At the same time, the people who come to Thunder Bay and deal drugs aren't always powerful themselves. I remember heartbreaking testimony from aToronto mom at her son's TBay bail hearing. She'd worked so hard to keep him out of gangs, she'd driven him to soccer, helped him with school... Also this:

Here is a link to a summary of the article in The Conversation, but the article itself is much richer and a very accessible read. theconversation.com/topics/thund...

The authors call the phenomenon street colonization, and invite us to explore the other ways that more powerful groups move in from bigger cities and take over local spaces. I can't help but see parallels with other spheres, beyond the drug trade.

I love everything about this story!

“we used to have a person who was paid to do this but now we have an online system which doesn’t work so every single employee of the university does this on top of their actual job”