♪
[News] Thunder Bay police are releasing a few more details
about the tragic discovery of a body in the waterway near
the Thunder Centre on Saturday afternoon.
He's described as a slim Aboriginal male.
He may have been in the company of others...
in the area at that time.
[Ryan] To understand why so many Indigenous deaths in
Thunder Bay have been so badly investigated and
dismissed by police as accidental...
[Applauding]
...you have to go back to the release of the
Broken Trust Report, and its historic conclusion.
Overall, I found that systemic racism exists in
Thunder Bay Police Service at an institutional level.
[Cheering & applauding]
Systemic racism at an institutional level means
that the entire police system in Thunder Bay
is driven by racism- from top to bottom.
And for those that operate in that racist system,
Indigenous lives...
don't really matter as much.
Think of that system as a beehive.
But instead of worker bees and drones,
you have street cops, detectives, deputy chiefs.
And responsible for every single move within
that racist system, is a queen bee.
In Thunder Bay, that queen bee
is Police Chief Sylvie Hauth.
And the time has come to flush the hive.
♪
[Rolling thunder]
♪
It's been four years now since my podcast.
And on nights like this, I have to wonder what-
if anything- it's accomplished.
♪
Can Thunder Bay truly ever be fixed?
Will Indigenous people ever be safe here?
And how many more have to die...
before something is done?
And here's the problem:
one of the recommendations that came out of the 2018
Broken Trust Report- designed to fix
Thunder Bay's broken system
and end systemic racism in its Police Service-
was to appoint an Indigenous person to sit on its board,
the only governing body Chief Hauth has to listen to.
And, you'll remember,
that person was Georjann Morriseau.
But, from the very beginning,
she and Police Chief Sylvie Hauth-
the queen bee- have been going at it like
cats and dogs, stalling any chance of progress.
♪
It's especially damning after 2018.
At the end of 2018, you know,
that was meant to be a big reset.
Yeah, and since 2018,
I would say we've gone backwards.
This is not a failure to communicate that
we are experiencing here.
This is a very legitimate divide.
They made her believe that this was a new day,
this was a new thing, that we were going in a direction now
where her voice would be appreciated.
On the outside, you know,
we're talking about Joe and Janet Canada,
who read the press releases and look at
the Facebook posts, and...
it looks like things are being done.
But, when you have the information- and we have
the information- it's like we're being gaslit.
Mhm. I can work with anybody and, you know,
and carry out my duties...
effectively, but when I'm at this point,
it has to be very bad, and it is very bad.
♪
Okay, I can't drive like this.
This window is full of ice and snow.
I got to defrost this vehicle.
Is there a snow brush back there somewhere?
[Ryan] Anywhere? [Off-screen] There is.
I'm wondering what exactly has to happen here to get
this process of fixing the Police Board back on track?
♪
Worst off are the Indigenous families
still without answers...
about their dead loved ones.
It's heartbreaking, devastating to see.
Just so much of this is trauma, right?
And it's compounded by ongoing trauma.
Fuck!
Fucking unbelievable.
Well, that's one way to fucking do it in a snowstorm.
The frustration eats away at you.
You try to get answers.
But you only come away with more questions.
[Police Operator] You have reached the
Thunder Bay Police Service.
If you know your party's extension,
please dial it at any time. If you would like to report...
[Phone beeping]
[Phone] Media relations.
Hi, it's Ryan McMahon calling. How are you?
[Phone] I'm doing well, how are you?
I'm looking for interviews, conversations.
I'd really like to ask some questions.
[Phone] Okay, who would you like to speak to?
[Ryan] Everybody. [Phone] Everybody, okay.
Yeah, well, I mean, I would like to
sit across from Sylvie Hauth.
[Phone] Okay, I don't want to- I don't want to make you
think I'm throwing you around like a hot potato,
but my boss would be able to assist you with that.
Is he in today, do you know? Have you seen him?
[Phone] Uh, yeah, he's currently showing on my screen
as "unreachable", so I guess he's in a meeting,
but he is in this week.
You've got my number now, so...
[Ryan] I sure do. I hope to hear from you soon.
[Phone] Okay, sounds good.
[Sighing]
You know, it feels like we're being jerked around.
