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Jesse Thistle

Jesse Thistle is Métis/Cree/Scot from Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. In 1979, after some tragic circumstances within his nuclear family, he was taken in by his paternal grandparents in Brampton Ontario and grew up there. Jesse is happily married to the love of his life Lucie Pekarek-Thistle and is planning to have a family, fingers crossed. Jesse completed his undergraduate degree at York University, MA in History at the University of Waterloo and is currently pursuing a PhD at York University. Jesse is also a researcher and the National Representative for Indigenous Homelessness for the Canadian Observatory on Homelessness. Jesse was awarded the Governor General's Silver Medal in 2016 and is a Trudeau and Vanier Scholar.

His work involves researching and working with contemporary Métis communities that are suffering from the effects of intergenerational trauma - mainly the Batoche area of Saskatchewan and the Temiskaming of Northern Ontario. As a consumer survivor of the streets, jail system, and addictions, Jesse keenly understands through lived experience Canadian social injustice and works at helping in those areas when and where time permits.

Media Inquiries

thehub@edu.yorku.ca
416-736-2100 ext. 30208