Review will take a closer look at policing issues in Thunder Bay
By Rick Garrick
THUNDER BAY – Fort William Councillor Michele Solomon appreciates the efforts of the Office of the Independent Police Review Director to bring the community together to look at policing issues in Thunder Bay. The OIPRD held a public meeting on Sept. 25 in Thunder Bay to listen to feedback and recommendations from the public to better understand community relations and policing in Thunder Bay.
“I think that there is a lot of work that needs to happen to even begin to mend relations,” Solomon says. “There is a lot of work to do on both parts, and I think that if everybody would get honest and get real, then we might be able to start moving forward.”
Solomon called for members of the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) and the Indigenous community in Thunder Bay to drop their defences and start working on community relations and policing.
“Once we begin to drop our defences and start taking some ownership of the parts that we play in all of this, then I think the rest of the community of Thunder Bay will start to move forward with us,” Solomon says.
The OIPRD held the public meeting as part of the consultations for its systemic review of the policies, practices and attitudes of the TBPS related to Indigenous death and missing person investigations. Before the public meeting, Independent Police Review Director Gerry McNeilly and the OIPRD team had met collectively with more than 100 individuals, First Nations leaders and communities, Indigenous organizations, community and service organizations and members of TBPS and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board during about 24 visits to Thunder Bay.
Tony DePerry, a Pic Mobert citizen who conducted the opening and closing prayers for the meeting, says it was enlightening experience.
“It was giving people support, giving people the courage to say something knowing that someone understands what is happening,” DePerry says. “There are a lot of things that need to be addressed and need to be clarified.”
Topics up for discussion during the meeting were: Police – Indigenous – Community relations: perceptions, realities and recommendations; Racism and bias in policing: reflections of the community; and Effective policing: successes, barriers and recommendations.
“I’m just glad that a lot of Native people spoke up and spoke out of what they feel,” says Donna Mullen, a Fort William citizen. “I really like that.”
John Hodgson, a Mohawk educator who lives in Thunder Bay, says he didn’t hear any solutions or great ideas during the meeting.
“What I’m hearing is ongoing frustration and I hear a disconnect between the dominant society and their police and Indigenous peoples that has been this way since, well, 1492 in the Americas and Turtle Island,” Hodgson says.
McNeilly says he heard open acknowledgement of racism and discrimination in Thunder Bay during the review.
“Tonight I heard it openly where people were saying there is racism,” McNeilly says. “People are acknowledging it. People from different walks of life and different cultures were saying there is racism and we’ve got to do something about it.”
McNeilly plans to hold a couple of more meetings in Thunder Bay to hear from people at a shelter and to hear more from the community.
“We need to come back to Thunder Bay and have a bigger venue and invite more people to come and share with us,” McNeilly says. “I want to bring about better communication and better interaction between the people in Thunder Bay. I’m here to make it better so the police work better with the community.”