Two people really know the bear suit guy.
What comprises a legend or folk hero? Troy Hurtubise fits the bill. There are facts and fiction within his tale.
He is indeed one. He has many monikers. Recent history identifies him as the “bear man,” and “RoboCop” from the 1987 movie and the “indestructible man.” He is also known as Canada's Don Quixote (acting in a chivalrous but impractical way, guided by lofty ideals rather than reality).
For a period of time, he gained notoriety as the wildly eccentric inventor obsessed with developing an armoured grizzly bear protection suit.
In part one last week, we found out that he spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and much of his adult life coming up with various versions of a protective grizzly bear suit that looked like a cross between RoboCop and the Michelin Man.
He achieved fame, not fortune and was featured in the 1996 National Film Board (NFB) cult-classic movie Project Grizzly by Peter Lynch, who received a Genie award nomination for this filmmaking. It is the 30th anniversary of the cult classic. Homer Simpson even parodied the bear suit guy on an episode of The Simpsons.
But you really should watch the movie and read Part One.
But beneath it all was a deeply troubled man who fought with depression, failure and financial problems and very well might have deliberately killed himself.
Two resources share their thoughts on a complex individual. To authenticate the bear suit guy, you must dig deeper. There’s so much Google information on Troy Hurtubise, plenty of video clips that create a myth. It must be separated.
In Part two the real Troy Hurtubise emerges. An interview format is utilized.
Project Grizzly
The first contact gives real insight into who Troy really was from a working perspective.
Hurtubise's work on the bear suit was chronicled in the 1996 NFB documentary Project Grizzly, directed by Peter Lynch, which followed his relentless prototyping and testing process. The film became a cult classic, praised for capturing Troy’s eccentric determination.
Within the 72-minute film, you see Troy with his fringed buckskin jacket and ostentatious red beret. His swagger or bravado is featured. There’s the classic clip where, in the foreground, Troy lights a cigarette with a blowtorch after a fiery test of the bear suit in the background.
We tend to know entertainment and sports heroes, not so much our Canadian scientists and film directors like Norman Jewison, Sarah Polley (Academy Award) and James Cameron (Titanic) from Kapuskasing. The journeyman director, Peter Lynch, is a Genie Award recipient and a multiple nominee for his film work. He is the director and writer of the documentary films Project Grizzly, The Herd and Cyberman. He spent a great deal of time working beside Troy.
Back Roads Bill: How did you first meet Troy and then pitch the concept of a documentary film? At the time, had you heard about him and thought this was too unique to pass up?
“I first learned about Troy Hurtubise at the INPUT TV Conference in San Sebastián, Spain, in June 1995, where National Film Board producer Michael Allder, who had just seen my short film Arrowhead, thought I might be interested in Troy as a subject, and we began talking about Troy and his quest.
“From the very beginning, he struck me as a paradoxical, modern-day Don Quixote: a working-class inventor and adventurer attempting something heroic, irrational, and deeply mythic.
“When I returned from Spain, I went up to North Bay to meet him. The first thing Troy showed me was a prototype of the arm of the Ursus Mark VI suit. One of his associates immediately began hitting the arm with a weight-lifting bar to demonstrate its strength.
"On the ground beside him, I noticed a box for water wings, which Troy had ingeniously repurposed inside the arm for additional insulation. I loved the resourcefulness and homemade ingenuity of it all. I did a pre-interview with him, which I filmed, and that became the basis for my shooting strategy.
"It wasn’t simply that Troy was unusual. What struck me immediately was that his quest already functioned as a myth in motion, a confrontation with the impossible that spoke to something archetypal in the Canadian experience and, more broadly, to a universal longing for meaning and purpose. That became the foundation of the pitch. I decided early on that I wanted to shoot the film more like a western than a conventional PBS-style journalistic documentary.”
Back Roads Bill: Who is Troy?
“Maybe he has a touch of Evel Knievel in him, as Troy put it, a little Jacques Cousteau. There’s part of him which is also part inventor, part performance artist who creates these bear suits to be tested at different extremes to prove his bravery and guile in mythic terms like an errant knight getting ready to slay the dragon and suiting up for a mythic quest.
Back Roads Bill: The award-winning film has been viewed in many ways. What was your original intent in capturing all of this?
“From the outset, my intent was to make a film about testing boundaries both personal and cinematic. Project Grizzly was conceived as a science-fiction, action, wilderness adventure film with a serious documentary subtext, deliberately crossing genres rather than staying within the conventions of traditional documentary.”
Back Roads Bill: Your relationship?
“Troy and I had a relationship similar to what a dramatic filmmaker would have with an actor. We talked about motivation, what he was going to wear, and what story we were going to tell in each scene. This approach blurred the boundaries of fact and fiction, but at the same time, the end result produces a documentary reality with a different level of truth that cannot be located through conventional journalistic approaches.
