Suspended over a year, Thunder Bay deputy police chief's future will soon be known amid leadership questions
CBC
The Toronto Police Service (TPS) has completed an investigation into serious allegations of workplace harassment and misconduct against Thunder Bay police's deputy chief, Ryan Hughes, who has been suspended for over a year, CBC News has learned.
The Thunder Bay Police Services Board (TBPSB) suspended Hughes in January 2022 "pending an internal investigation" into what they would only call a human resources matter, according to a board statement at the time.
The board never revealed further details about what led to the suspension or what they were doing to address the HR matter, and didn't provide a timeline as to when a decision may be reached on the deputy chief's future.
Since then, CBC News has obtained confidential board documents that show two senior members of the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) in the northwestern Ontario city filed separate complaints about Hughes. They included allegations of workplace harassment and misconduct that "may [have] criminal elements."
Those allegations were eventually handed to Toronto police to investigate, said board secretary John Hannam in an email. The investigation has since concluded, and the Thunder Bay police board is now reviewing a report and considering its response, with a decision expected "soon," he added.
Hannam did not say if the investigation found the allegations to be substantiated.
The troubled TBPS has experienced a particularly turbulent year of high-profile suspensions, external investigations, human rights complaints and calls for disbandment.
Now, alongside a decision on Hughes's future, the new police board is starting to take shape after imploding last spring, and a new police chief is expected to be in place in a matter of months after Sylvie Hauth avoided a public misconduct hearing by expediting her retirement.
But as the TBPS prepares to move forward, key questions from the past year of leadership crises remain — and the public may never get answers.
One of the earliest signs of renewed troubles within the police service's leadership came after a shocking decision in January 2022, when the oversight board announced it was suspending Hughes.
Before becoming deputy chief, he spent 20 years in policing, most recently managing the criminal investigations and intelligence units as a detective inspector with the TBPS and previously worked with York Regional Police.
But in the year since the suspension, the police board has remained silent on the reasons for it or what type of investigation was underway.
In February 2022, the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) began an investigation into allegations of misconduct against Hughes and then Chief Hauth, related to a 2020 criminal investigation of former board member Georjann Morriseau on allegations that were later found to be unsubstantiated.
In June, the OCPC investigation cleared Hughes of any wrongdoing, but he remained suspended.
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