Thunder Bay passes a grim homicide record and the police chief says southern gangs are to blame

Thunder Bay's acting chief of police says the illicit drug trade and southern Ontario gang activity are driving the city's record number of homicides in 2022. 

There have been 13 homicides recorded in Thunder Bay this year, two more than the previous record of 11, set in 2014. 

"Out of the 13 homicides this year, I don't believe any could be classified as random," said acting police chief Dan Taddeo. "They either have ties to substance abuse or addiction issues, or are gang related."

"For example, out of the 13 homicides, six arrests have been made connected to persons from the Greater Toronto area," he said. "When we speak about the influence of persons trafficking drugs from the Greater Toronto Area and Thunder Bay, it's because of the profitability that they're able to sell."

Taddeo said so far this year, police have executed more than 90 warrants in Thunder Bay as part of drug investigations involving people from the GTA; the warrants have led to 122 people from the GTA being arrested and charged.

Thunder Bay also needs to rely on the pathology lab in Toronto for autopsies, tying up resources from the major crime unit in homicide investigations.

Taddeo said more generalized harm reduction and community involvement is needed to address the drug issue in Thunder Bay.

"If you take away the market for the suppliers, then the suppliers will go elsewhere," he said. "We can also then focus our policing on more of crime and disorder versus social issues."

"Unfortunately, we remain the bottom of the social safety net, despite certain persons suggesting, and I do agree, that police need to get out of this business.

That's a great concept, but nobody has suggested what it looks like, or what's the operational plan."

In addition, Taddeo said the justice system needs to "look at our issues more locally as opposed to kind of a broad-brush approach."

LISTEN | The full interview with Taddeo and CBC's Mary-Jean Cormier  

Thunder Bay had the highest death rate from opioid overdoses in the province from April 2021 to March 2022 at 82.1 per 100,000 people, according to the latest preliminary data released by the Ontario Office of the Chief Coroner.

"We investigate four times the amount of sudden deaths due to overdoses," he said. "We have to look at each one of those as a potential homicide, especially if laced drugs are involved."

Policing experts have previously told CBC News it's difficult to lay charges in sudden death investigations involving laced drugs, often due to a lack of evidence.  

In March, a confidential report looking into sudden death cases in Thunder Bay recommended 14 sudden-death investigations between 2006 and 2019 should be reinvestigated. Some of those deaths involved fatal drug overdoses, calling these occurrences "a significant threat to public safety."  

In April, a family in Thunder Bay went public with their fears his death in 2021 was improperly classified as an accident instead of a homicide. He died with 21 nanograms per millilitre of fentanyl in his system, seven times what's usually considered fatal. His home had also shown signs of being ransacked, his family said. 

At the time, Thunder Bay police said the investigation is ongoing. 

Call for more money, more resources 

Taddeo is calling on government to provide more money for police efforts to address guns and gangs in Thunder Bay. 

"Politically speaking, I have no idea what more we can do," he said. "Our statistics are not good. I think there's been a number of people inside the City of Thunder Bay who've raised this issue, and unfortunately the silence is a little bit deafening at times."

This year's proposed police budget —which Taddeo presented to a meeting of the Thunder Bay Police oversight board this week — calls for a $3.5 million, or 7.2 per cent, increase.  

In a statement to CBC News on Wednesday, the Ministry of the Solicitor General said there is ongoing funding being provided to police services in Ontario, including Thunder Bay, to help address guns and gang issues.

The city police service, for example, is getting $3.4 million over three years under the Community Safety and Policing Grant to "address local and provincial community safety priorities," a ministry spokesperson said.

"As part of the $3.4 million, we are investing $957,000 over three years for project support, which enhances the service's relationship with community partners in providing educational knowledge in hopes of preventing persons from becoming victims of human trafficking, sexual violence or gang activity. "

The ministry said the Thunder Bay Police Service is receiving more than $600,000 over three years to support programs like Project Prevent, which aims to stop gang recruitment efforts, and the "Trauma and Violence-Informed Response to Human Trafficking and Sexual Violence in Northwestern Ontario Project to improve police and community response to human trafficking, sexual violence, assault and harassment, which are often gang-related."

The provincial funding, the ministry said, is already flowing to Thunder Bay police.

A Thunder Bay police spokesperson said while the funding helpful on a number of policing fronts, it's not dedicated entirely to guns and gangs enforcement.

The spokesperson said the provincial grants remain "competitive and arbitrary," and tend to be unrelated to crime statistics and social issues.

In July, the province announced a new Ontario Guns and Gangs Enforcement Strategy, which is being led by the OPP and funded by about $75 million from the province.

However, while the Anishinabek and Nishnawbe Aski police services were announced as participants in northwestern Ontario, Thunder Bay police weren't.