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Communities · Thunder Bay · reviewed August 2026

Four faces, one institution

Two oversight bodies found, in the same month of 2018, that policing in Thunder Bay failed Indigenous people systemically — in death investigations (Broken Trust) and at the governance level (the Sinclair report, which called the Board's failure an emergency). This page follows what happened when Indigenous people then brought that reality to the one venue that can order Code remedies. Four verified records, four positions in the institution, one pattern.

The governance insider — Georjann Morriseau

Anishinaabe; former Chief of Fort William First Nation; appointed to the post-Sinclair board and made chair to implement the reports. Reported suspected misconduct; was investigated by the service she oversaw, a production order sought against her personal phone; replaced as chair in an early election; cleared by the OPP. Five tribunal applications; discrimination claims dismissed for jurisdiction — applying the Supreme Court's control-and-dependency test, a chair is neither employee nor service recipient — but two reprisal claims survived with a genuinely significant ruling: s. 8 protects those who institute proceedings even where the underlying claims fail. Then, June 2, 2026, the applications were deemed abandoned: the day before the hearing she asked opposing counsel for consent to adjourn but did not copy the Tribunal; counsel refused, copying the Tribunal; when the Zoom hearing convened she was not there. The highest-placed Indigenous voice in the institution's oversight, out of the system without a merits finding. No reconsideration or judicial review appears in any reporting since; both 30-day windows have passed, leaving only discretionary extension.

The Indigenous officer — Ogima

Inside the service itself: employment application on race, ancestry, ethnic origin, family status — and reprisal. Part of the represented 2025 cohort; personal respondents removed; continuing per the record we hold, while the same officer's bravery is publicly commended by the service. The insider's path is slower, not different: within the same cohort, Nordal's reprisal claims were dismissed in June 2025 for lacking factual basis, Hanchuck's in July 2026, and the underlying grievance the cluster grew from — a sergeant's warrantless entry that fellow officers reported up the chain and saw cleared internally — ended in May 2026 with that sergeant criminally convicted and sentenced to three years for obstruction and breach of trust. The officers who reported him are still litigating what reporting him cost them.

The bereaved father — Ron Chookomolin

His son Marlan died in June 2017; his application alleged the death investigation was deficient through systemic racism — filed the month before Broken Trust confirmed that pattern service-wide. Seven years pending; dismissed on standing; the civil clock expired in the queue; the public-interest power that could carry his claim has never been used. His case is the s. 35 gap made flesh.

The civilian — DeBungie

Self-represented; deemed to have abandoned his application for not filing the right pre-hearing documents; reconsideration denied February 2026, citing the Divisional Court. Five and a half years, filing to dismissal. The ordinary applicant's ending: not disbelieved — unheard.

The pattern, stated precisely. Chair, officer, father, civilian: every position an Indigenous person can occupy relative to this institution appears in the verified record, and no path has yet reached a merits finding. The employment path (represented) ends procedurally; the civilian path (self-represented) ends on standing and process. The grounds tally across the service's decisions shows the Indigenous-identity cluster (~170 mentions) second only to disability — and "reprisal," punishment for complaining, outnumbering every substantive ground at 203. The oversight reports said the institution fails Indigenous people; the tribunal record adds: and the claims system has not yet held a single hearing about it.

Tracking forward: any Morriseau reconsideration or judicial review · the continuing cluster files · the Commission's answer to the s. 35 request · Inspector General activity at TBPS. Marlan Chookomolin's story as a standalone feature awaits family-respecting sourcing from published reporting before publication.