You're just iced out of this building, just...
[Sighing]
You're just de facto iced out, and that's it, that's,
that's what you get, so...
At the heart of this, for me, is the families, right?
And, just the ongoing...
struggle to accept that they may never get...
any answers or closure.
♪
If those at the top of the police pyramid don't want to
talk to me, maybe those at the bottom will.
♪
In Thunder Bay, the ice rink
is like a community water cooler.
If there's shit to talk, this is where it happens.
That's why I'm meeting a 30-year veteran cop here.
I'm hoping he'll open up about what's happening
on the inside, with Police Chief Hauth and
the other leaders on the second floor.
It's Kelly Walsh.
You might remember him as the guy who I've been
secretly meeting these past few weeks.
Uh, lots of...
lots of talk, lots of phone calls.
Lots of messages and whatnot. -Yeah.
He recently quit the force, and I want to know why.
But he's still a little cagey about details.
Everyone's afraid to come forward with anything
because, anyone that speaks out, they come after.
They will find a reason to make your life a living hell.
You ready for the puck drop?
Here we go.
♪
I can tell Kelly wants to get something off his chest.
The question is, is he ready to talk today?
[Laughing] I don't trust Ryan.
I think he's going to give me an elbow.
[Laughing]
I have never successfully...
ever had a rank-and-file officer
speak to me on the record.
That has never happened.
The response has universally been,
"Nope, absolutely not."
[Laughing]
Welcome to Northern Ontario, eh, Ryan?
[Laughing]
Walsh is out here giving out concussions.
You might be thinking,
why is McMahon cozying up to the cops?
And that's a fair question.
I'm not, and it's not easy to be here.
You know, police...
Indigenous people...
you know the story.
Whoa-ho! Yes!
Game winner! There's the man.
Whoa, he does a little celly, too.
Oh, you gave me a concussion.
I gave you a snow wash.
[Laughing]
I'm gonna tell you something right now.
-Yeah. -Police Services Board...
They should be disgusted with themselves.
Most guys would rather go to a gun call than walk in that
fucking station, and see those people.
That's how much hatred there is, and distrust.
I'll tell you that for free.
I hope they get what's coming to them.
I hope they, I hope, I hope the public sees.
What did he mean by, "I hope the public sees"?
Sees what?
♪
What's going on behind the walls of the
Thunder Bay Police Service?
How could the Broken Trust Report
have had such little effect?
To the best of our understanding,
there was no meeting following
the release of the reports.
There was no email.
There was nothing.
It was never directed to us at the Service by anyone in
the leadership capacity to say, you know,
"We expect you, or we're ordering you to read this."
There's all this rabble in the public
about systemic racism,
and these officers are not being told by their
leadership what that means, how to understand it.
They're not being ordered to read this report, clearly.
And in the meantime, how do we expect anything to change?
Who is this for anyway?
What are we doing all this for?
♪
It really shows another level of how dysfunctional and
toxic the Service is.
[Ryan] What does it tell you about that workplace?
[Laughing]
That nobody should be working there.
♪
I loved my job, my career was good.
Yeah.
I was almost, almost out. I was almost out, almost-
I almost served my life sentence, my 33.
-I was gonna go 35 years. -Right.
But I couldn't go back there, there's no way.
I retired to get better.
In case you're wondering what any of this could
possibly have to do with the botched investigation of
nine Indigenous deaths, think again.
We already know that Indigenous people
in Thunder Bay have already been so
dehumanized by the police...
that, for the police to be in such a state that it's
in now, imposes a further risk on them, right?
I mean, if the police already didn't
care about them before, you know,
all of this started coming out,
then what does that mean for them now?
If I'm frustrated by all of this,
I can only imagine what it's like for Georjann Morriseau,
who's stuck in the crosshairs of that fucked-up system.
[Georjann] Hello?
Hey, how are you?
[Georjann] I'm okay, just- the whole, like,
the last week and a bit,
just kind of catching up to me, right?
Yeah.
[Georjann] Didn't really sleep much last night, so I was,
like, up off and on throughout the night.
For Georjann, things have reached a boiling point.
♪
Instead of fixing systemic racism in
the Thunder Bay Police Force,
Chief Hauth has decided to investigate the
one Indigenous person that's trying to fix it.
