Chief of Thunder Bay's embattled police force notes families' 'pain and suffering' but says change takes time

Amid calls for the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) to be disbanded, its police chief says much work to rebuild community trust has been done, but it'll take time to address outstanding concerns.

Chief Darcy Fleury spoke to the media following the police oversight board's monthly meeting on Tuesday afternoon, a day after First Nations leaders, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa and family members of Indigenous people who recently died in Thunder Bay addressed a news conference at Queen's Park.

They called for the TBPS to be disbanded and for an outside police service to investigate the deaths of Corey Belesky, Mackenzie Moonias and Jenna Ostberg. 

"We continue to share their [the families'] pain and suffering and understand that [these are] very difficult times," Fleury said.

As progress is made in each death investigation, he said, police will meet with the families as is appropriate.

These latest developments come after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced they had laid multiple criminal charges against the former police chief, the former police service lawyer and a staff sergeant. 

On Monday, Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler called the police service a "cold case factory" when it comes to investigating the deaths of Indigenous people.

Fleury said those comments are "a bit of dramatization."

He said police services across Canada have cold cases and Thunder Bay is no exception. However, he remains confident the service is "doing the best we can to ensure that everybody's being protected and getting the services that they need."

Fleury was sworn in as the city's police chief about a year ago. Since then, he said, much work has been done to increase community engagement.

Both the city's police service and oversight board have received hundreds of recommendations in recent years. According to the TBPS, they include ways to break barriers that "exist between Indigenous, other racialized people and the justice system which includes police."

On Tuesday, Fleury said the new Indigenous advisory committee and elders committee, and a diversity committee now underway, are significant developments.

The police chief said 60 per cent of the recommendations in the 2018 Broken Trust report, which found evidence of systemic racism within the force, have been addressed; the rest of the recommendations require annual reports, so they are being addressed on an ongoing basis.

"We have some really good progress and we're continuing to strive to continue to get all of those things done as they go along," he said.