“I wasn’t interested in simply recording events. I wanted to film Troy’s inner psychological and mythological landscape: his obsessions, fears, fantasies, and heroic self-image. The film steps outside conventional facts in order to arrive at a larger truth, where imagination, myth, and reality collide. In the end, I wanted audiences to question how much of Troy’s story actually happened, and how much existed in his imagination.”
Back Roads Bill: Looking back, just about thirty years, your thoughts on your early work, and of who Troy was/is?
“Looking back, I wanted to tell the story of a guy working in scrap metal in North Bay who decided to put his plans and dreams to the test. It was my first feature, and I could see early on that the story had mythic dimensions, though I had no idea how big the response would be. I wanted to use all the tools of cinema to tell the story as dramatically as possible.”
Back Roads Bill: There became then a “ah-ha moment?”
“What started to emerge was a cultural archetype in a country that often struggles to articulate its own myths. Troy wasn’t just a subject; he became a Canadian folk hero, embodying working-class dreams, obsession, vulnerability, invention, and resistance to institutional authority.
“Troy was and remains a mass of contradictions: inspired and obsessed, heroic and self- punishing, sensitive and inscrutable. His greatest fear, by his own admission, was being bored or average. That tension is central to the film, and it continues to resonate.”
Back Roads Bill: Troy’s personality?
“Troy has always been drawn to what he calls 'finding the edge.' That meant danger, frustration, anticipation, and emotional volatility, all of which surface in the final quarter of the film. The production itself was physically and psychologically extreme: long days, severe cold, dangerous logistics, injuries, damaged equipment, and a growing Lord of the Flies energy among the crew. Troy was running out of cigarettes and cream for his coffee, which only added to the strain.
"All of this intensified Troy’s anxiety and disappointment as the suit was literally hauled up the mountain. That moment captures the heart of the film for me: the collision between obsession, exhaustion, dreams, and reality, and the possibility that the quest might not deliver what was imagined.
Back Roads Bill: What about that scene, one among many, that caught my attention in the movie - the derelict drive-in theatre shot and the RoboCop image on a screen in the background?
“The RoboCop reference was entirely intentional. Troy’s suit designs were partly inspired by science-fiction movie imagery, and I was interested in placing that futuristic fantasy against abandoned, decaying popular-culture landscapes. I saw it as a boulevard of broken dreams, where nostalgia, pop culture, and the realities of the northern Ontario frontier collide.
“The location near Sudbury also reflected the theatrical side of Troy’s personality and the blurring of these lines. Those images speak to how Hollywood myth, technology, and fantasy are projected onto the Canadian wilderness. Troy is constantly building his own mythology from the cultural debris around him, and that visual contrast became a key part of the film’s language.
Back Roads Bill: And the challenges?
“There was also a delirium to making this film. We were all on this quest together.
"Instead of watching Hollywood films on a Friday night, Troy and his men met at Country Style, suited up, and headed to the dumps in Mattawa to get up close with black bears, or to practice tests of endurance and bravery: getting hit by pickup trucks or throwing himself off the Hamilton-Niagara escarpment like an errant knight preparing to confront the dragon.
Back Roads Bill: Any other thoughts...so many years later?
"For me, Project Grizzly remains a film about mapping personal boundaries: identity, masculinity, obsession, myth, and cinema itself. It deliberately pushes the line between documentary and fiction, fact and imagination. What surprised me most was how deeply it entered pop culture, being spoofed on The Simpsons and referenced as a touchstone for extreme behaviour.
"I think the film still resonates because it’s about obsession and the desire to be seen. It speaks to concealed dreams and asks a simple but unsettling question: why are we so drawn to people who are willing to suffer in pursuit of meaning? Troy’s willingness to suit up, endure punishment, and confront the impossible reflects something deeply familiar: the desire to make an imprint, to live authentically, and to resist a world that feels increasingly sanitized and constrained.
“At its heart, Project Grizzly has grown into a reflection on the psychological need for risk, the construction of personal myth, and the search for meaning in a spiritually hollow, bureaucratic world. The grizzly bear functions less as an animal than as a totemic presence, a symbol of fear, otherness, and transcendence. The confrontation becomes a metaphor for confronting the self. On some levels, there was an Oedipal tension that I sometimes felt was connected with Troy’s uneasy relationship with his father, whom he at once idolized and feared.
"The film engages with masculinity and vulnerability, working-class invention and ingenuity, obsession and transcendence, and the tension between myth and reality.
“Nature operates as both a mythic and psychological landscape. Over time, Project Grizzly has come to define a rare Canadian cultural archetype, reclaiming myth-making in a culture often overshadowed by U.S. narratives, and expanding the boundaries of what documentary cinema can be.”