This board really doesn't give a shit.
I'm the one in their sightline, I am the target.
They see nothing else, including the Chief,
and they're allowing that.
All because they did not like that I was
bringing real issues to the table,
and that I was also very transparent publicly...
about the work that needed to be done,
and all because I wouldn't be some little
minion puppet on the board.
So, they were upset about that.
"We can't control that one."
What made you pull the trigger on a
Human Rights Tribunal complaint?
What made me pull the trigger is...
the Chief on a phone call...
screams at me and says,
"Shut the fuck up. Shut your mouth," to me.
I said, "I'm done with this."
That was one of those moments where I'm like,
"Can I really do this?" I said,
"I will make a decision by tomorrow morning...
as to whether I'm even going to continue on this board."
That's when a familiar face gets dragged
back into this crazy story.
Like I said, I'm living, breathing this,
so it should all be top of mind.
Georjann Morriseau contacted me and said,
"I just feel like I need some legal backup here.
I don't know what's going on."
She felt this was starting to feel like retaliation and
harassment in regard to seeking that accountability.
You know, when you're fighting monsters,
when you're, when you're...
trying to create change, it takes a toll.
It absolutely does.
I did everything I can to work with everyone.
But you know what? I'm being called a liar,
I'm being targeted, attacked, spied on,
to ruin my life.
They've invaded her phone, they've invaded her home...
and her family.
In our view, it's nothing short of racially tainted
harassment and discrimination.
♪
The next day, I get a call from Georjann.
She has a plan...
to fight back.
Georjann is not one that's going to sit back and
let things happen that shouldn't be happening.
♪
She's stressing out.
Georjann is really stressed.
Oops. [Sighing]
-Aaniin! -Aanii!
She's about to go all-in...
in a very public way.
Because of the complete lack of response from the board,
member Morriseau decided she wanted to have
a little press conference,
and just put her position out there 'cause she was
getting tarnished in the press by the board.
The public needs to know that the Thunder Bay
Police Service is on the brink of collapse.
That's a pretty shocking assertion.
Mhm.
[Sighing]
There's a lot at stake.
A lot at stake here.
And it's not just, you know, me.
It's not even just the officers and the members of-
it's the entire community.
The safety of this community is hinged
on what happens through here.
There was some hope back in...
2018, when Broken Trust was released...
for some answers and closure.
But families, you know, continue to be disappointed
with the process and with the system.
There are people counting on you, right?
[Crying]
This isn't about me.
These are people, and we are...
treating them like garbage.
And, and their families suffer.
♪
We deserve better in this community.
Her press conference is three days away.
♪
If I were anywhere near the second floor of
the Thunder Bay Police Service,
I wouldn't be able to sleep.
This press conference could be the final card that
makes the house of cards fall.
This is it.
♪
[Buzzing]
To be fair, Chief Hauth didn't create
this racist system.
Hives like the Thunder Bay Police Service have existed
everywhere for as long as anyone can remember.
Her job, like all the queen bees that came before her,
is to simply keep it going...
to preserve and protect that system.
♪
Hi, there.
Can I get a medium-sized coffee with two milk?
Just a small hot chocolate's good, thanks.
-Small hot chocolate? -Yeah.
And the next day, I find out just how far Chief Hauth
is willing to go to uphold that system.
Another cop is ready to talk.
♪
Between the Chief and the management up there,
there's something sinister going on.
And, exactly what, I don't know.
Are they gonna bug my phone or are they following me?
What are they doing behind the scenes that I can't see?
There's no accountability for these people, none.
Like...
there should have been a criminal investigation
for the sergeant thing.
♪
[Sirens]
When he says, "the sergeant thing,"
Kerry is referring to an incident that
took place here nearly two years ago.
I was working overtime,
and there was a call in, like, stolen TV.
We got information about this house.
Might be some gangbangers there,
might be some drugs and guns.
We get to the house.
The Sergeant shows up, and all of a sudden,
I hear, "We're coming in." I'm like...
"Pardon? We need a warrant."
One of the other officers on the call is Kelly Walsh.
I look at him, I'm like...
I'm in disbelief.
And all of a sudden, we're going in.
