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OIPRD Extends Deadline for Submissions to Thunder Bay Police Service Review

02/13/2017, by: OIPRD Admin

The Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) has extended the deadline for submissions to its systemic review of the Thunder Bay Police Service’s practices for policing Indigenous Peoples, and specifically, their policies, practices and attitudes regarding missing person and death investigations involving Indigenous Peoples.

The OIPRD invites written submissions from individuals and organizations with expertise and interest in the issues and topics that fall within the Terms of Reference for the systemic review.

Submissions should include the name of the organization or person delivering the submission, along with reasons for their interest in the issues of the OIPRD’s systemic review of the Thunder Bay Police Service’s practices for policing Indigenous Peoples. The OIPRD requests written submissions by April 28, 2017. Submissions may be emailed to OIPRD@ontario.ca or mailed
to:

Office of the Independent Police Review Director
Thunder Bay Police Service Practices for Policing Indigenous Peoples Systemic Review
655 Bay Street, 10th Floor
Toronto, Ontario
M7A 2T4

TERMS OF REFERENCE

The systemic review will examine the following:

  • Existing policies, practices and attitudes of the Thunder Bay Police Service as they relate specifically to Indigenous missing persons and death investigations, and more generally, to issues around racism-free policing, such as “over-policing” and “under-policing”
  • Whether missing persons and death investigations involving Indigenous Peoples are conducted in discriminatory ways
  • The adequacy and effectiveness of existing policies and identified best practices relating to the above issues
  • The adequacy of training and education provided to supervisors and front-line officers relating to the above issues
  • The extent to which compliance with existing policies or identified best practices is monitored and supported
  • The extent to which officers are held accountable for non-compliance
  • The extent to which the service communicates with Indigenous family members, communities and their leaders, engages in community outreach or has specialized liaison units
  • The extent to which complaints about the service’s interactions with Indigenous Peoples are inhibited by reprisals or fear of reprisals
  • Whether policies, practices, training, education, oversight and accountability mechanisms, and community outreach should be created, modified or enhanced to prevent discriminatory and ineffective policing, particularly in the context of investigations into the disappearances and deaths of Indigenous Peoples

The systemic review will consult and meet with Indigenous leaders and communities. It will also be informed by the findings and recommendations of the coroner’s jury arising out of the deaths of seven Indigenous youths; by the findings of an ongoing OIPRD conduct investigation into the Thunder Bay Police Service’s handling of an investigation into the death of Stacey DeBungee; and by the findings of an ongoing OIPRD investigation into allegations of racist comments posted on the Internet by Thunder Bay Police officers. It will be informed by, and if requested, share its systemic work with the ongoing National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.