The Canadian Press
THUNDER BAY, Ont.–An Ontario legislator and the Thunder Bay police are asking the province for additional funding to implement recommendations in a report that found systemic racism within the police service.
Thunder Bay-Atikokan MPP Judith Monteith-Farrell sent an open letter to Community Safety minister Sylvia Jones on Friday, asking the province to provide more than $1 million for the police force to create a major case unit and improve training for its officers.
“The crisis of trust between indigenous people and the Thunder Bay Police Service requires immediate action,” she wrote.
“Our province needs to take seriously the need for reconciliation without delay.”
The request comes after the Office of the Independent Police Review Director released a report last month making 44 recommendations regarding issues between the police force and the city’s indigenous community.
The review found that police investigations into the deaths of nine indigenous people were so problematic that they should be re-investigated.
“The failure to conduct adequate investigations and the premature conclusions drawn in these cases is, at least in part, attributable to racist attitudes and racial stereotyping,” the 206-page report said.
“Officers repeatedly relied on generalized notions about how indigenous people likely came to their deaths and acted, or refrained from acting, based on those biases,” it noted.
Jones’ office did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and a spokesman for Thunder Bay police said the force has not heard back from the provincial government.
Earlier in the week, police chief Sylvie Hauth presented a report to the city’s police board that outlined a budget for the year that addresses the report’s recommendations.
In her report, Hauth said there is an “urgent need” for the police service and board to ask the government for the additional $1 million in funding to cover costs such as a major case unit and anti-racism training.
Hauth also hopes to add three officers to the police force’s Aboriginal Liaison unit
