Senator to probe Thunder Bay police board
Respected former head of reconciliation panel to examine dealings with Indigenous groups
Sen. Murray Sinclair, the respected former chair of Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, will lead an investigation into Thunder Bay’s embattled police board.
The Ontario Civilian Police Commission, a quasi-judicial agency that oversees all police boards in the province, announced Sinclair’s appointment Monday. In a statement, the commission said it has “serious concerns about the state of civilian police oversight and public confidence in the delivery of police services in Thunder Bay.” This announcement was welcome news for Indigenous leaders, advocates and Thunder Bay citizens. The city has been rocked by a series of crises: both its mayor and police chief are facing charges, and the police service and board are both under investigation.
Racial tensions in the city are also high after the deaths of two Indigenous teens in May, and the July 4 death of Barbara Kentner, a 34-year-old mother who was hospitalized for months after being hit in the stomach by a metal trailer hitch as she walked down a Thunder Bay street.
“Those of us who have had the honour and privilege to work with Murray Sinclair, we believe in his ability to do a thorough job and fulfil the mandate given to him by the OCPC,” said Alvin Fiddler, grand chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political organization of 49 First Nations in northern Ontario.
Fiddler was manager of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s regional and Ontario liaisons. The commission documented the painful 150-year history of Canada’s residential school system, which took 150,000 Indigenous children away from their families.
“We believe in (Murray Sinclair’s) ability to do a thorough job and fulfil the mandate given to him.” ALVIN FIDDLER GRAND CHIEF, NISHNAWBE ASKI NATION
Sinclair was appointed head of the commission in 2009.
The Ontario Civilian Police Commission — which, along with Sinclair, was not conducting interviews Monday — said in the statement that it has concerns with the police board’s ability to address matters raised by Indigenous leaders relating to “a recent series of deaths of Indigenous youths and the quality of the investigations into these deaths conducted by the Thunder Bay Police Service.”
The police service is currently under investigation for allegations of “systemic racism” by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) regarding how the force handles Indigenous death and disappearance cases.
Julian Falconer, the lawyer who represented Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) during an inquest into the deaths of seven Indigenous students who lost their lives while at school in Thunder Bay from 2000 to 2011, called Sinclair’s appointment an important step. Three of those students were found in rivers and their cause of death was ruled undetermined by a coroner’s jury last summer.
Sinclair’s investigation will neither interfere with nor duplicate the review being carried out by the OIPRD, or any related police or coroner’s investigations. The commission also said it is concerned with police “board representatives stating that the public’s concerns about systemic racism existing within the service and the quality of the service’s investigations are without basis.”
The commission’s statement noted the recent criminal accusations against Thunder Bay police Chief J.P. Levesque, who was charged with breach of trust and obstruction of justice in May. He is now on leave.
Sinclair’s investigation will probe the board’s performance in carrying out its responsibilities to ensure “adequate and effective” police services. He will also examine the board’s role in determining “objectives and priorities with respect to police services” in Thunder Bay and its role in establishing policies for the effective management of the police.
In addition, the probe will examine the board’s role in ensuring that police service in the city complies with the Police Services Act, specifically the importance of “safeguarding the fundamental rights guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and the Human Rights Code.”
An interim report is to be released on Oct. 31, with a final report expected by March 31, 2018.
Racial tensions are heightened in the city after the recent deaths of two Indigenous teens. Both Tammy Keeash and Josiah Begg disappeared on the night of May 6.
Keeash, a 17-year-old high school student from North Caribou Lake First Nation, missed her curfew that night and her body was discovered on May 7, lying in shallow waters.
Begg, a 14-year-old from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, vanished while he was in town for medical appointments. He was found dead in the McIntyre River on May18 after an intensive community search.
Ontario’s chief coroner, Dr. Dirk Huyer, announced last month that York Regional Police would be brought in to investigate the deaths of Keeash and Begg.
Last Friday, Ontario Provincial Police charged Thunder Bay Mayor Keith Hobbs, a former police officer, with extortion and obstruction of justice in connection with an investigation into “allegations of criminal wrongdoing that include a municipal official and local resident.” The OPP alleges that Hobbs, 65, his wife, Marisa, 53, and a third person, Mary Voss, 46, attempted to induce a prominent local lawyer “to purchase a house (for Voss) by threats, accusations or menaces of disclosing criminal allegations to the police, thereby committing extortion,” court documents show.
Hobbs’s lawyer, Brian Greenspan, told the Star on Friday that his client denies the charges. Hobbs and his wife’s obstruction charges are both related to their alleged attempt to interfere with an investigation into an allegation of extortion reported to the RCMP, court documents show. Hobbs is now on paid leave.
The charges have not been proven in court. But they are the latest in a series of criminal and civil allegations that also saw prominent lawyer Sandy Zaitzeff arrested on sexualassault charges late last year.