Nearly seven years after Stacey Debunji’s body was found in a river flowing through Thunder Bay, Ont., A disciplinary hearing for two officers involved in an inadequate sudden death investigation is set to begin today.
Sgt. Sean Harrison and Sergeant. Sean Whipple both face charges under the Police Service Act of neglect of duty and discrediting behavior because of their roles in investigating Debunji’s death. Sgt. Susan Kaucharik was also charged with negligence under the Police Services Act, but she retired before the disciplinary hearing.
Debunji’s body was found in the McIntyre River on the morning of October 15, 2015. Within hours, the Thunder Bay Police Department (TBPS) issued a press release saying the death was not considered suspicious. The next day, before the autopsy was performed, police said the death did not appear to be a crime.
The Office of the Independent Director of Police Review (OIPRD) reviewed the TBPS investigation. A report published in February 2018 details several shortcomings in the initial police investigation, saying officers made the premature conclusion that DeBungee was intoxicated and rolled into the river.
The report found that officers were unable to contact witnesses and pursue additional clues, including a potential confession of the deathbed by someone who claimed to have pushed DeBungee into the river.
Brad Debunji has spent the last six years seeking justice and fighting for answers to his brother Stacey’s death.
Brad Debunji is seeking responsibility and justice for his brother Stacey, who died more than six years ago. (Logan Turner / CBC)
With the disciplinary hearings yet to begin, Brad said he did not know what to expect, but it was a long time.
He wants the staff involved in the initial, insufficient investigation “to be held accountable for what they did, so that the next people who try to do what they do will not be allowed to do so.”
Asha James, a lawyer representing the Debunji family, said she hoped the case would send a message to other officials tasked with investigating the deaths of the city’s indigenous people.
“Police services are not allowed to provide one type of justice for indigenous victims and another type of justice for non-indigenous victims,” she told CBC News.
A long court battle could begin before the hearing
There are three weeks set aside for the disciplinary hearings, which will be publicly available for people to watch in person or online.
The hearings hardly took place.
While the OIPRD ordered local police forces to hold disciplinary hearings against officers in 2018, the city’s police council had to decide whether to allow an extension to allow the proceedings to continue – as more than six months have passed since the conduct took place.
Retired Judge Lee Ferrier was appointed to make that call. He decided he would hear arguments about whether it was reasonable to hold disciplinary hearings, given the time since DeBungee’s death. But he decided to do it behind closed doors, without public access.
The DeBungee family, Rainy River First Nation, and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation fought against the decision, eventually prompting Ferrier to make the hearing public. In February 2021, after a long court battle, Ferrier ruled that the delay was reasonable and there was a public interest in the upcoming disciplinary hearings.
Under the Provincial Police Service Act, the police chief of the service can choose who he wants to both prosecute punished officers and who he wants to judge hearings.
Joel Dubois, an Ottawa-based lawyer, will serve as prosecutor, and retired OPP officer Greg Walton will serve as a hearing judge.
History of inadequate police investigations
There is a long, documented history of incomplete or inadequate police investigations into the deaths of Indigenous people in Thunder Bay.
Caitlin Casper, an Aboriginal legal services lawyer, remembers the day Debunji’s body was found. She represented several of the families in the investigation of the seven young men, which investigated the circumstances surrounding the deaths of seven children from the first nations who died while attending a high school in the city. The bodies of some of these children were also found in rivers flowing through northwestern Ontario.
Caitlin Casper, a senior lawyer with Aboriginal Legal Services, said she hoped the disciplinary hearings would send a message that police officers who do not adequately investigate indigenous deaths will face consequences. (Susan Goodspeed / CBC)
“It really exposed him there, racism and how much it affects it [the Thunder Bay police’s] ability and willingness to investigate [when Indigenous people die]”
OIPRD’s findings from the DeBungee death investigation led to a further review of 39 sudden deaths of Indigenous people in Thunder Bay. While then-OIPRD chief Gary McNeely later told CBC News that he wanted all 39 deaths investigated, he eventually recommended that a joint team of police officers re-investigate nine of the deaths as part of the project. Broken Trust to build relationships and trust with the city’s indigenous people.
The Broken Trust team completed these re-investigations last year, and they have spent the past few months sharing the results with family members – who themselves have been highly critical of the process.
But as part of the mandate of the Broken Trust team, investigators reviewed additional investigations into the sudden death of TBPS. In March 2022, they filed a confidential report with the Attorney General of Ontario. This report, which had leaked to several media organizations, including CBC News, recommended that 14 indigenous deaths be re-investigated. Some of these deaths are recent in 2019. The news has sparked outrage from indigenous leaders across the province, along with growing calls for the police service to be completely dismantled.
A decision on what to do with these cases was not made before the provincial elections were called.
(CBC News Graphics)
Casper said the whole process of seeking justice for the indigenous people was tiring and frustrating. But she hopes that these disciplinary hearings that hold officials involved in the inadequate investigation into DeBungee’s death accountable will be a “turning point.”
“Every single death had to be built on and embedded in what we see now, namely that if employees are incompetent or unwilling to do their job, they must be directly responsible,” Casper said.
“I really hope this is a catalytic moment, I hope for self-reflection on behalf of the police, because go ahead, this has to be done every time.”
But after so many years of fighting for justice, Brad Debunji doesn’t have high hopes.
“It took so long. I don’t know what the penalties will be, but I think it’s simple [going to be] a blow to the wrist. “
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