Thunder Bay is building up its new police oversight board, but an administrator remains in control

In many ways, the Thunder Bay Police Services Board is experiencing déjà vu.

For the second time in just four years, a new five-member board in the northwestern Ontario city is coming together to tackle a growing list of issues and recommendations facing the police force. For board members, that includes earning their voting rights back after a provincial administrator was appointed in April.

After months of uncertainty, the shape of that board is starting to form.

City council and the Ontario government have selected four of the five members, including:

• Ken Boshcoff, who returned to the mayoral seat last October. He was re-elected after serving from 1997 to 2003.
• Shelby Ch'ng, who has served on Thunder Bay's city council since 2014.
• Denise Baxter, who was recently appointed by the municipal council to serve a four-year term. She's the vice-provost of Indigenous initiatives at Lakehead University, a longtime educator in northwestern Ontario, and a member of Marten Falls First Nation.
• Karen Machado, one of two provincial appointees to the board. She previously held senior roles at the Thunder Bay jail and correctional centre, and is a member of the Red Rock Indian Band.

One remaining appointment "will be made in due course," according to Brent Ross, a spokesperson with Ontario's solicitor general.

"I have retired from corrections. Since then, I've wanted to find a way to give back to the community, to keep busy, and I've really felt this opportunity met the skill sets that I have and the experience that I can bring," Machado told CBC News.

The new board will have to work through a staggering number of challenges, including dozens of human rights complaints filed by current and former police officers as well as former board chair Georjann Morriseau, and a growing number of recommendations to address systemic racism within the board and the police service.

There are outstanding calls by Indigenous leaders to disband the entire service, and recommendations to reinvestigate the deaths of 14 Indigenous people alongside a broader review of the police service's case file management system.

"There is a lot of distrust [from Indigenous people]. I fully recognize that," Baxter told CBC News.

"The commitment I make is to continue to be responsible, be mindful of the teachings, be mindful of the work that's happening, be a real critical thinker and not just accept things always as they are," she said.

A new chief needs to be hired after Sylvie Hauth's suspension and subsequent retirement. Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes has been suspended with pay for more than a year now, pending an internal human resources investigation that's ongoing.

Provincial administrator still holds sole vote

But for the time being, the newly appointed board members remain without their voting powers.

Malcolm Mercer, the administrator appointed in April by the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC, a provincial agency) amidst "an emergency" in board oversight, holds the sole vote over all matters.

Mercer's term is set to end this March 30, although the OCPC could extend it. Mercer said in a statement to CBC News that he will not step down until the OCPC "considers that my work is done."

When asked if he knew when the newly appointed board members would regain their voting rights, Mercer said, "I haven't yet reached a conclusion."

The board is on track to have a new police chief in place by the late spring or early summer, confirmed board secretary John Hannam.

While securing a new chief remains a top priority, Baxter said, the new board members are engaged in high-level briefings, reading key materials, and preparing for the upcoming board meeting, on Feb. 21.

Board training a top priority

Mercer said he anticipates board member training will be a topic that will come up during that meeting — and it's an issue that will be crucial to the board's success, according to one expert.

A 2018 report by Murray Sinclair says the retired senator found evidence of systemic racism within the police board — he called for state-of-the-art training to be provided to the new board members.

Fred Kaustinen co-developed and delivered that training to the former board in 2019, alongside Andrew Graham, a Queen's University policy professor who has since died. Kaustinen has consulted police boards for the last 20 years.

Kaustinen says the "leading-edge training" they provided over two days in 2019 combined governance theory, key pieces of provincial legislation and practical exercises using case studies.

He told CBC News the training went well, but the board members never received any followup from Kaustinen or Graham, even though it was budgeted for in the contract at the time.

"You definitely need to follow up training, and especially with the case of police board members. This is not their main vocation. It's a small part of how they spend their lives, but a very important part," Kaustinen said.

If you want to build community trust, you've got to be objective about your own performance.- Fred Kaustinen, consultant on governance issues for police boards

Kaustinen offered several pieces of advice for the new board:

• Keep the number of people in the training small, including just the board members, their main advisers and the police chief.
• Create a common understanding among members about the role of the police board, ensuring "police actions and consequences are congruent with communities' needs, values and expectations.
• Commit to ongoing learning and make a plan it, which would involve additional experts that the board doesn't typically meet with.
• Create a publicly available feedback and evaluation process, so board members can hold themselves accountable and have their performance reviewed — done either by themselves or by a third party.

"If you want to build community trust, you've got to be objective about your own performance," he said.

Board secretary Hannam said he is starting to work on scheduling training on governance, Indigenous cultural competency, and conflicts of interest for the new members over the next two or three months. Hannam added there are ongoing development opportunities for board members through provincial and national police service board organizations.

More community voices at the board

Meanwhile, the Thunder Bay board's own expert panel recommended in an interim report to expand to seven members and include additional representatives from surrounding First Nations, in recognition of the fact the city acts as a regional hub.

Mercer, the administrator for the time being, rejected those recommendations, saying Ontario's solicitor general doesn't have the authority to do that.

The change could come at the city's request, however, once the Community Safety and Policing Act — passed by the Ontario Legislature in 2019 — comes into effect as soon as early 2024, according to Brent Ross, a spokesperson for the provincial solicitor general. The legislation will allow municipalities to expand their police boards to seven or nine members.

In the meantime, Hannam said, more community perspectives are supporting the work of the board, after creating a governance committee and a labour relations committee that include community representatives.

"We're at a stage where our work on the various outstanding recommendations and on other issues in front of the board are going to be tackled and dealt with," Hannam said.