Chief of Thunder Bay’s embattled police force notes families’ ‘pain and suffering’ but says change takes time [Video]

Amid calls for the Thunder Bay Police Service (TBPS) to be disbanded, its police chief says much work to rebuild community trust has been done, but it’ll take time to address outstanding concerns.

Chief Darcy Fleury spoke to the media following the police oversight board’s monthly meeting on Tuesday afternoon, a day after First Nations leaders, Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa and family members of Indigenous people who recently died in Thunder Bay addressed a news conference at Queen’s Park.

They called for the TBPS to be disbanded and for an outside police service to investigate the deaths of Corey Belesky, Mackenzie Moonias and Jenna Ostberg. 

“We continue to share their [the families’] pain and suffering and understand that [these are] very difficult times,” Fleury said.

As progress is made in each death investigation, he said, police will meet with the families as is appropriate.

These latest developments come after Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) announced they had …