Criminal charges against ex-Thunder Bay police chief 'deeply disturbing,' police board chair says

The chair of Thunder Bay's police services board said last week's criminal charges against the northwestern Ontario city's former police chief are "deeply disturbing" and reaffirmed efforts to rebuild community trust in the service.

Karen Machado and current police Chief Darcy Fleury spoke at a news conference Monday about the Ontario Provincial Police charges of obstruction and breach of trust against Sylvie Hauth.

"The criminal allegations brought forward by the Ontario Provincial Police are deeply disturbing," Machado said. "There is a legal and ethical expectation ... that information provided by Thunder Bay Police Service is truthful and factual, both to the board and to the community.

"It is critical for our community to have faith in the system that provides oversight to the Thunder Bay Police Service. I understand how these allegations have caused further doubts in these institutions and the system of policing and police oversight in Thunder Bay."

Machado said the board has a vision to "modernize the service for the future and build truth and trust with the communities we serve"; that vision, she said, began with the appointment of Fleury and Deputy Chief Ryan Hughes about a year ago.

"We are here today to send a strong message that the allegations, the alleged incidents of the past, are not a reflection of the work that is occurring today," she said. "Our board will not hesitate to act on any allegations of misconduct."

The specific charges the OPP announced Friday against Hauth are: 

Hauth was suspended in 2022 after the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) brought misconduct charges against her under the Police Services Act. After nearly three decades with the service, she retired in 2023 before those allegations could be tested in a hearing.

At Monday's news conference, Fleury said the charges "reinforce for me what I already knew — that a chief of police needs to be honest and accountable."

"This investigation began in 2022," he said. "Leading up to that time, and since then, it has been a challenging time for our community. I acknowledge the erosion of trust in our service by some residents and I'm inspired by the community desire to move forward, together. We are on a healing journey."

Fleury said the service has taken several steps toward rebuilding trust with the community, including forming an Indigenous advisory committee and working to start a diversity committee.

"Some of the boards, the policies or procedures, we have farmed out to some different agencies to have them look at it," he said. "Systemic racism, as we know, has been front and centre for many years, in pretty much all of the reports that we've seen.

"So we've asked these agencies to go through our policies and procedures and make sure that the language in there is not going to be putting us back into a pattern of that sort of systemic racism or potential for that."

Fleury said those steps are being taken to avoid setting Thunder Bay police officers up for failure "because we put them out there with a policy that the community [doesn't] agree with."