THUNDER BAY — The way the Thunder Bay Police Service conducts death and missing person investigations will be under inspection by the province's Inspectorate of Policing.
This is the first inspection of a police service Inspector General of Policing Ryan Teschner is undertaking. The Inspectorate of Policing was created last April.
“We received, in April, several complaints that were brought to the inspectorate relating to death investigations by the Thunder Bay Police Service,” he said.
“These complaints were within our jurisdiction and after conducting a fulsome review of them, I made the decision initiative this inspection of the Thunder Bay Police Service.”
The complaints were received from Nishnawbe Aski Nation (NAN) on behalf of two families who have lost loved ones and a separate individual who also lost a loved one.
“They were all related to deaths of individuals in Thunder Bay and all raised concerns in the complaints about how those death investigations were being conducted, how information was being provided or not being provided to families,” Teschner said.
NAN held a press conference at Queen's Park in April, alongside the families of Jenna Ostberg, MacKenzie Moonias, and Corey Belesky. They called for the disbandment of the police service and for the brand new Inspectorate of Policing to look into their loved one's cases.
This specific inspection will look at how the Thunder Bay Police Service conducts death investigations and missing person investigations.
“Our role will be to look more holistically at how the Thunder Bay Police Service is conducting those investigations, if there are areas they need to improve, we will identify those,” Teschner said. “If there are areas where they are doing good work, my mission is to also highlight that as well. Our report will be comprehensive in that sense.”
The Inspector General role also comes with a new set of tools, Teschner said, allowing him to issue binding directions to the police service and police services board. If the police service fails to comply with the binding directions, the Inspector General can take actions including leadership changes and even the disbandment of the service.
“Directions are something I can issue if we find non-compliance. The police service or the board must undertake the work to implement them,” Teschner said.
“If directions are not implemented and there is continued non-compliance, then the new policing legislation in Ontario also provides the inspector general with unique new power and authorities that can include suspending or removing chiefs of police, members of the board or, in extreme cases, disbanding the police service or police services board. That is a process that follows an independent inspection that we are initiating today.”
The inspection will include a team of experts, including people with policing experience. Teschner said there is no specific timeline for the inspection, but he expects it to be complete sometime in 2025, with a report being made available to the public upon its conclusion.
In a news release on Thursday, Teschner said, "I am committed to ensuring that the residents of Thunder Bay and the Indigenous communities in and around that city receive the effective, responsive, and accountable policing they deserve."
The Inspectorate of Policing has a mandate to conduct inspections of police services in the province to ensure compliance with policing laws of Ontario and best practices.
