THUNDER BAY – A small group held a Thursday afternoon demonstration outside the city's police station to demand Mayor Bill Mauro step down from the oversight body.
Ron Chookomolin, a former mayoral candidate in last year's municipal election, on Thursday was joined by two other people across the street from the Thunder Bay Police Service station holding signs calling for Mauro's resignation from the Thunder Bay police services board.
At his May 14 town hall meeting, Mauro fought back against the portrayal the city has been given since the near-simultaneous reports by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director and the Ontario Civilian Police Commission that took both the police service and its oversight board to task for inadequate investigations and failures to address the concerns of the city's Indigenous population
"For him to sit on the police services board, it can't go forward with that attitude," Chookomolin said. "That kind of thinking doesn't parallel with the police services board's mandate to go forward with the recommendations made by the OIPRD and Sen. Murray Sinclair. When you have one opposing council member going in a different direction, then we don't have a chance of having a better police service."
At that meeting, Mauro responded to a question about the city's reputation following those reports.
"It drives me crazy having to listen to and fight back against the perception of our community that is being created on the national stage, not only because of but largely because of those two reports," Mauro said at the townhall. "They intensified, in a laser-like way, the focus by national media on the city of Thunder Bay in my opinion very unfairly. I've been criticized by a lot of people for fighting back against the narrative because people feel I'm not acknowledging the problem.
Fort William First Nation chief Peter Collins has called for Mauro's resignation from the police services board, insisting the mayor's failure to acknowledge the seriousness of systemic racism is a conflict of interest.
Mauro was also criticized by police services board chair Celina Reitberger at the board's first meeting following the town hall, with Reitberger urging Mauro to tread carefully and distinguish when speaking as mayor and a member of the five-person board.
Following Collins' public demand, Mauro said he believed people might have felt his comments were dismissive of the reports.
"I think that we all completely in this community understand that racism exists here," Mauro said. "That has never been the question. I think what people are trying to communicate is that sometimes they are not hearing that message from me in a clear enough way."
Chookomolin said he reached out to Collins, inviting the chief to join him at the demonstration, but Collins was not available. Nevertheless, Chookomolin said he was not disappointed with the turnout.
"We're here to represent the people who don't have a voice to show this peaceful demonstration, this is our way of protesting to have Mr. Mauro step down from the police board," Chookomolin said.
Chookomolin's son, Marlan, was found severely injured on a County Park area pathway on June 25, 2017. The 25-year-old died one day later. A month later, Chookomolin publicly voiced frustration with Thunder Bay police and said he had received very few details about the investigation. One year later, police confirmed they had identified a potential person of interest, the first time investigators publicly suggested there was possible foul play.
