There are calls for drastic change to policing in Thunder Bay, Ont. What could that look like?

The Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) in northwestern Ontario has been under intense scrutiny and pressure from multiple directions for months.

Current and former employees have filed human rights complaints against police brass. Two of three police oversight agencies in Ontario plus the Ontario Provincial Police have launched investigations into allegations of criminal misconduct against members of the force, including its leadership.

Most recently and significantly, a confidential report leaked to media organizations, including CBC News, detailed serious concerns with TBPS investigations into the sudden deaths of almost exclusively Indigenous people, and a recommendation was issued to reinvestigate 14 deaths of Indigenous people, with the possibility of more to come.

The ongoing turmoil has led to growing calls for drastic change, even the extreme option of disbanding the force — an option Thunder Bay councillors, at a meeting earlier this week, and Mayor Bill Mauro, in an interview, have rejected, with no indication that could happen in the near future.

Still, CBC News put these questions to experts: What would be required to disband a police force and what would that mean for policing in Thunder Bay? Here's what they said:

Can a police service in Ontario be disbanded? 

According to Ontario's Police Services Act, the police services board in Thunder Bay does have the authority to disband the service, with the consent of the province.

The board has five representatives — two members of city council, one municipal appointee and two others selected by the provincial government. 

That option appears unlikely at this point. When asked directly about this option, board chair Kristen Oliver told a news conference earlier this month: "I don't particularly agree that this police service should be disbanded."

Oliver and police Chief Sylvie Hauth have both said they believe city residents and Indigenous people should trust the existing force, adding they are continuing their work to transform the service, and improve the quality of their work and their relationships.

But that is not the only way disbandment could happen. 

The Ontario Civilian Police Commission could step in on its own, said Matthew Torigian, a former deputy solicitor general, former police chief in Waterloo, and now a distinguished fellow with the Munk School of Global Affairs and Public Policy. 

Under the Police Services Act, Torigian said the Ontario Civilian Police Commission (OCPC) — one of three police watchdog agencies in the province, under the solicitor general's portfolio — has significant authority over police forces in the province.

Before the commission would act, it must investigate and then hold a hearing, he said.

One of those investigations — into Thunder Bay's police chief, deputy chief, police lawyer and senior administration— began in February.

On March 16, Board Chair Kristen Oliver publicly stated the board is not under investigation and would comply with any investigation and act on any recommendations if wrongdoing is found to have occurred.  

"If it was in the opinion of the commission that there are some repeated or flagrant failures on the part of either the board or the service with respect to complying with prescribed standards, the commission would then have a number of options or measures in front of them," Torogian said. 

Those actions could include:

• Suspend or remove the chief or deputy chief of a service.
• Remove or suspend one or more members, or the entire oversight board.
• Appoint an administrator to oversee specified functions of the police force.
• Disband the police force.

Torigian said he is not aware of any commission investigations that have led to the disbandment of an entire police service, but in 2018 in Thunder Bay, an investigation headed by now-retired senator Murray Sinclair led to the temporary dissolution of the police oversight board and appointment of an independent overseer. 

Could the commission take interim measures?

Yes, according to Torigian and the Police Services Act.

Interim measures could be brought in if there is an emergency and they're in the public interest. 

That was the case in Durham in 2019, as the OCPC announced an investigation into allegations of misconduct by senior members of the service and the services board in January that year. 

Four months later, the commission found  "a crisis of confidence within the service." That included a lack of trust in the service's leadership, and concerns about retaliatory discipline and bullying, and they appointed an administrator — former Toronto police deputy chief Mike Federico — to manage some of the service's functions, including promotions, hiring, internal disciplinary processes and public complaints.

The commission has not said if it is considering any similar actions and wouldn't comment on its ongoing investigation.

Could the OPP be brought in?

NDP MPP Sol Mamawaka as well as Julian Falconer, a lawyer who's been actively involved in cases against the Thunder Bay police, have suggested that the OPP step in, given the Thunder Bay force's troubles.

There are two ways that could happen.

Following an investigation or an interim ruling, the civilian police commission could require the OPP to provide all or some policing services in a municipality, according to the Police Services Act.

The second way, according to a spokesperson with the OPP, is for a municipal council to pass a motion requesting that the provincial police force issue a contract proposal.

Despite Thunder Bay council's apparent lack of appetite for that step, it's happened in two other northwestern Ontario municipalities — Dryden in 2021 and Kenora in 2008. 

Still, the OPP would never initiate a costing proposal for a city and would only do so upon request, said Mike Armstrong, the former OPP regional commander for northwestern Ontario when Kenora amalgamated its police service.

At the time of amalgamation, Armstrong said Kenora's city council was concerned about rising costs of policing, something that remains a central issue today with policing across Canada. But there was also concern among community members as well as the senior Crown attorney and head of pathology at the local hospital with the ability of local police to conduct criminal investigations, Armstrong told CBC News.

What would that look like? 

Bringing in the OPP would take months of work, involving budgeting estimates, local consultation and ultimately approval from a majority of city councillors, Armstrong explained. 

OPP spokesperson Bill Dickson said the organization has not conducted a costing proposal for a city the size of Thunder Bay in at least 10 years, but Armstrong added the OPP's two largest detachments, in Essex and Wellington, could compare in size to Thunder Bay.

For a costing proposal to happen, there would have to be buy-in from some on city council — something that doesn't appear likely for now.

CBC News asked all 13 members of Thunder Bay city council if they would support a conversation on receiving a costing proposal from the OPP. They all declined or did not respond to the request by deadline, except for Mayor Bill Mauro, who also sits on the police oversight board.

"At this point, it's not something I'm considering, and to my knowledge, it's not something that any other councillor to this point is considering," he said. "But again, anybody at any time could bring it forward and have a motion seconded, and then debated and voted."

Could First Nations policing be an option? 

Indigenous leaders and policing experts have encouraged people in Thunder Bay to consider other options to the city's current police service.

"It perhaps is time to think outside of those little boxes," said Naiomi Metallic, the chancellor's chair in Aboriginal law and policy at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia and a member of the 2019 expert panel on policing in Indigenous communities, which was sponsored by the federal government.

"The OPP has its own long history of issues with Indigenous communities … think of the Ipperwash crisis," she said to CBC News. "Why can't people think about some other option that actually sees a much more robust Indigenous presence?"

As an example, she pointed to the Tsuut'ina Nation Police Service near Calgary, a First Nations policing agency that offers its services to a small neighbouring non-Indigenous community.

Ojibway author and columnist Tanya Talaga also urged Thunder Bay to think about a new way of policing, asking Indigenous people and leaders to oversee those conversations, in a column in the Globe and Mail and on CBC's Superior Morning. 

LISTEN | Superior Morning's Sean Vanderklis interviews Tanya Talaga:

"Ask the people to put together their vision of what a police force could look like. Maybe that's built around the existing police forces within Indigenous communities, and then work with the people that they choose to work with to go forward," she said.

"We have done the same thing over and over again in Thunder Bay. It is time to turn things over now and look for something more hopeful, look for something different."