Back Roads Bill: What did Troy think?
"Troy had told me countless times that he loved the film. You have to understand that different aspects of his personality emerged during its making. One part of him is a showman and a storyteller. Of course, audiences might laugh at some of his actions, which are undeniably extreme, but the film is never condescending or designed to make fun of him. These are all things Troy willingly chose to portray and act out.
“Many journalists have asked him, 'Why do you do this?' and he would often respond, 'It’s research for the bears.' That response reflects one limitation of this kind of inquiry into Troy: he presents what he wants people to take away. The truth, however, is far more complicated. People often bait him into saying things like this, implying that audiences are laughing at him or not taking him seriously, and he can get drawn into a soundbite. Sure, you can spin it for conversation or clickbait, but the reality is much more complex.
“Troy would tell me the film is great, but he wished it focused more on his bear research and the scientific side. The restraint in this part was intentional: to protect him and to hint that there is something more profound and validating behind his quest, something beautiful in a uniquely Canadian way, even if it may seem to the uninitiated somewhat crazy.”
Back Roads Bill: Examples of Troy’s complexities?
“Consider Troy’s methods: getting beaten up by bikers, throwing himself off the escarpment, being hit by pickup trucks and logs. Let's face it, this is not conventional bear research; it’s about something else he wants to convey, another type of reality about his life and inner world. Project Grizzly is a story about his quest, and this rumination reveals a far more complex and nuanced version of Troy’s reality than simply recording his pitch, which may or may not tell the whole truth. It takes a more mythic approach, where it steps outside the conventional facts and ruminates on the larger story.
“Sometimes, his inner truth emerges in moments of confession, like the scene when he throws knives against the tree. These moments capture feelings and emotions that express the complexity of Troy’s world and reality, revealing his dreams, aspirations and fears, showing something deeper behind his larger-than-life persona.”
I lucked out with this very detailed and intense interview and came away, as you will, with more understanding of a person's complexity. Troy was indeed multifaceted, shaped by biology, psychology, and society. I began to accept his strengths and flaws, acknowledging that his actions stem from layers of past events and influences and can't be simply explained.
Read some of the documentary’s reviews here.
There will be an anniversary screening of Project Grizzly in Toronto on Sunday, Jan. 25, at the Hot Docs in Ted Rogers Cinema.
Troy was complex enough.
The son
There was more to learn, though. Who better than Troy’s now-grown-up son?
Brett Hurtubise was four years old when the documentary was released.
Upon meeting, he started with, “My stories and details can fill in some of the gaps, but I was so young when the movie came out, so having Peter will really flesh out the beginning of it all.”
This second interview would peel back more layers of Troy’s persona.
Back Roads Bill: When did you realize or appreciate what your dad was up to?
“I was too young to realize what was happening during Project Grizzly, though it was big enough in 96’ to follow me through grade school. There were times when it would come up in class, or a teacher would mention it, or it would be shown at a school in Hamilton where my cousins went, and I’d hear about that. It made me feel good, it was interesting.
“I would say around the age of twelve, I began to understand more about what he was doing and looked forward to the days he would have a media company or Discovery channel come up to film for the day or the week. It was always so exciting to me. It was so out of the ordinary and special, it had a serious impact on me and has followed me through life. I quickly grow bored of the mundane and search for something that makes me feel like those moments used to.” Troy would say the same in the movie.
Back Roads Bill: Examples of interactions with your dad?
“An example of interactions between my father and me? Explosively violent to overwhelmingly positive, there was no middle ground. As I grew up, my father and I connected more, and our relationship grew, but I’d say the early years were lukewarm at best.
“I don’t think he really knew how to be a father, or how to connect with his only son, but we found common ground later in life and made up for lost time. I wish I’d had more time with him like that, but I’m glad to have anything at all. We could speak for hours, long conversations late into the night. We spent days together driving around the city, working on innovations or plotting our next big move- it was easy to get caught up with him. He was sporadic and emotional, often leaping off the couch at odd hours to maybe follow an idea we were talking about or impulsively making a purchase. When he was on, he was on, and nothing could stand in his way, and where he walked, men followed. And then there was the other Troy.”
Back Roads Bill: What would you like people to appreciate from your father's persistence?
“Beyond it all, he had a selfish desire to live and experience life his own way, and he was very successful at this. He had many opportunities for success, and when he didn’t, he made his own. Few people can appreciate how many times he was onto something only to have it fall apart, sometimes through his own error and at other times it was the people he surrounded himself with, but he was always able to find a way back. Always able to recoup what he lost and somehow come out seemingly unscathed.
