It was a tragic month in Thunder Bay.
Just weeks after Brandi Marie Wingert was killed, the result of a domestic dispute, police are dealing with two more bodies, cases they’ve labeled suspicious deaths.
While they await the post-mortem examination results, it’s time for community leaders to seriously consider what steps to take next.
Should the two most recent deaths be labeled homicides, that would bring the city’s total to eight in 2014.
That would make 25 murders over the past five years, the most in any five-year period dating back to the 1980s.
Murders or not, it’s time the community came together and held a public forum to discuss the situation and what steps need to be taken to ensure Thunder?Bay loses the murder capital of Canada designation once and for all.
One death is too many, and we’re on pace to hit double digits in 2014.
We need to fix the problem, which likely means finally addressing the social stigmas – poverty, alcohol and substance abuse and addiction – before it’s too late.
That means bringing everyone to the table, including all three levels of government as well as Aboriginal leadership; social services also need a prominent spot at the table. Only then can we say we’ve really tried.
