Recommendations Regarding TBPS Sudden Death and Other Investigations 1. Nine of the TBPS sudden death investigations that the OIPRD reviewed are so problematic I recommend these cases be reinvestigated. 2. A multi-discipline investigation team should be established to undertake, at a minimum, the reinvestigation of the deaths of the nine Indigenous people identified. 3. The multi-discipline investigative team should establish a protocol for determining whether other TBPS sudden death investigations should be reinvestigated. 4. The multi-discipline investigation team should also assess whether the death of Stacy DeBungee should be reinvestigated, based on our Investigative Report and the Ontario Provincial Police review of the TBPS investigation. The team should also assess when and how the investigation should take place, without prejudicing ongoing Police Services Act proceedings. 5. TBPS should initiate an external peer-review process for at least three years following the release of this report. Recommendations Regarding TBPS Investigators and the Criminal Investigations Branch 6. TBPS should immediately ensure sufficient staffing in its General Investigation Unit in the Criminal Investigations Branch. Adequate resources must be made available to enable this recommendation to be implemented on an urgent basis. 7. TBPS should establish a Major Crimes Unit-within the Criminal Investigations Branchthat complies with provincial standards and best practices in how it investigates serious cases, including homicides, sudden deaths and complex cases. 8. TBPS should provide officers, who have taken the appropriate training with opportunities to be assigned to work with Criminal Investigations Branch and the Major Crimes Unit investigators to gain experience. 9. TBPS should develop a formalized plan or protocol for training and mentoring officers assigned to Criminal Investigations Branch and the Major Crimes Unit. 10. TBPS should develop a strategic human resources succession plan to ensure the General Investigations Unit, Criminal Investigations Branch and the Major Crime Unit is never without officers who are experienced in investigations. Recommendations Regarding Missing Persons Cases 21. I urge the Ontario government to bring into force Schedule 7, the Missing Persons Act, 2018, as soon as possible. 22. TBPS and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board should re-evaluate their missing persons policies, procedures and practices upon review of the report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls, due to be released on or before April 30, 2019. 23. TBPS and the Thunder Bay Police Services Board should re-evaluate their missing persons policies, procedures and practices upon review of the Honourable Gloria Epstein's report on Toronto Police Service's missing persons investigations due to be released in April 2020. Recommendations Regarding the Relationship between the Police and the Coroner's Office 24. The Office of the Chief Coroner, Ontario's Chief Forensic Pathologist, the Regional ...
