Thunder Bay's mayor will have a seat on its next police services board. Here's what candidates say they'll do
Thunder Bay Police Service facing calls for its disbandment, deep distrust with Indigenous communities
The Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) has been under heavy scrutiny and pressure for years, with internal divisions and external investigations scrutinizing its relationship and treatment of Indigenous people in the northwestern Ontario city.
In 2018, reports from two Ontario police watchdog agencies found evidence of systemic racism toward Indigenous people in both the police force and its oversight agency.
More recently, there have been dozens of human rights complaints filed against the service and board, external investigations initiated into police leadership, and a provincial administrator appointed to oversee the local police board.
The police chief and deputy chief have both been suspended for several months, and Chief Sylvie Hauth is facing a disciplinary hearing in February 2023.
Earlier this year, political leaders representing two-thirds of all First Nations in Ontario called for the TBPS to be dismantled. The call came after a confidential report was leaked to media organizations, including CBC News, detailing serious concerns with TBPS investigations into the sudden deaths of almost exclusively Indigenous people, and recommended another 14 sudden deaths in the city be reinvestigated.
Following this month's municipal election, a brand new police oversight board and Thunder Bay's new mayor will have a seat at that table, along with two city councillors.
Collectively, the board will have to make decisions on a new senior leadership team, answer significant allegations of human rights abuses at the hands of the police leadership and the former board, and heal a fractious service where mental health and morale is at a disturbing low.
Dozens of recommendations have been made in a growing number of external investigations, reports and expert panels, and the previous board also recommended the city construct a new $56-million police headquarters, saying the current Balmoral Street station is in "a deplorable state," with a leaking roof and insufficient space.
There is an outstanding recommendation for an external audit of all death investigations in the police department's record management system because of concerns about serious deficiencies and inconsistencies in record management, specifically for sudden deaths of Indigenous people.
They will also need to weigh calls for the entire TBPS to be disbanded, and for the Ontario Provincial Police — or another policing service — to either replace the TBPS or be brought in to investigate major cases.
"It's quite evident that they're not fulfilling their responsibility and their role, and that needs to change," Anna Betty Achneepineskum told CBC News in March.
"There are many people who have lost faith that they will get justice," added Achneepineskum, a deputy grand chief with the Nishnawbe Aski Nation, a political organization representing 49 First Nations across Treaty 9 and Treaty 5 in northern Ontario.
With all this in mind, CBC News asked each of the five mayoral candidates in Thunder Bay what they will take if elected. Here are their answers:
Clint Harris
Clint Harris, the former publisher of regional newspaper The Chronicle Journal, said there need to be "impact teams" created so everyone can work together to develop solutions to the problems.
Harris added that he talks to many police officers at the gym, and one of the concerns he's hearing is that they will be renegotiating their new collective agreement, which expires in December 2023, and they don't have a police services board in place to complete those negotiations.
With all of the issues facing the police service, Harris said he's concerned about the number of decisions and discussions that are made "under the table" without any transparency.
"Creating a board that actually has, I call them dashboards, a responsibility checklist of what you've completed, how we share that with the community, make sure you're transparent, and that transparency creates a cohesive board, and the relationship with the union and board, that becomes cohesion as well," Harris told CBC.
"They deserve it, [police] are taking the brunt of all the issues in our community, and the leaders on that police service board have failed them."
Gary Mack
The former executive director of Shelter House and small-business owner Gary Mack says there is a lot of work to do to build trust, where it may have never existed in the first place.
"One of the things that really inspired me to want to run is because policing is important to me, and I have been looking at what has been coming from our police services board, and I really haven't felt good about it at all," he told CBC.
Mack said he believes the city can build an anti-racist police department by putting the principles of truth and reconciliation into practice, and by making "a proper apology" to Indigenous people.
He added, "the men and women that are working on the frontlines of our police department have been doing so with very little leadership for quite some time, and so I'm very happy that we will be hiring a new police chief."
It is important, Mack said, that the new chief be Indigenous, or someone who has experience working with and building trust with Indigenous people to help deal with the issues of systemic racism.
Ken Boshcoff
Ken Boshcoff, the former city mayor and long-time politician, was brief in his response to CBC about building trust in the police service, saying it is an obligation he takes quite seriously.
"As someone who has a long track record in being a conciliatory type of personality, a bridge builder if you will, I know that the task is going to be difficult," Boshcoff said.
"But at least people know that I'm trustworthy, straightforward and that I have only the best interest of all parties in heart."
Robert Szczepanski
Robert Szczepanski, who works several jobs including at a local restaurant, said he thinks the police service needs to be completely rebuilt from the ground up, including a period where another service or the military temporarily step in to police the community.
Any officers that did have previous allegations or crimes against them would not be hired back, he told CBC, and only police officers with clean records would be re-hired.
"Our society with police basically punishes cops for exposing other bad cops," Szczepanski said. "Within the police force, if you rat on another cop, you're deemed no good and they try anything, everything to get you to quit or be fired. I want to try to get rid of that mentality and foster a system where exposing corruption is seen as a good thing."
Szczepanski added he wants to work with the police union so if an officer is "exposed as bad," they are not protected, but are fired.
"If a cop basically yells a racial slur. Fired. No questions asked," he said. "Anytime a cop does mess up, it's like, 'oh well, their job is stressful.' It's like, no. I've had stressful jobs and I still can't get away with one-tenth of what they do."
Peng You
Peng You, who is finishing up his first term as an at-large councillor in Thunder Bay, said the first step is "to normalize our police service" and clean up in house, adding the situation that the TBPS finds itself in is not commonly seen anywhere else in the country.
Peng You said there will be a new board and a new chief, so he will travel to Toronto to talk to the Solicitor General and the chairman of the Ontario Civilian Police Commission.
He also promised to work with community leaders and Indigenous leaders, and start to focus on the frontline officers.
"They need the support, mentally, physically, morally and also financially, any support we should give to them. They've been doing a very good job."
Peng You also promised to engage with at-risk youth early on to encourage them to join sports or martial arts, to help deter them from committing crimes.
"Neighbourhood policing can cut down crime rate by 27 per cent. So lots of tools we can use. Overall, we need good leadership."