Thunder Bay police chief charged with breach of trust

J.P. Levesque’s charges follow five-month-long investigation

The Ontario Provincial Police have charged Thunder Bay Police Service Chief J.P. Levesque with breach of trust and obstructing justice.

The charges follow a five-month long investigation into “allegations of criminal wrongdoing,” the OPP said Tuesday.

The RCMP O-Division requested the OPP “conduct an external, independent and thorough investigation,” which was conducted by OPP’s Criminal Investigation Branch.

The release did not state what spurred the RCMP to request the investigation nor the circumstances that led to charges being laid against 53-year-old Levesque, who has served as Thunder Bay’s police chief since July 2011.

In a media release, the Thunder Bay Police Services Board said it was aware of the charges but it had “to date limited information regarding the nature of these charges,” adding that Levesque is on medical leave.

“The public can be assured that the members of the Thunder Bay Police Service will continue to serve and protect our community,” the release said. “We have full confidence in Deputy Chief Hauth and our Senior Command staff to lead the TBPS through this challenging time.”

Both the OPP and the police board said they will not comment further because the case is before the courts.

Levesque is scheduled to appear in a Thunder Bay court on June 13.

The charges come as the Office of the Independent Police Review Directorate, a provincial watchdog, is examining the police force for “systematic racism” in its handling of cases of murdered and missing indigenous people after complaints by First Nations leaders. In particular, the review is focusing on police investigations into the deaths of 41year-old Stacey DeBungee, whose body was found in the Thunder Bay river in 2015 and those of seven indigenous students who died in the city between 2000 and 2011. The review was recently expanded to include the disappearances and deaths of a 17-year-old girl and 14-year-old boy this month.

In eight of those deaths, the bodies were recovered from city rivers.

Lawyer Julian Falconer, who is representing the DeBungee family, Nishnawbe Aski Nation and Chief James Leonard of Rainy River First Nations in the review, told the Star on Tuesday that Levesque is entitled to the presumption of innocence, but charges aside, indigenous communities’ confidence in Thunder Bay police has turned into an “an utter catastrophe.”