Thunder Bay police officer shouldn’t be scapegoat for force’s systemic racism, his lawyer says

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The Thunder Bay police officer found guilty of discreditable conduct and neglect of duty in the investigation into the death of a First Nations man doesn’t deserve to be demoted and made a scapegoat for the service’s tarnished reputation as being systemically racist, argued the defence lawyer for Staff Sergeant Shawn Harrison on the first day of his sentencing hearing.

David Butt, a Toronto-based lawyer, said in his submissions Tuesday in Thunder Bay that any punishment related to racial discrimination in the investigation into the death of Stacy DeBungee should fall on the shoulders of police leadership, and that his client will lose out on income and pension if he’s demoted permanently.

“The Thunder Bay Police Service has enormous, long-standing, deep and broad problems with the Indigenous community,” Mr. Butt said, suggesting his client was thrown under the bus by the force to divert attention.

“He cannot bear the sole blame,” he said. “This was a systemic problem, and we obscure that systemic problem if (a) we fail to recognize it, and (b) we recast it as one bad apple.”

Staff Sgt. Harrison was found guilty of neglect of duty and discreditable conduct this past July. Hearing officer Greg Walton said that, as the lead investigator, the staff sergeant failed to treat Mr. DeBungee’s death equally to other cases, discriminating against the 41-year-old Indigenous man because of an unconscious bias.

Mr. DeBungee’s body was found in a city river on Oct. 15, 2015. Staff Sgt. Harrison’s disciplinary hearing revealed that he quickly theorized with little investigation that Mr. DeBungee was likely intoxicated, had passed out, and rolled into the water and drowned.

Mr. DeBungee’s family and community suspected the death was being treated as an accident from the beginning, and filed a public complaint in 2016 with the Office of the Independent Police Review Director, or OIPRD. The complaint prompted a sweeping investigation of the service that for many Indigenous people in Thunder Bay validated the racism and discrimination they had experienced for decades. A report called Broken Trust, released in 2018, delivered dozens of recommendations for reforming the police force.

A second report with similar findings was also released that year with recommendations for the service’s board. That report was led by former Truth and Reconciliation commissioner and retired senator Murray Sinclair for the Ontario Civilian Police Commission, or OCPC.

Local leadership has called for the dismantling of the service for failing to make any meaningful change, after more turmoil within the service and board in the past year, with a number of human-rights complaints, the suspensions of both the police chief and deputy chief, and a now defunct board being overseen by an administrator appointed by the province for the second time in four years.

Mr. Butt said in his submissions that the OIPRD and OCPC reports, as well as a recent report from the expert panel hired by the police board, call for fundamental changes to the problematic systemic structures that officers like Staff Sgt. Harrison are obligated to work within.

“A detective is limited by the systems built around him,” he said. “There’s not a single recommendation in any of those reports about punishment because you can’t punish your way out of this huge problem.”

Mr. Butt is seeking a one-level demotion for a period of three to six months for his client, describing him as an exemplary officer with a commendable investigative record serving the Indigenous community, who was never put on administrative duties or removed from the front lines, and was promoted months after the initial DeBungee complaint was filed in 2016.

The service’s prosecution is asking for a demotion to first-class constable for at least a year with no supervisory roles.

“You have a police service whose reputation was and already is so far down the toilet, it’s really impossible to say how much worse this case has made things,” Mr. Butt argued.

Jim Leonard, public complainant and former chief of Rainy River First Nation, where the DeBungee family is from, about 380 kilometres west of Thunder Bay, testified how the case has deepened the mistrust in police and that it’s difficult for him and other community members to go to the city.

“It hasn’t improved, it’s still there today,” Mr. Leonard said.

“We’re no further ahead than we were in 2015,” he said about getting answers or closure around Mr. DeBungee’s death, which has since been reinvestigated by other police services.

Mr. DeBungee’s siblings, Brad DeBungee and Candace DeBungee, also testified on Tuesday about how the case has affected them.

”The very people we’re supposed to trust didn’t even do their job,” a distraught Ms. DeBungee said, noting how long they’ve endured the process without getting clear answers.

She said her brother was her best friend and confidant, someone who would give the shirt off his back and his last 10 cents. “A lot of repair has to be done,” she said.

The sentencing hearing is expected to wrap up on Wednesday with a decision coming at a later date.