"There was a passion deep inside him that demanded that he live life his own way and on his terms, and through this, he was able to realize a unique life with genuine opportunities. He would never be satisfied with the mundane or what people would call a normal existence. He was an outlier, a trailblazer, someone that didn’t just go off the beaten path but maybe someone who could never leave it.”
Back Roads Bill: Looking back, your thoughts and feelings?
“Looking back on his life, my thoughts and feelings? Mixed.
"I was angry for a lot of years after he died, and only after years of that did I begin to reconcile my issues with him through writing and with the help of my best friend. Through the years, I’ve been contacted by people asking about him, people wanting to do interviews or movies and that helped see my father in a different light.
"After getting most of his archival footage digitized and working on the Instagram for a year, which devolved into a cathartic journal of sorts, I moved on to YouTube, and since then, I’ve decided to take his legacy and build from it. It seems too much of a waste, too many years, too many highs and lows to just let it all disappear. I guess as of now, I’m the one who picked up the torch and intend to carry on where he left off, in a sense, to move forward and attempt to realize everything he dreamed of.
Brett said Troy was never diagnosed, but he points to many concussions and other mental illness disorders that were factors attributed to behaviour.
Finally
Beyond the bear suit, Hurtubise invented a range of unconventional devices from his garage workshop in North Bay, as outlined in Part One. He had vision.
On June 17, 2018, at about 1 p.m., Hurtubise was travelling on a clear stretch of Highway 17, west of North Bay, in broad daylight, when his Chevy Cavalier car switched lanes, collided head-on with a transport double trailer carrying fuel, sparking an explosion. It took several days to positively identify his remains from dental records. He very well might have deliberately killed himself by swerving into the other lane. He was 54.
It is known from an interview with the Toronto Star and his wife, Lori, that he had been distraught.
“Two weeks before, Troy moved out of his home and was living with his mother “because he was struggling with personal issues in his life,” Lori said.
On the day of the collision, he dropped by his home. Thinking Lori was inside, but not coming to the door, he broke a window of the door to get in.
“He must have come in and seen that no one was there, and he left to go on the highway, and the accident happened literally 20 minutes later,” she said. “I don’t think it was anger as much as desperation; he was trying to reach out and not knowing what to do.
“I know he was struggling these last couple of years just with life in general,” she said. His last protection suit was in a pawnshop, a funding drive for a sequel film was not working out, and various other inventions were going nowhere commercially.”
Upon his death, the Globe and Mail reported: “Troy Hurtubise combined the fevered imagination of a mad scientist with the foolhardy bravery of Evel Knievel in his quest to design a suit impervious to bear attack… He was a backwoods Don Quixote convinced of his scientific acumen, a Captain Ahab whose white whale was Ursus arctos horribilis. As with those fictional characters, he, too, was ultimately doomed by his compulsion.”
There is more now to know on Brett’s YouTube channel, which is a work in progress called In Search of an Answer.
“A very niche, throwback kind of channel where I explore both my father and me, his life and how I remember it all. A place to set the record straight. He isn’t even mentioned in the title of a video for almost a year. It deals with the often-difficult father-son relationship, legacy and what we’re left with after a loved one dies. The early videos had a lot of existential talk, life and the meaning of it all, but it is slowly evolving as I do into something more hopeful and uplifting."
There are plans for merchandise.
“The plans have always been simple in terms of shirts, hats, pins and stickers as well as some larger works of art. I love the idea of blending his past into the art, as well as throwing in some obscure references few, if any, would get. We’ve got several concepts laid out as we incorporate this Canadian cult icon fusion with some metal undertones, with the hope that you see these shirts and hats popping up all over at concerts with all these wild but very real stories to go with the product. These will be for people that love to tell a story through their clothing.”
You can see one of the three remaining renditions of the bear suit at the Canadian Hock Exchange store in Sudbury. Owner Rob Boucher, who owns three stores, has had this in his possession for more than a dozen years.
“It’s the best advertising I have; people come in and have their photo taken with it.” It is a collectible for him, and many offers have been turned down.
For me, I got stuck on this story; it had to be told beyond the multitude of past accounts. It was more than just a curtain call, an acknowledgement. I had to peel back the curtain, the layers - there was much more beneath than the proverbial entertainment featured in most of Troy’s stories.
Listen to Brett being interviewed on the Back Roads Bill podcast and next week with Peter Lynch on the same site.
It is best to read his entire obituary for a summary - read the Tribute Wall.
“…He will be forever remembered for his determined outlook on life, and his willingness to forge a path uniquely his own; a path without refute or deviation for a goal, a goal that, to him, was all there ever was. Troy will always be remembered for his vivid imagination, wild ideas and maverick persona…”
Troy’s greatest fear? “Monotony,” he told the documentary filmmaker Peter Lynch. “Being bored. Being average.”
His imagination was real enough. And beyond the average, Troy James Hurtubise remains an enigma.
