Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service reviewed 37 investigations going back to 2009, and singled out nine for another look
There was a two-year age difference between Josh Kakegamic and his older brother Kyle Morriseau, but the two boys were so inseparable that their mother, Lorene Kakegamic, would dress them in matching outfits, as if they were twins.
More than a decade later, Kyle’s case is one of nine sudden deaths of Indigenous people – including three other students – that have been reinvestigated after a 2018 report by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director found that Thunder Bay police failed to conduct proper initial investigations. That report,The reinvestigations are nowOntario’s chief coroner, Dirk Huyer. He met recently with Ms.
Communication with the family has been sparse, Ms. Kakegamic said. Other than the 2019 meeting, the only time she recalls being contacted is when someone phoned last summer to ask whether she wanted counselling – something her family has already been participating in since Kyle’s death. While the inquest was taking place, another First Nations person was found in the McIntyre River. Within hours of
The length of the reinvestigations has been hard on families. The process, started in June of 2019, was expected to take a year to complete but then the pandemic hit, causing delays because of restrictions on travel to the remote, fly-in communities where many of the families live.