Now, he's the ranking sergeant.
[Sighing]
We go in there, it's fuckin' chaos.
There's a toilet flushing.
The sergeant orders Dunning to kick the door in.
And, he moves the couch, finds some drugs.
So, now, we have drugs, we've kicked a door in,
I'm fighting with a guy. It's, it's chaos.
But, I mean...
wow, man, if there was a shooting, like,
who knows where this could have gone, so-
You knew you weren't supposed to be in there?
100%. It's a criminal offence!
We unlawfully entered an apartment.
So, that night, me and Kelly had a brief conversation.
I'm like, "Is it me or, is this fucked up?"
He's like, "No, this is bad."
"Okay, so it's not just me?" "Nope, nope."
♪
The next day, my boss came and, he told us,
"If you guys are caught talking about this or
spreading rumours, you guys are gonna be PSA'd."
"PSA" means Police Service Act charge?
Yeah, so to me right there, that gave me the impression
that, if you speak up, you're on the hit list.
And that crooked sergeant?
Fuck, nothing happens.
He's cleared, he's cleared within three weeks.
You've got potentially a criminal cop...
driving around.
You've got people covering up for it.
They all need to go.
Our series is about Indigenous people
that have died here. -Yeah.
So the question of whether people are doing their jobs
properly is a live question, but it can't be fixed if
there's a civil war happening inside of that building.
Oh, yeah.
[Jon] On one side, you have, you know,
hundreds of Indigenous families who don't know the
circumstances of their loved ones' deaths,
and on the other hand, you have, like,
the people who may have killed them still out there.
To me, it's dangerous, really, and,
and scary to think about that.
And yet, from the outside, to the casual observer,
all looks right as rain at the
Thunder Bay Police headquarters.
[News] Members of the Police Service have spent the
last four days taking part in what's being called
Reconciliation Training.
The mandatory training was created specifically
for the Thunder Bay Police.
The work that we're doing in this training is meaningful,
in that it's actually hitting home and resonating.
Meaningful?
This was Indigenous cultural awareness training.
Respectfully, papier-mâché masks and Powwow dancing
demonstrations are not what the Broken Trust Report
ordered to happen.
It would be fair for you to believe that because
they are going through reconciliation training,
because they're raising flags,
and because they're making videos with
the First Nations community, that they are trying,
that they are doing something,
that that is propelled by some sort of, like,
ideology that fits together.
[Willow] When in reality, none of that is happening.
The problem is that the recommendations from the
inquest and Broken Trust are not enforceable by anybody.
Nobody has to do them, and nobody's...
checking on that either.
Nobody except Georjann, who's ready to blow the
roof off with her big press conference tomorrow.
This is the intro?
Yeah, but I feel like I might have to add something.
All the efforts in this city to set things on the right
track regarding Indigenous death investigations,
we're in a worse place than we were at the inquest.
I'm writing today to make my first public statement
against the members of the
Thunder Bay Police Service Board,
the Chief of Police...
at the Thunder Bay Police Service,
as well as senior management.
The evidence is there, right,
and that's what's so frustrating about all of this.
You have evidence right in front of you.
And yet, nothing's changing.
Nothing's getting done about it.
This place is in the midst of a civil war.
You're seeing a lot of people jumping ship.
The wheels are about to come off of this thing.
But no one could have predicted
what would happen next.
♪
[Ryan] Hello. [Georjann] Hey.
[Ryan] Hi, Georjann. How are you?
[Georjann] I just didn't sleep yet,
so I'm just kinda...
getting my shit together here.
[Ryan] Yeah.
[Georjann] I do not want today to be
an easy deflection, with racism.
'Cause that can happen really quick.
You do what you have to do and, we'll talk to you after.
[Georjann] Bye. [Ryan] All right, bye.
♪
I think this press conference is the last best shot to
getting the truth out about what is wrong inside of the
Thunder Bay Police Service.
♪
[Ryan] How are you feeling? [Car alarm beeps]
Just breathe.
You have everyone's attention.
Just speak your truth.
[Georjann] Thank you so much. [Ryan] Yeah.
[Georjann] Okay. [Ryan] Okay.
Covid doesn't allow us to gather inside right now, so...
we're gonna sit in the parking lot and
watch the Zoom.
