City meets, mourns after another Indigenous death
Cop watchdog probing alleged racism in Thunder Bay says investigation ‘unprecedented’
THUNDER BAY— Sometimes the sorrow seems endless, but the city of Thunder Bay came together on Monday at an unprecedented meeting to express their thoughts on racism, policing and fear in their community.
The body of Dylan Moonias, a 21year-old First Nations man, was pulled from the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway in Thunder Bay on Saturday, according to Pearl Achneepineskum. His body has been flown to Toronto for a post-mortem.
“The worst part is the unknown. Not knowing what happened,” Achneepineskum said from her home in Ogoki Post, Marten Falls First Nation, about 500 kilometres north of Thunder Bay on the Albany River.
Achneepineskum is the sister of Chanie Wenjack, who was 12 years old when he ran away from the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora in October 1966,only to be found frozen to death on the railway tracks as he tried to walk home, a journey of nearly 1,000 kilometres.
Chanie Wenjack is the inspiration behind musician Gord Downie’s multimedia project, Secret Path, which includes an album and graphic novel.
Moonias — the grandson of Pearl’s sister, Lizzie — had recently just returned from Agnes Wenjack’s funeral in Geraldton, Ont. Agnes, who died Sept. 1, was the mother of Chanie, who inspired a generation of Canadians 50 years after his death to learn about Canada’s devastating residential school history.
The discovery of Moonias’ body came just days before the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) held a public meeting in Thunder Bay Monday night to discuss its ongoing investigation into allegations of systemic racism into the policies, practices and attitudes of the Thunder Bay Police Service as they relate to death and missing per- son investigations involving Indigenous people.
OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly told the crowd of nearly 200 people that the investigation they were conducting was “unprecedented” in scope and breadth. The OIPRD review, which began last November, was prompted by a complaint by the family of Stacy DeBungee, a Rainy River First Nation man whose body was discovered in the river in 2015.
Both DeBungee’s family and Rainy River Chief Jim Leonard felt his death was not properly investigated and the police were too quick to dismiss the case with no foul play suspected. Private investigators later discovered DeBungee’s bank card was used hours after his death.
Questions about how the police handle missing persons and death investigations have been swirling since the deaths of seven First Nations students who died from 2000 to 2011 while living hundreds of kilometres from home so they could attend high school. An inquest into the students’ deaths wrapped up at the end of June 2016 and 145 recommendations were made on how to, among other things, make Thunder Bay safer for Indigenous students.
But this past May, Thunder Bay was jolted by the deaths of Tammy Keeash, 17, and Josiah Begg, 14, whose bodies were also found in the city’s waters. Their deaths are currently being investigated by York Region police, at the behest of the Ontario Chief Coroner’s office as Indigenous leaders say they have lost trust in the Thunder Bay police.
McNeilly said his review team has met with 100 individuals, First Nations leaders and communities, members of police and police leadership. “The Thunder Bay Police Service has co-operated fully with our review and I thank them,” McNeilly said.
“As part of our investigation, we are conducting a detailed death review of 30 case files. These cases mostly involve Indigenous people but we are also looking at deaths of non-Indigenous people for comparative purposes,” he said.