Leith Dunick

Leith Dunick focuses on road safety and law enforcement stories that affect drivers, combining breaking coverage of highway conditions, collisions and traffic enforcement with broader local news across Northwestern Ontario. He is Dougall Media's director of news and has edited Thunder Bay Source for 16 years, bringing long experience to his automobile and public safety beat.

Road safety and highway enforcement

Dunick’s coverage of automobiles centres on how roads, policing and infrastructure intersect for everyday drivers. In his reporting on an Ontario Provincial Police week-long traffic blitz, he highlights proactive enforcement aimed at speeding, impaired driving and other high-risk behaviours, framing the campaign around its impact on safety for motorists. He regularly tracks highway conditions, including updates when Highway 17 was closed and later reopened near Dinorwic after a serious incident, giving readers clear information on closures, detours and reopening times. His story on a cyclist airlifted to hospital after being struck by a pickup truck in Fort Frances similarly prioritises the mechanics of the collision, the condition of those involved and police requests for witnesses, all of which are central to understanding risk on local roads. When police seek public help recovering a stolen side-by-side and trailer, he details the vehicle, the circumstances of the theft and the investigative steps, reinforcing his focus on the intersection of property crime and transportation.

Across these pieces, Dunick’s automobile reporting is practical and time-sensitive. Headlines are straightforward and descriptive—such as “Cyclist airlifted to hospital in Thunder Bay” and “Police seek help recovering stolen side-by-side and trailer”—signalling quickly what happened, where, and how it affects people using the road network. The emphasis is on usable information: what drivers need to know about enforcement campaigns, collisions and stolen vehicles, and how police are asking the public to respond.

Police and public safety coverage

Beyond specific vehicle incidents, Dunick reports extensively on police activity and public safety, often where law enforcement decisions shape how people move through the region. His coverage of OPP seeking two suspects near Ignace sets out who police are looking for, the nature of the investigation and the geographic area of concern, effectively mapping law enforcement activity onto the road and community grid. In a story where police spot a person breaching release conditions and lay drug trafficking charges, he works through the initial observation, the subsequent stop and the resulting charges, clarifying how routine patrol work escalated into a major enforcement action.

This thread continues in pieces on OPP busting a Lake Helen man and seizing drugs and weapons, in which he catalogues the items seized and the “multitude of charges” laid, and in coverage of threats that led to an arrest in Saugeen First Nation, where the focus is on the charges and the sequence of events that brought police to act. He also reports on attempted break and enter arrests and on missing persons cases where police later locate the individual, again giving readers a clear timeline of police notices and follow-up. Across these stories, public safety is treated as a day-to-day beat: Dunick documents what police are doing, why they are doing it and what it means for residents’ sense of security, including those travelling by car through these communities.

Community fundraising, lotteries and local initiatives

Alongside enforcement and safety, Dunick covers community events that often tie back to mobility and vehicles but foreground the human impact. His reporting on a Thunder Bay woman winning a $1.73-million 50/50 draw explains the draw mechanics, timelines and the scale of the prize, situating the windfall within a wider fundraising effort. A follow-up piece on Thunder Bay 50/50 winners who “still can’t believe their luck” shifts to personal stories, showing how large lottery prizes change individual circumstances while supporting local causes. Earlier, he has written about classic car clubs donating $10,000 to Camp Quality, using the event—the sixth annual poker run—to connect enthusiasts, vehicles and charitable giving.

He extends that community focus to initiatives like a local dental office planning to give away $1,000 a month for ten months to individuals or families in need, covering the mechanics of the program and its intent to reach people who might otherwise fall through the cracks. These stories show a complementary side of his beat: the same roads and vehicles that appear in collision and enforcement coverage also serve as backdrops for charity rides, lottery campaigns and grassroots support programs. Dunick’s writing keeps the spotlight on participants and beneficiaries, with clear, economical explanations of how each initiative works.

Sports and regional competitions

Dunick’s local lens also extends into sports, particularly where youth and regional identity are at stake. His coverage of about 600 athletes taking part in the NWOSSA track and field championships notes that students from schools across the region are competing for spots in the provincial high school championships, framing the event as a key stepping stone in the athletic pathway. In a story on four Northwestern Ontario players taken in the OHL draft, he highlights the individual players and the significance of their selection for the region’s hockey community.

While these pieces sit slightly apart from his automobile-focused stories, they share a consistent approach: short, direct accounts that identify who is involved, what milestone or event they are reaching, and how it connects to the broader community. Taken together with his police and road safety reporting across NWO Newswatch, SN Newswatch and TBNewsWatch, they reflect a journalist whose beat is grounded in the everyday movement of people—on highways, in arenas and through local institutions—and whose work is shaped by long-standing editorial leadership within Dougall Media.