[Chantelle] In our view, it appears that
since December 2020, the board was
conspiring behind member Morriseau's back
to remove her from those duties.
This is good.
[Chantelle] It addresses all the matters discussed,
as well as derogatory...
[Jon] There are lots of people there.
Georjann Morriseau is here.
Chantelle Bryson is there.
Further, the board assorted-
asserted that member Morriseau...
I was informing what the allegations and the
complaints were, so the public knew
what was actually alleged.
...receipt of the OPP summary report provided by the...
[Jon] There's going to be a point at the end of this
where Georjann Morriseau is going to give a statement,
but we never got there.
You know, if we kind of go back a little bit and
we see over the last few years...
[Feedback & indistinct speaking]
Yes.
[Jon] All of a sudden, loud screaming.
So loud you can't tell what it is.
[Screaming]
They have to end the stream.
[Screaming]
A lot of, like, hybridized sexual violence.
[Stream] Oh, God. [Moaning]
And so we had to shut the press conference down.
[Stream] [Feedback & laughing]
Um...
Well, that's one way to end a press conference.
Somebody really wanted this press conference to be over.
It's, uh, it's disgusting.
[Ryan] The timing of the porn bomb-
Right.
-just so happened to be when Georjann Morriseau
opened her mouth.
As soon as she opened her mouth.
What the hell just happened in there?
-Oh! -Someone hacked it?
I don't know how many Zoom calls I've been on.
I've been on many, as I'm sure many others have,
and it's the first time this has happened.
Sometimes, things hurt so bad, you have to laugh.
[Laughing] This seems like par for the course.
It really does, and that's the worst part.
-It's like, you know... -Fucking Thunder Bay, man.
Not even good porn, either.
[Laughing]
[Ryan] Joking aside, the violence of the porn is-
-It was very violent, yeah. -Yeah.
I was most shocked that, once again,
neither the board nor the city did anything.
No one sought an investigation about,
how did this happen? Who did this?
Georjann Morriseau does not, in that meeting,
get to give her statement.
She does not get to respond to media questions.
And, the entire thing is left unclear for the public.
This will not silence me, and that's not to be reckless.
It will not prevent me from
upholding my duty to the public.
[Ryan] What does silencing Georjann Morriseau during
her own press conference via a porn bomb
say to Georjann Morriseau?
You're not wanted here.
♪
That's how systemic racism works.
You go along with it.
You keep your mouth shut.
You'll do just fine.
You can see it in the media spin they put out.
Press releases saying, "In face of all of this stuff
going on, the board's doing great, except for her.
The board is united, except for her."
♪
A few days after her conference,
all Georjann can think about is how far Chief Hauth and
the board will go to keep her quiet.
It's very scary to think and wonder, you know,
about who's tied to who and, you know,
and just wondering what my future is gonna be like here.
Just, "Am I gonna be alive to see another day?"
I mean, that's to the extent that I worry.
It's very real.
If Georjann's life is in danger,
someone should step in.
I mean, this is Canada, right?
Somebody out there has to care.
Hi, good morning. Mayor Bill Mauro, please.
Hi, Solicitor General Sylvia Jones, please.
I'm trying to get a hold of Dr. Huyer, please.
Uh, that's...
I've left an email, I've left a voicemail.
No, I...
I'm not going to leave anymore voicemails.
I'll call back.
Hi, I am hoping to talk to Premier Doug Ford.
This is in regards to the Thunder Bay Police Service.
Okay.
Best you can do. Thank you.
We're making a show about a city,
about what's going on in the city,
but the people at the city, themselves, won't talk.
And that's a big problem.
That's just a big problem.
♪
But Georjann isn't completely on her own.
There's someone else that desperately wants to change
Chief Hauth's broken system.
The most unlikely of ally.
And, it's not just one or two cops.
[Gunshot]
This time, it's the entire Police Association.
[Gunshots]
I've received this constant flurry of calls from officers
telling basically the same story of abuse of authority,
of cover-up of criminal conduct.
We have the association who's saying 70% of their
351 members are deeply unhappy and
have no trust in leadership.
That quickly evolved into a multitude of officers
wanting to do something about it-
file complaints, human rights complaints.
