THUNDER BAY — A handful of 2SLGBTQIA+ community members voiced their concerns regarding policing on Tuesday evening.
The police held their Continuing the Conversation event at the OPSEU Thunder Bay Regional Office, the second in a series of sessions aimed at improving the relationship between 2SLGBTQIA+ community members and city police.
Although less than a dozen community members were in attendance, Jason Veltri, co-founder of Rainbow Collective, said the event was very important.
“It revolved around accountability and training and how we can be better as a community, in response to how can we be better for the two 2SLGBTQIA+ community,” he said.
After having the first conversation this past April, Veltri said things are slowing starting to come into effect.
“As the chief reiterated many times tonight, it is going to be slow. There's no magic wand and there's no light switch that's going to change everything.
“We're going to continue to hold these meetings with Thunder Pride and the community to keep the chief on the hot seat. Ask the tough questions and be there as a community partner, not only at Rainbow Collective but Thunder Pride to work with police to be better.”
Veltri said he has always been very vocal about hate crimes, and how they are dealt with.
“I think the federal government has to do more. I've had many conversations with ministers about the need to expand and decrease the threshold of what a hate crime is in this country.
“The burden of proof is on the victim and that is not something that I am very keen on or, or community members are keen on.
“I continue to advocate to Minister Hajdu and the Minister attorney General and Justice to really look at what we're doing with hate crimes in Canada because we're seeing them increase.”
With the possibility of a federal election being called soon, Veltri said the outcome would be very important to the community. "That will really dictate the next four years of where we are.
“We're either going to move forward or we're going to see an escalation of violence that I'm very scared about,” he said.
Veltri is hopeful for the future and said he would not be at the table if he didn’t think the police service could get better.
“We've seen strides. I think that this is one part of the puzzle piece of building bridges with community.
“This chief has been steadfast since he assumed the role, of holding space with community to hear from them.
“We're going to continue to be at the table with them to ensure that we're holding them accountable, but also doing the meaningful work to help them improve,” Veltri said.
Darcy Fleury, Thunder Bay’s Chief of Police, said he learned there is still more work that needs to be done.
“As far as understanding the community and some of their needs and really working hard together to address some of those little things that they want us to see from the police service.
“The take away is just the work that's going to be involved in the next few years and continual dialogue and communication to make sure that we're doing our best to provide the service.”
Fleury said it was voiced that the communication the police provides in inadequate.
“Some of the audience presented us with some cases where maybe we didn't provide the service the they were expecting.
“That's just a review on our part saying, ‘OK, what is the situation, where are the calls,’ and just have a review of what we have done in some of those cases,” he said.
Trust was a very hot topic during throughout the whole meeting.
“It's really important, trying to build that trust that when we respond to a case that they bring forward, that we're doing it right and providing the service and making sure that they have the information they need for a final resolution.
“That's one of the things that we got out of tonight, a little bit more work in those areas," he said.
The next steps are continuing the conversation, and continuing to have thee types of meetings, Fleury said.
“We are committed to having these communications and really working hard to get some ideas from the community. As well as some of the solutions to what they have brought up as some of the concerns they have and really get the input on that."
There is education for all officers to ensure they are educated, he added.
“We do have some training that we provide to our officers and build off of that and continue to build that so that we really have a good understanding in our office of the community and the things that they go through.”
Fleury thinks the 2SLGBTQIA+ community is great.
“The community, they're very vibrant, they get a lot of good things that they want to accomplish and we're there to help,” he said.
Fleury mentioned a mechanism for people,if they don't feel comfortable going to the service directly, to report a crime. It is called LECA.
