THUNDER BAY – Don Rusnak doesn’t believe Thunder Bay is a city in crisis.
But the Thunder Bay-Rainy River MP acknowledges there are challenges facing the city that require solutions, announcing plans to hold a community relations and reconciliation summit.
That gathering to bring local federal and provincial representatives together alongside municipal and Indigenous leaders, senior officers with the Thunder Bay Police Service and other community organizations and stakeholders.
“I don’t think it’s in crisis. I think there’s a lot of issues here but there are a lot of issues right across the country,” Rusnak said at a Tuesday afternoon conference, joined by Fort William First Nation Chief Peter Collins and Thunder Bay Coun. Paul Pugh.
“The media likes to focus on the negative sometimes and I want to shift that and lets focus on the positive and what we can do to make sure the negative doesn’t happen. I think you hear opposition MPs often sometimes just yelling and screaming saying that there’s a problem but they never offer solutions, and that’s what I want to do.”
Indigenous leadership, including Nishnawbe Aski Nation Grand Chief Alvin Fiddler, have described Thunder Bay as having a “policing crisis” following the deaths of Indigenous teens Tammy Keeash and Josiah Begg last month.
Collins also said he doesn’t believe Thunder Bay is in crisis, though he can understand why people see it that way.
“It could be perceived as that but there are issues of safety and concern about the young people being lost in the river way,” Collins said. “I guess if look at it for me and my perspective what I see in Thunder Bay, we got work. We got work on many different fronts.”
Keeash, the 17-year-old from North Caribou Lake First Nation, was found in the Neebing-McIntyre Floodway on May 7. The cause of death was deemed to be consistent with drowning and police have said there has been no evidence of criminality, though the investigation remains open.
The body of the 14-year-old Begg, from Kitchenuhmaykoosib Inninuwug First Nation, was recovered from the McIntyre River on May 18, nearly two weeks after his last reported sighting. Police have not publicly revealed the cause of death and last month said they were still trying to gather evidence about how he entered the water.
Fiddler has called for the RCMP to take over, accusing Thunder Bay police of conducting inadequate investigations. Similar criticism was levelled at city police for their handling of the investigation into the October 2015 investigation into the death of 41-year-old Stacy DeBungee, who was found in the McIntyre River.
Federal NDP leadership candidate Charlie Angus, the MP for Timmins-James Bay, has echoed calls for the national police force to take over the investigation into the river deaths.
“I believe the Thunder Bay police do an amazing job,” Rusnak said, with acting police chief Sylvie Hauth present.
“I have full confidence in the Thunder Bay Police Service. We need them at the table. They are an important part of this community. I personally know a lot of their members and great people who work hard and really love this city.”
Rusnak, the chair of the federal Liberal government's Indigenous caucus, would not answer when asked about whether the gathering would address other factors such as social conditions in remote Indigenous communities.
“This is about a starting point and where we go, I’m not going to make the final decisions. I’m not the leader in this. I just wanted to make sure we can all come together and how it all evolves, we’ll wait and see,” Rusnak said.
Rusnak said the summit is being planned for late July or early August, depending on the availability of the participants.
