The review of the deaths of nine Indigenous people continues by the Office of the Chief Coroner.

In an email to Acadia News Wednesday, Issues Manager Stephanie Rea issued this statement on behalf of Dr. Dirk Huyer, the Chief Coroner of Ontario.

“Presently, the multi-discipline investigation team is reviewing information and reports from the OPP, the Thunder Bay Police Service, the Office of the Chief Coroner, as well as speaking with families and witness,” said Rea. “The timeline for completing the investigations took longer than originally anticipated –the pandemic created mobility challenges for traveling to interview witnesses etc. Work continues to move forward to complete the report and towards release in summer 2021.”

The statement went onto say that the report’s goal is to find out what can be better and to determine best practices to improve the quality of future investigations.

The statement went onto say: “While the Executive Governance Committee agreed that Stacy DeBungee’s death should be reinvestigated, the Ministry of the Attorney General recently engaged the OPP to reinvestigate the death of Mr. DeBungee. The OPP will be leading that investigation separately from the Broken Trust investigative teams.”

The issues manager stressed that a Victim Liaison Officer communicates with the families of the victims often and that information shared with families is confidential.

Concerns were raised Tuesday about the involvement of Thunder Bay Police Chief Sylvie Hauth in the re-investigations by both the family members of the nine Indigenous people as well as Julian Falconer from Falconers Law Firm.

The re-investigations were called following the release of the Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service report.

The statement indicated that their requests have gone unanswered, leading to questions of a possible conflict of interest.

Falconer believes the Thunder Bay Police have failed the Indigenous community.

“My clients are once again left in the dark, denied the transparency and answers they deserve about what happened to Stacey DeBungee and about the role of the Chief of the Thunder Bay Police in the re-investigation process,” said Falconer.

The lawyer feels harsh measures are needed to ensure the safety of this community: “Now all things must come to an end, and this service is one of them. Indigenous people will remain in danger, in jeopardy, as long as the Thunder Bay police is responsible for protecting their safety.”

Beulah Wabasse lost her grandson Jordan Wabasse more than a decade ago. The 15-year-old first went missing February 7, 2011. His body was found more than three months later in the Kaministiquia River. There are still many questions as to what actually happened to Jordan.

Beulah said more than anything, she just wants answers.

“My grandson Jordan, we are still waiting,” noted Beulah. “We just want to know. There is more to his death than what happened. I can’t just let it go and be forgotten. I’m not going to give up. I’m not going to give up as long as I live.”

DeBungee’s brother Brad says it feels like police have taken “two steps forward, three steps back” in how they handle Indigenous people’s deaths.

He said the police are not being “trustworthy in their actions,” accusing Chief Hauth of not keeping the promises she made to him when the OIPRD published its report.

“[Hauth said] she’d be honest and open with me if I had any questions that she could answer, but I haven’t heard anything back in the last year or so on any direction that they are taking,” said Brad DeBungee.

“It’s almost three years since the OIPRD report came out, since the recommendations. They haven’t seemed to follow any of them, it’s like they’re playing a game.”

He questions whether police treated Stacy fairly or justly when they ruled his death not suspicious.

The body of Stacy DeBungee was found in the McIntyre River in 2015. Police initially deemed the death “non suspicious.” Later, the Broken Trust Report singled out the DeBungee investigation as poorly carried out.

When it comes to the recommendations of the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (OIPRD) in the Broken Trust report, Police spokesperson Scott Paradis referred to previous updates to both the Thunder Bay Police Service Board and added the next annual update will be provided to the board in January 2022.