Indigenous leaders demand Thunder Bay, Ont., police lose power to investigate major cases
CBC
Indigenous leaders in northern Ontario continue to press the province to take action on policing in Thunder Bay, demanding Wednesday that the police service be stripped of its authority to investigate major cases.
Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief Reg Niganobe and Nishnawbe Aski Nation deputy Grand Chief Anna Betty Achneepineskum held a morning news conference at Queen's Park, and repeated their calls for government intervention.
In recent weeks, the Thunder Bay Police Service has faced a report identifying additional Indigenous sudden death cases that were insufficiently investigated, as well as internal turmoil, with a growing number of human rights complaints filed by officers and a member of its oversight board against the force's leadership.
Niganobe said Indigenous people have lost trust in the police service and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board.
"The Thunder Bay Police Service leaves a trail of inadequate investigations, a negligently managed records system and a lack of substantive oversight," he said.
"Trust is broken, and every day the Thunder Bay Police Service remains in control of major crime investigations is another day Indigenous people are at risk in the city."
The Thunder Bay Police Services Board issued a statement Wednesday afternoon, announcing it is scheduling an emergency meeting on Saturday to address the concerns.
"Our work to transform the Thunder Bay Police Service and address the deep systemic issues is ongoing," board chair Kristen Oliver said in a statement.
"I, as Board Chair, understand more work needs to be done to rebuild our relationships with Northwestern Ontario Indigenous leaders and people.
Without trust in law enforcement from our community, the system doesn't work."
Earlier this year, Ontario Solicitor General Sylvia Jones asked the Ontario Civilian Police Commission to launch a probe into Thunder Bay police leadership and its oversight board. The OPP has confirmed it's investigating alleged criminal misconduct involving Thunder Bay police members.
There have been calls for the police service to be disbanded, and for the OPP to immediately assume oversight.
Niganobe, referencing 2018 reviews by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission into the police service and the board, said expert reports have yet to lead to substantive change and concrete action is needed.
One of those reports — Broken Trust — led to the reinvestigation of 10 Indigenous sudden deaths. During that process, an additional 14 Indigenous sudden death cases between 2009 and 2016 have been recommended for re-examination.
Windsor-Essex, Chatham-Kent and Sarnia can all expect between 20 and 40 millimetres of rainfall this weekend.
More Alberta seniors are now eligible for a provincially funded RSV vaccine.
More than 100 workers at a steel plant in eastern Ontario are being laid off either temporarily or permanently, as a company with facilities in Quebec and Ontario cuts its workforce due to challenging market conditions — including U.S. tariffs.
A small town northwest of Thunder Bay, Ont., has become the unlikely home for hundreds of foreign workers, but many may have to leave the community they've embraced after the end of a federal program put in place to fill gaps in Canada's labour market.
There's mixed reaction in Waterloo to an injuction allowing police to detain, arrest and charge anyone who is participating in unsanctioned street parties in that city this weekend.
Diabetes Canada is excited about Prince Edward Island's new pharmacare deal with the federal government, but hopes the province will reevaluate copays on diabetes supplies, says a senior manager with the organization.
After 26 years of accommodating guests from across the world, Faith Embleton says she and her husband Ken are ready to sell their bed and breakfast.
A group of big-name companies including Google, Meta and Dow have signed a pledge to support tripling the world's nuclear energy capacity by 2050, a signal of the technology's growing resurgence in popularity.
Five years on, Toronto-area doctors and public health officials are looking back at what they've learned since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic — and most agree the early experience will prove useful if the city faces another infectious disease crisis.
City staff would like Londoners to take a good look around their home and ask themselves a direct and possibly difficult question: Could everyone in your family survive at home, without leaving and with no other help, for a full 72 hours?
Liberal Leader Mark Carney will officially become Canada's next prime minister within a few hours, taking the reins as the country barrels toward a general election and continues to fend off verbal and economic attacks from U.S. President Donald Trump.
Recent cyberattacks in Newfoundland and Labrador should have been a wake up call for the federal government about the reality of an increasingly hostile world, says one cybersecurity expert.
A recent CBC News analysis found that Nova Scotia is rapidly losing some of its most affordable apartments, but housing experts say there are ways to prevent that.