Northwestern Ontario wrestles with fentanyl threats from within, and politics from without

On Nov. 18, 2020, Jeremy Johnson crashed his Dodge Ram pickup truck on the outskirts of Fort Frances, a border town of 7,500 in Northwestern Ontario.When police searched the accident scene, they found a jacket under the truck with a tote bag in the sleeve, wrapped around a plastic baggie. Inside was a brick of fentanyl weighing 448 grams – just five shy of a pound. As little as two milligrams of the drug, the equivalent of a few grains of salt, can be deadly for users with no tolerance for the drug.