There are now 22 human rights complaints.
You start teasing it apart, that paints a picture of a
police force that really needs to figure out its shit.
Yeah. I think the management,
you need to wipe everybody out from up there.
I want to be careful here because there's been
so much scrutiny on the service and, you know,
how they've policed Indigenous people.
But to have officers not even have faith in itself anymore,
and obvious failings of leadership there,
is really quite outstanding and remarkable.
To this point, it has been impossible
to penetrate that building.
And all of a sudden, the walls just came down.
And, it was one of the moments in this journey
where we felt like, "This is the moment.
Here we go.
The board won't be able to ignore this."
But, surprise, surprise, they most certainly did.
For Chief Hauth, it was just more of the same-
business as usual in Thunder Bay.
[Reporter] Should Indigenous people in the city
trust the Thunder Bay Police Service to serve them?
[Chief Hauth] I will cooperate 100% fully with all the
investigations that are currently underway.
You need to let due process take place.
[Buzzing]
For years, we'd been trying to seek truth and justice
for the nine Indigenous victims and their families.
And now, we were being told to leave it to "due process".
This was our all is lost moment.
We'd hit rock bottom.
♪
What are we supposed to do?
We're told to be patient.
That change is coming, slow to come.
What is the reasonable timeframe for change
in Thunder Bay?
I will say that I didn't come in naive
to the extent that I thought, you know, I was
gonna come in and we were gonna change the world,
and we were gonna do all this stuff, but I brought my heart.
-Right. -And my soul to this.
Like, I really did.
People talk about this...
bubble that the leaders of Thunder Bay live in,
and I think that's it.
And, unfortunately, who's gonna stop them?
The day's coming. Something's gonna happen.
Like, it's inevitable in this town.
We haven't had the ultimate shit show.
Yeah, yeah.
And he was right, because here's what
I've learned about Thunder Bay-
when you think you've hit rock bottom,
there's always another bottom.
[Ryan] I think you have to see this.
[Off-screen] What's going on? What?
[Ryan] Holy shit. They...
This is- let me just double check.
Yeah, this is the leak. It's from a source.
[Off-screen] You can't...? [Ryan] I can't say who.
Confidential. Not to be shared.
♪
Holy shit.
[Off-screen] Who you calling?
Jon, Jon Thompson.
[Phone ringing]
[Jon] How's it going? [Ryan] Uh, can we meet?
[Jon] Yeah, sure, man.
A bombshell document- an internal reinvestigation
report covertly leaked online to journalists.
And, it's the mother of all police cover-ups,
so much so that it's almost impossible to fully take in.
Look at this.
♪
Okay, so these are all sudden-death cases that
warrant further investigation.
1,771... Jesus.
Those are Indigenous sudden deaths.
-So almost 2,000- -Yeah.
Between 2010 and 2017.
♪
Holy shit.
That's about 1.5% of the entire city's population,
were Indigenous and died suddenly between those years.
Jesus Christ.
That's like the- that's the volume we're talking about.
[Willow] The number, to me, was shocking.
We already knew from Broken Trust that, you know,
the police were doing a really...
shitty job at investigating Indigenous deaths.
I don't know if we were really prepared to
know how widespread that actually is.
There was no report linking the comparison of the
Stacy DeBungee case with others?
Yeah, yeah.
I know, read the third paragraph, page 24.
"No evidence searches, no canvass, no video seized,
there was no reported consultation
with criminal investigations branch supervisor
in relation to releasing the scene.
No timeline, no major case management."
Yeah. So the problem is, there's no evidence.
There's no evidence.
It is a complete devaluation of Indigenous life, period.
Nothing says more that your life doesn't matter
when you're clearly potentially murdered,
and everybody just goes off to Tim Hortons.
"Lack of coroner involvement.
The coroner was requested, but did not attend the scene."
This is what I've always said.
For some reason, the coroner's office have
always managed to not be held accountable.
They've never really had to speak to this.
The leaks were necessary to really kinda hit home
what's really happening here.
-Oh, fuck. -What?
-Oh, fuck. -Where are you?
Page 17...
A fucking baby.
There was a 2-month-old baby with cocaine in its system,
and there was a documented history of child abuse.
"No foul play.
