THUNDER BAY – The Ontario Provincial Police are providing more details on statements made from the commissioner, but a First Nation leader is calling for an apology and retraction.
Chief Jim Leonard of Rainy River First Nations said in a release on Tuesday that statements made by commissioner Vince Hawkes on Monday regarding requests for the OPP to investigate the 2015 death of Stacy DeBungee are incorrect and misleading.
“For the sake of clarity and truth-telling, I have delivered a letter to the Commissioner of the OPP detailing his refusals to answer me or the DeBungee family and, ultimately, his refusal to conduct an investigation,” Leonard said in the release.
Leonard said Hawkes denied declining the requests, but Hawkes said in his statement that he wanted to "clarify our role and correct the record."
On Monday, the OPP issued a statement from Hawkes that said the provincial police force did conduct a review of the investigation into the death of Stacy DeBungee, who was found dead in the McIntyre River in October, 2015.
A letter from then Thunder Bay Police chief, J.P. Levesque, to Leonard dated Sept. 16, 2016, detailed the OPP’s initial refusal to conduct the investigation.
“Commissioner Hawkes clearly expressed to me that he would not entertain such a request [for an investigation] during the course of an outstanding OIPRD,” the letter from Levesque states.
In November, 2016, the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) launched a review of the Thunder Bay Police Service, looking into allegations of systemic racism in the local force.
“There was an active investigation underway and because of the protocols in place when there is an investigation of that nature taking place, that precludes the ability for us to carry out, so that is why that initial request was initially turned down,” said OPP Staff Sgt. Peter Leon in an interview with Tbnewswatch on Tuesday.
A second request was made in late 2016 and Leon said the OPP confirmed with the OIPRD if the review could be conducted by the provincial police force.
“It was determined at that time that the requested review would not impact the ongoing OIPRD investigation, so we were able to carry out and complete that review as indicated in the commissioner’s statement,” Leon said.
Stacy DeBungee was found dead in the McIntyre River in 2015 and Thunder Bay Police ruled the death non-criminal. The family, not satisfied with the Thunder Bay Police’s handling of the investigation, hired a private investigator to look into the circumstances surrounding DeBungee’s death.
First Nation leaders said during a news conference in Toronto last week that the OPP refused a requests from the family to investigate the death.
Leonard said there was a steady stream of correspondence that the OPP commissioner was copied on regarding the request.
“You remained silent in the face of no less than six separate letters sent to you from me and the family raising a potential OPP investigation,” Leonard said in a statement. “In each case, you would have had an opportunity to engage in respectful dialogue or at least simply acknowledge the correspondence and concerns of the DeBungee family and Rainy River First Nations. But you repeatedly and resoundingly opted for silence.”
Hawkes said in his statement on Monday that the OPP can provide assistance to municipal, federal, and First Nations police forces at the request of a police service leader.
Leon did not say when the OPP report was completed, but it has been given to Thunder Bay Police.
