THUNDER BAY – A quartet of senior city administrators spent Wednesday morning on the stand at the coroner’s inquest examining the deaths of seven students.
The panel, which consisted of recently retired city manager Tim Commisso, city clerk John Hannam, corporate communications manager Karen Lewis and acting director of recreation and culture Donna Sippala answered questions from coroner’s counsel and lawyers for the parties with standing.
The inquest, which has been ongoing since last October, is probing the deaths of Jethro Anderson, Curran Strang, Paul Panacheese, Robyn Harper, Reggie Bushie, Kyle Morriseau and Jordan Wabasse, who all came to Thunder Bay from remote First Nations communities to attend high school and died between 2000 and 2011.
Proceedings are currently in the second phase, which is examining systemic and circumstantial evidence that contributed to the students’ deaths to help the five-member jury create recommendations to prevent future, similar deaths.
The city panel was asked a number of questions about their efforts to combat racism, specifically the Anti-Racism and Respect Advisory Committee. They told the inquest the committee is looking at ways to measure racism, primarily through establishing an incident reporting system.
Hannam spoke about the Walk A Mile film project, which was created in 2013. The five short documentaries are accompanied by curriculums and teaching guides for different school grades and workplaces and have been utilized by a number of different groups and organizations.
In addition, watching the series and taking cultural sensitivity training is a requirement for new city hires and plans are in place for existing staff to take the training.
Another prominent focal point during the questioning was the city’s commitment to creating youth centres.
Commisso and Hannam talked about administration’s plans to partner with the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre to construct a $10 million youth centre, which has stalled due to the lack of a capital funding commitment from the former Conservative federal government.
Sippala said, in the meantime, two youth sites were opened last year at the Current River Rec Centre and West Thunder Community Centre. There are also plans to open two additional sites later this year, with one located in the north downtown core and the other in the Northwood area.
Other witnesses have previously testified there are few recreational opportunities for students from remote communities who attend Dennis Franklin Cromarty High School and the Matawa Learning Centre.
Hanging out at the mall, movie theatre, bus terminal or going on bus rides are common activities for the students because there is nothing else to do, the inquest has heard.
