She showed how it’s done, and in the end she just showed how to do it better.”
Shared stories from their own lives
Porter also uses her journalistic toolkit to share parts of her own life and her own story. In 2004, she produced the award-winning radio documentary Between Friends about her own experiences as a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by her father.
Neil Sandel co-produced the piece with Porter, who he called “the bravest journalist” he’s ever known in a recent memorial posted on Medium, for her willingness to be vulnerable and go to dark places others wouldn’t.
In his 2004 Third Coast Award acceptance speech, Porter shared what it’s like to be on the other side of the microphone, Sandel said.
“She says, ‘It’s the humanity you bring to the process at the beginning, middle and end that matters.'”
Porter also spoke to the then-named Ryerson Review of Journalism about her own internal conversation—between mind and body—as she came to terms with a cancer diagnosis in 2017 that put her work on pause.
While he was focused on healing and being with his family and friends, Porter told the Press Review, “I think it, in a weird way, gave me an incredible opportunity that a lot of people in our business don’t have, and that’s the break. The pause to reflect on what we are doing. Does it make sense. Does it have value. Is it a healthy thing.
In recent interviews, essays and academic papers, Porter has been critical of her own reporting as she explores questions about the purpose of journalism, how it has changed and how it can be better.
Canada owes a great debt to the former https://t.co/9ct2DLL7Mq
—@TanyaTalaga
Porter returned to work for the CBC in July 2020 before learning just a few months later that her cancer had returned.
During this time, in an interview with Canadaland, Porter spoke about the limitations of journalism. Speaking about her decades of coverage of the lack of clean drinking water in First Nations, she called for journalism to go beyond simply raising awareness of the issues.
“I just don’t see that awareness can be what we’re looking for here. It doesn’t work,” she said.
“The act of telling and writing stories is a kind of magic, and I believe that because they are so powerful and have the potential to heal, we need to get better at it.”
Porter died on the day he turned 50, July 19.
For the past few months, Jody Porter has been working on one last radio documentary. Listen to it here:
Superior Morning28:52 Tribute to Jodie Porter PART 2: ‘What you believe in will get you through’
The second part of our tribute to longtime CBC Thunder Bay reporter Jody Porter, who died this week at age 50. Listen to her latest documentary, What You Believe Will Carry You.
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