Police officers all over the province are feeling the impact of two officers who lost their lives on the job this month.
Colin Woods, president of the Thunder Bay Police Association, said the impact is felt deeply amongst officers here in Northern Ontario.
“Last week there were two officers who were killed on duty. One OPP and a Toronto officer,” he said. “It hits home, definitely. We’re a close-knit policing community right across the province.”
Const. Tarun Bali, 29, of the James Bay OPP was pronounced deceased after being seriously injured while he was on scene the afternoon of Tuesday, June 9. He and other members of the James Bay detachment were conducting an investigation at Kendall Concession Road 7 and Concession Road 6 near Hearst around 12:30 p.m., according to the OPP.
Bali was assigned to the OPP’s Dufferin detachment and was on deployment to the James Bay detachment at the time of his death.
“We’re doing a very dangerous job at times and the fact that somebody went out to do their job, to serve and protect and hopefully go home at the end of the day, and unfortunately didn’t, it does hit home,” Woods said.
The funeral for Bali is this Thursday, June 18.
“It’s going to be held in Toronto and we, through conjunction with the service and the association are sending two members down to be present for that funeral,” Woods said.
“Even though we’re not down in Toronto or we’re not with the OPP working, when an officer dies in Ontario, it resonates with the job.”
He said there has been an outpouring of support from the public.
“There’s been a lot of kind words of encouragement, support for the service, for the members. I think the public recognizes the job that we do and the dangers that come with it.
“And even though they don’t know who those officers are, they just want to show their support for us, for them, and for the policing community in general.”
He said that having officers from our region attend the funerals is a sign of recognition.
“It’s a sign of honouring those officers and not just the officers, the families too.
“Behind these people, they have families at home that are now grieving, and it’s just a small token that we can show by going down there and supporting those services, those members, those families.”
He said that there will also be two officers who will attend the funeral for Const. Mark Pinizzotto of the Toronto Police Service, who lost his life in the line of duty on June 11.
Woods said that some officers here in the north did train with Pinizzotto.
“There are connections that happen from time to time.”
In this case, he said, it was a couple of Emergency Task Force members that knew him and wanted to attend the service on June 24.
Woods said that these two losses in the policing community makes officers reflect on the job.
“We want to do what we are brought here to do, serve and protect the public, but the reality is that we might not make it home,” he said. “We have to go to those 911 calls. We have to attend those incidents that happen, and we can’t predict the outcomes.”
He said that unfortunately, these two situations are “reminders of the job that we’re doing.”
