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Fear of conflict of interest will see third party prep final report on unexplained deaths in Thunder Bay

The report was called for by the chief coroner of Ontario due to potential conflicts of interest among the executive governance committee overseeing the reinvestigations, and could include recommendations for those on the committee
Dirk Huyer
Ontario Chief Coroner Dr. Dirk Huyer. (file).

THUNDER BAY – The final report on reinvestigations into nine sudden deaths involving Indigenous people in the city of Thunder Bay will be prepared by an outside group due to potential conflicts of interest on the part of members of the executive governance committee responsible for the reinvestigations.

The decision was made by Dr. Dirk Huyer, chief coroner for the province of Ontario and member of the executive governance committee.

“During that work, we recognized not only was there the importance of doing the investigation of those deaths and trying to find better answers for families, communities, and others and also to enhance the work that the organizations do through collaborative learning, we also recognized there was likely going to be a lot of lessons learned,” Huyer said.

The reinvestigations into nine sudden deaths involving Indigenous people was one of the recommendations handed down by Office of the Independent Police Review Director, Gerry McNeilly, in his report Broken Trust, which found systemic racism within the Thunder Bay Police Service.

The sudden deaths under reinvestigated include Christine Gliddy, Shania Bob, Marie Spence, Aaron Loon, Sarah Moonias, as well as four cases involved in the Seven Youth Inquest – Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Kyle Morrisseau, and Jordan Wabasse.

A three-tiered framework for the reinvestigations was laid out in June 2019 and included an executive governance committee consisting of Thunder Bay Police Service chief, Grand Chief of Nishnawbe Aski Nation, the chief coroner, chief forensic pathologist, an elder, and a retired judge.

The final report into the reinvestigations has been delayed several times due to the nature of the investigations and the COVID-19 pandemic. It was expected to be released this spring.

There was never any mention of bringing in any specific writing team to complete the final report prior to previous expected releases and as early as June 2021, the executive governance committee released a statement saying it would approve all completed reinvestigations and release the findings to stakeholders and the public.

The statement in June came as family members of some of the people whose deaths were subject to reinvestigation expressed concerns about conflicts of interest on the part of those sitting on the executive governance committee, including Thunder Bay Police Service chief Sylvie Hauth.

According to a report in the Globe and Mail, Thunder Bay Police Service chief Sylvie Hauth informed the Police Services Board in November 2021 that she had stepped down from the executive governance committee.

A conflict of interest process was included as part of the committee and Huyer said there have been instances of conflicts and recusals.

Huyer said the decision to have the final report prepared by a team outside the influence of the executive governance committee is based on feedback he received from family members, communities, and First Nation leaders.

“There were too many concerns of potential conflict for people like myself being involved in it,” he said.

“The indigenous community raised concerns about that. But also they raised concerns that they may not have as much engagement as earlier in the development of this and providing of feedback, ensuring the families have the ability to share their thoughts in a safe and culturally appropriate way.”

It’s critical to have a strong Indigenous perspective in the final report, Huyer said, as the Broken Trust report outlined failures on the part of many organizations in serving Indigenous people in the city of Thunder Bay.

“Part of the work that I think is so important is clearly there is a perspective from Indigenous people, communities, and leaderships and families impacted by this as fundamental to be informing what the report will prepare, what it will report on, and what recommendations may arise,” he said. “This in my perspective will have an Indigenous lens to the report itself.”

Huyer added that the committee will report back to the OIPRD on the reinvestigations as part of the recommendation, while separately, under the authority of the coroner’s act, a specific writing team will be brought together to take all the information learned from the reinvestigations and prepare the final report including potential recommendations for all involved.

“As we continued on our journey through the work we were doing, we recognized that many of us on the executive governance, myself, chief forensic pathologist, and chief of police are all potentially subject to recommendations because this is about death investigations and we recognized that we were not the right people to be overseeing this, because of the potential that we could impact recommendations that could come to ourselves, and that’s not right,” he said.

“We want to learn, we want to do better, and we should be learning and doing better. During the investigations, we recognized different situations and different issues that we need to learn from.”

The group instructed to take leadership of the report has already identified members of the writing team and further discussions are planned this week.

Huyer said he does not know if this will delay the final report on the reinvestigations further.

“We all want to do this as quickly as possible, we recognize the significant challenges and the years of challenges that have occurred,” he said.

“As soon as the team can be mobilized as people are able to provide the time and commitment to do the writing. I know there have been discussions already last week and further this week.”


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Doug Diaczuk

About the Author: Doug Diaczuk

Doug Diaczuk is a reporter and award-winning author from Thunder Bay. He has a master’s degree in English from Lakehead University
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