No interviews conducted, no canvass.
No major case, no forensic interviews.
No interrogation, no polygraph."
♪
[Sighing]
♪
[Sighing]
Oh, I'm gonna fucking throw up.
♪
I've been told there were active efforts by the
Chief Coroner and the Chief of Police
to not give that report to the board.
And that is something that someone should look into.
♪ [Suspenseful music continues] ♪
[Door rattling]
♪
Hi there, looking to talk with Chief Sylvie Hauth, please,
and anyone else interested in clearing up what's been
happening on the second floor of this building
for a long, long time.
[Officer] Okay, give me a moment.
♪
This is the problem.
We're not, we're not allowed to scrutinize...
or ask questions about what these things mean.
And this is what has to end in this city.
People should have access to the Chief of Police.
♪
Hi, there. I'll be with you in just a moment.
We're just gonna let these folks come on through here.
♪ [Suspenseful music continues] ♪
All right, so unfortunately,
because you don't have an appointment,
they won't be able to do your interview today.
I apologize about the inconvenience.
♪
When you fuck up,
you don't get to lock your doors and hide.
♪ [Suspenseful] ♪
I know they can see through these fucking windows too.
I was told they were watching us last time we left here.
It's fucking pissing me off.
We're talking decades here in Thunder Bay of racism and
violence between Indigenous people and the police.
They need to go, and they need to be replaced.
I mean, how many chances do you give somebody?
At the end of the day, someone has to answer
for these problems, for this bad work.
The Chief Coroner's office is equally to blame.
They were named in the leaked report too.
They're the ones that ultimately are
supposed to determine how someone has died and,
make sure that there's some dignity in that,
when there hasn't been for, for so long
when it comes to Indigenous deaths.
That's what systemic racism is.
It's that happening over and over again,
on a level that doesn't have sufficient oversight
to be able to spot it and quash it.
♪
But in the never-ending line of bullshit,
sometimes you catch a break.
I keep trying to get a hold of Dr. Huyer.
♪
One of the dozens of calls I made last week
has finally paid off.
-Hi. -Hi, Dr. Huyer.
How's it going?
Dirk Huyer, the Chief Coroner, is ready to talk.
And so am I.
-I'm Ryan. -Ryan. I go by Dirk.
I want assurances that the Thunder Bay Police
won't have their hands all over
these 1,771 additional deaths.
These additional deaths,
who will reinvestigate these deaths?
I can't speak to where their decisions are because
I think they're still in conversation,
and reviewing this carefully and thinking through.
And you've not heard back from them?
No, I've heard back that things are continuing
in process, that I know.
But they're ongoing in their determination of all of
the steps for all of the cases.
In your purview as the Chief Coroner of Ontario,
should the Thunder Bay Police Service
reinvestigate those deaths?
It's a difficult question for me to specifically answer
because it really depends on the extent of
individual cases, whether there's criminal concerns...
There is a cover up afoot.
-And, it's shocking. -Yeah, so I'm not in, I'm not-
-I understand, but- -Overseeing that.
So, what I can tell you-
But you can tell the Ministry of the Attorney General.
You can, you can recommend that someone other than the
Thunder Bay Police Service look at these cases.
I could, but I'm not spec-
What we did is so that I'm not,
because of conflict that was identified,
there may be things within those cases that
the coroner didn't do as well as well. So-
Well, we know that that's true, right?
Correct, and-
So, we know that the coroner did not go to
certain death sites and, and do the job properly.
-Exactly. -We know that.
Yeah, and I openly agree with you.
The, um...
but what you may know, and I think I'm gonna
actually just reference my note...
Yes, yes, please, go ahead.
And... it's just, see what it said.
I'm sitting across from you,
and you're sitting across from me,
and we know what conversation we're having.
And we don't have the time, unfortunately, to, like,
speak in this kind of code.
In terms of that police service...
how can we continue to let them operate the way
they are, with the leadership they have?
Yeah, so I'm not overseeing that.
Thunder Bay has many complexities.
And, if I had the solution, we wouldn't be sitting here.
I live in the real world, so...
it's not like I was shocked by the lack of answers.
But, it still hurts.
When will these people, this corrupt,
racist system, be accountable to someone?
