Thunder Bay police lauded for diversity project

Thunder Bay's police chief says he's proud of the recognition a United Nations agency has given the Diversity in Policing Project.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)cited the programas noteworthy for fighting discrimination and racism.

The Diversity in Policing Project was initiated in 2004 by former police chief Bob Herman, the Thunder Bay Multicultural Association, and the Thunder Bay Indian Friendship Centre to address peoples complaints about systemic discrimination within the police service.

Chief J.P. Levesque said diversity training has come a long way since he was an officer.

"I've sat in a room with 30-odd police officers early in my career and been told by trainers that we were all racist," he said.

Levesque said how officers and civilian staff are now trained is one of the key components of the diversity project.

"It's more of a history of peoples and cultures and whatnot," Levesque continued.

"So we looked at that and we went into it not saying 'you're racist,' but saying that 'everybody has biases, police are no different. You just need to recognize your biases'."

No quick fix

The project included a review of over 11,000 pages of policy and procedure, looking for anythingthat might contribute to systemic discrimination.

Most of the subsequent training was carried out in 2008 and 2009, and sporadically since then.The police service is now working on retooling the program something that Diversity Thunder Bay's Walid Chahal said is a good idea.

"[They are] moving in the right direction, because obviously the training, and then the evaluation of the training every once in a while is also significant ... [to assess] what is working and what has not been working," he said.

The project started after a 2002 report by Diversity Thunder Bay on racism in the city called "A Community of Acceptance." That report found that the police service was one of several groups about which people had complaints of systemic discrimination.

Levesque said he hopes to have the updated versionofits Diversity in Policing Projectready sometime next year.

In the meantime, Chahal said he applauds Thunder Bay Polices plansand added there is no quick fix for discrimination.

"The training needs to take its time first right? It's not going to change overnight," Chahal said. "It's going to take time to keep moving in that direction."

Chahal said he hopes the recent UNESCO recognition will prompt other organizations in Thunder Bay to take similar measures.