THUNDER BAY - A report on the reinvestigations into nine sudden deaths involving Indigenous people in the city of Thunder Bay that has been delayed several times is expected to be complete by June.
The reinvestigations were one of the recommendations in the Office of the Independent Police Review Director’s 2018 report Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service, which found systemic racism at an institutional level in the police service.
The nine cases include Christine Gliddy, Shania Bob, Marie Spence, Aaron Loon, Sarah Moonias, as well as four cases involved in the Seven Youth Inquest – Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Kyle Morrisseau, and Jordan Wabasse.
Former OIPRD director Gerry McNeilly said the initial investigations into the nine sudden deaths were deficient and inadequate and recommended the cases be reinvestigated.
Initially the report was expected to be complete by the end of summer 2020, but due to limitations resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic such as conducting in-person interviews and travel restrictions, as well as the volume of information to be considered, it was pushed back to the end of the year.
The report is now expected to be complete by June 2021.
The blended investigative team has been gathering and reviewing reports from the Ontario Provincial Police, the Thunder Bay Police Service, and the Office of the Chief Coroner involving the nine deaths, as well as meeting with families and witnesses.
The scenes where the deaths took place were reexamined and transcripts from the Seven Youth Inquest were reviewed.