I want them to show up to work and do the job.
If you cannot do the job because
you're racially biased,
or you don't have the stomach for it,
or you don't care, then go find another job.
That is how the rest of the world operates.
That is not how the coroner's office operates,
and that is not how the
Thunder Bay Police Services operate.
There is no accountability.
None.
♪
Some mornings in Thunder Bay,
you wake up and the fog is so thick...
you can barely see across the lake.
♪
But other days, the fog lifts and everything comes clear.
♪
On June 28th, 2022,
four years after my podcast,
I woke up, there was no fog,
and I could see clear across to Nanoboozhoo.
♪
To Thunder Bay now
where there's some big news breaking.
Sylvie Hauth has been suspended as
Chief of the Thunder Bay Police Service.
Media release from the board confirm that Hauth was
suspended, as a result of the serious allegations
brought forward by the OCPC.
She's facing three charges under the Police Services Act.
♪
One of those is for illegally investigating Georjann.
A summary report came out with the Chief admitting that
she was the one who requested
a criminal investigation into me...
for no reason!
-Which the OPP denied. -Yeah, the OPP denied.
They denied- they said they weren't investigating you.
So, everybody all had a little part to play in it.
The board and the Chief of Police thought by
throwing crap at the wall, something was gonna stick.
They thought they had me on something, you know,
on breach of trust, and they didn't.
♪
The evidence against Hauth appears to show that,
not only did she lead the effort,
but that she then wrote in an update later,
that it would be improper for her Police Service to be
doing that investigation, which she ordered.
[Buzzing]
♪
When a colony loses its queen,
the hive can't survive.
So, for Thunder Bay, that's where the analogy ends.
♪
New people were brought in.
A temporary chief was put in charge.
Changes were promised- reinvestigations,
a fresh new beginning.
Will it work this time?
Will justice finally bring closure to
all of the grieving Indigenous families...
still looking for answers?
1,771 lives.
Plus 9.
Plus, who knows how many more?
♪
Well, it depends on who you ask.
♪
The next few months are gonna be critical
in terms of the next steps,
and what we do at the board,
with the administrators, with the service,
the city, everybody does.
How many times are we gonna have to do that?
You know, you think about the families
who have to endure this.
They're tired of hearing the same thing,
and then just getting nothing at the end of it.
Absolutely nothing.
If the Thunder Bay story proves anything,
it's that we can't go on like this.
We can't go on like this.
And after everything this city has been through,
leadership in this city owes this city
radical levels of transparency.
I'm talking radical levels.
Yeah, yeah.
And I can assure you that is not happening.
To date, none of my clients have been interviewed
by the Civilian Police Commission.
I have not received any response about why
they're not looking into discrimination and
harassment or misconduct.
I think it's gonna take time, but...
one thing I have done is reassure
this new administrator.
I said, you know: "I will support a path forward.
I am still here.
I will help you any way I can...
get to where we need to be."
♪
My family's had a long connection to this place,
and I love this place.
I grew up here.
The difference that is being made in this city is
being made by the community, itself.
It's being made by people making a difference in
their community, in spite of leadership here.
♪
There is actually no good way to end our story.
And it is our story.
♪
♪ [Indigenous singing] ♪
Baagijigaanan.
A word in the Ojibway language that says,
"every single one of us has something unique,
something beautiful, to offer this world".
♪
It's our responsibility as people,
to give our baagijigaanan freely to each other by
living a good life and practicing mino-biimadiziiwin.
This is why losing Indigenous community members
at the hands of violent, unsolved deaths...
hurts so much for these families.
Their loved ones never got to share their baagijigaanan
with the world.
To move forward in Thunder Bay...
Hell, to move forward in Canada and beyond,
we need to call on ourselves and each other
to share our baagijigaanan,
freely and unselfishly.
It cannot only be Indigenous community members that live
with a heartsick rage in the pit of their stomach
due to injustice and indifference.
In order to build a future where everyone can live free
of the fear of ending up dead when going out to a movie,
or hanging out with friends on a Friday night...
we need baagijigaanan.
We need my baagijigaanan.
We need your baagijigaanan.
Baamaapii, nindinawaamaagaanaadook.
Nahow. ..
Nahow.
♪