THUNDER BAY — The acting police chief of the Thunder Bay Police Service acknowledged there were failures at multiple levels within the service when dealing with Indigenous people at the time of Don Mamakwa and Roland McKay’s deaths, and while there has been progress made since 2014, a lack of sustainable funding continues to create challenges for policing in the city.
Thunder Bay Police Service acting chief Dan Taddeo testified on Wednesday, the 15th day, of the coroner’s inquest examining the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Mamakwa and McKay.
Mamakwa, 44, of Kasabonika First Nation died on Aug. 3, 2014. McKay, 50, of Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, died on July 19, 2017. Both men died in a cell at the Thunder Bay Police Service headquarters after being arrested for public intoxication.
Beginning his testimony by offering condolences to the Mamakwa and McKay families, Taddeo said progress has been made as a police service since 2014 and 2017, and he hopes further change can come from the inquest.
Taddeo then pointed to the city’s high crime rate, with Thunder Bay having the highest crime severity index in all of Canada, and the challenges that come with policing an area that is funded based on a population much larger than the census data indicates.
Operating under the belief that the city’s population is actually closer to 150,000, as it serves as a regional hub to numerous other communities throughout the region, Taddeo said provincial funding does not reflect the discrepancy.
In addition, the rate of deaths related to opioid overdoses in the city of Thunder Bay is four times the provincial average, which Taddeo said highlights one of many social issues facing the police service.
“This is a very difficult city to police given the social issues,” he said. “The social problems and issues affecting Thunder Bay create many victims of crime. Vulnerable people end up being victims of crime. Our capacity in having to deal with victims of crime becomes hindered unless there is proper funding and sustainable funding.”
Taddeo said the police service is open to criticism and exploring ways to improve but added: “it makes no sense to have solutions based on capacity issues that we can’t deal with.”
“We all have glasses. The glasses at the Thunder Bay Police service are prone to overflow more than any other police service in Ontario. That’s what frustrates me.”
One of the issues brought forward throughout testimony at the inquest was the criminality of public intoxication. Both Mamakwa and McKay were arrested for public intoxication.
In 2014, the Thunder Bay Police Service responded to 4,364 calls for service relating to liquor licence act offences. In 2021, the number of calls dropped to 1,390.
“We were setting ourselves up to arrest these people again for having an addiction,” Taddeo said, referring to probation orders requiring individuals abstain from substances. “We have gotten our numbers down. People who shouldn’t be in cells aren’t in cells anymore. But they are moving to the emergency department.”
Police now have the option of releasing an individual on an undertaking rather than taking them into custody for a breach of probation charge, as Mamakwa was in 2014.
“You can see what happened in 2014 for the intoxication and criminal code aspect are completely different now in 2022,” Taddeo said. “The criminal code charge, you wouldn’t even see that type of breach of probation charge and the fact that he was even brought to our cells.”
Taddeo also testified about his involvement in preparing a Section 11 report following Mamakwa’s arrest and death inside the cells at the police headquarters. The Section 11 report is an internal review done by the Thunder Bay Police Service following a serious incident that is conducted alongside or after the Special Investigations Unit.
The SIU found no grounds to charge any of the involved officers following Mamakwa and McKay’s deaths.
“In 2014, at the time of this report, the focus of my Section 11 report was for the care of Mr. Mamakwa in our cells and that of the jailer whose responsibility was to care,” Taddeo said. “At the time, there was a lot of carriage put on the opinion of ambulance, paramedics examining and clearing, and the fact that the breathing was specifically referenced by the officers regarding that being looked at by the paramedics.”
The report did not include any information relating to Mamakwa being processed in the booking room, that he was found with a can of Lysol, that his arrest sheet marked no medications though he said he was on ‘lots,’ nor the comments made by officers to Mamakwa.
Taddeo said officers can experience what he called compassion fatigue, resulting from dealing with individuals facing similar issues, such as intoxication, again and again. But he agrees any derogatory or undignified comments towards an intoxicated individual are unacceptable.
“Flippant comments, for example, or not following up on medications or things of that nature, now are treated much more seriously than what is depicted in the video, as well as the checks and balances of the watch commander to ensure things don’t slip through the cracks and people aren’t just treated as an intoxicated person,” he said.
Following Mamakwa’s death, some of the internal changes instituted by the police service included jailers being required to touch a FOB key at the back of the cells in order to ensure a physical check of the cells was completed and the watch commander being more involved in the care of individuals in custody.
The night Mamakwa was in custody he was not physically checked for several hours, even after he had stopped breathing.
“When we realized as senior management that there were no checks, we had to put something in place for an independent audit of those,” Taddeo said. “That is why we put in that FOB check. But the watch commander, the person ultimately responsible for police management, needed to know the issues facing a person brought into custody and insure there was a check and balance of everything being followed.”
Taddeo also highlighted other changes implemented by the police service to create more transparency and accountability, such as body-worn cameras for officers, which he referenced several times during his testimony.
“We are the first police service in Ontario to implement complete body-worn cameras to all of our frontline officers,” he said. “I think that is essential for transparency and accountability for our police officers. If it existed, it would have clearly assisted this inquest and the officers performing the Section 11 review.”
Additional services available in the city since 2014 have also helped divert vulnerable individuals away from police custody. Taddeo used the example of the safe sobering site at the Matawa Education Centre that lessened the need for police to respond to intoxicated individuals.
Another service that greatly assisted police and first responders was the Street Outreach Service (SOS) operated by the Thunder Bay Shelter House, which was recently shut down due to a lack of funding.
“I can’t overstate the seriousness of that service being cut,” Taddeo said. “That program should almost not be attached to a single entity like the Shelter House. It should be a community-based need and partnership.”
The scope of the coroner’s inquest is also to examine if racism, stereotyping, and unconscious bias played a role in the treatment of Mamakwa and McKay.
Taddeo said he was aware of the issues being raised by Indigenous leaders about the Thunder Bay Police Service prior to the Office of the Independent Police Review Director’s review and he recognized that there was a failure in several areas, including the culture at the police service, the leadership, and more broadly, a lack of services available in the community.
“The lack of supports that exist today, they were 10-fold back then,” he said. “I don’t want to come across like I’m making excuses, but it was a bit of a product of the environment. That is not suggesting it is acceptable.”
Taddeo was also asked about calls from Indigenous leaders to disband the police service and that change can no longer just be talked about, there has to be real actions taking place.
“I agree with what you said. I agree that actions need to be seen and not just heard,” he said. “I think it’s important we take every one of the complainants very seriously and work toward showing how we are improving. The transparency and accountability of us is so essential and I think that’s where I have to start.”
The inquest is expected to wrap up on Friday.
