The Native Women’s Association of Canada is calling out the lack of police response after a young woman from Thunder Bay, Ont., died after police allegedly did not respond to a 911 call.
The victim’s family identified her to Global News as Jenna Ostberg, a 21-year-old First Nations woman.
“We’re over-policed and under-protected, and that is so true,” said Carol McBride, association president.
“This is something not new to us. We hear horror stories all the time on the way police services conduct themselves regarding Indigenous women, and something definitely has to change.”
The Special Investigations Unit said in a release on Jan. 3 that Thunder Bay police received a 911 call about a domestic disturbance at a home on Ray Boulevard around 2 a.m. on Dec. 30, 2023.
The SIU also notes officers received a second 911 call to “cancel” the first call for service, which led investigators to not respond.
Then, the SIU said a third 911 call was made from the residence to indicate the woman was found dead inside. Thunder Bay police officers responded, and that’s when they found the woman.
In an interview Thursday with Global News, Ostberg’s parents, Vincent Ostberg and Melanie Beardy, say police told them their daughter died “with plastic around her neck,” and they believed it was suicide.
“That’s not for them to say,” Beardy said, as they await results of an autopsy.
In a statement obtained by the Canadian Press from the family later released by the Windigo First Nations Council, they said they fear their daughter “is the latest victim of inadequate and unjust policing services received by First Nation women in particular, in Thunder Bay.”
A number of probes in recent years have concluded systemic racism toward Indigenous people exists in the Thunder Bay Police Service at an institutional level, citing examples of sudden-death cases being inadequately investigated due to racist attitudes and stereotyping.
Global News has reached out to the Thunder Bay Police Service for comment and has not heard back.
McBride said Jenna’s death is “something no family should have to go through” and said, “Changes have to happen. Enough is enough.”
“Too many lives have been taken. Too many harms have been done. We need to put pressure, whether it’s the policing organizations, or the governments, provincial or federal, we need to put pressure on them to make these changes. We need to do away with the training and the colonization that’s going on towards our people.”
She said more education is needed for police officers in Canada to fix the way police respond to calls involving Indigenous people.
“A lot of things, I think, have to be put in place, and the number one priority is education — getting these police officers trained and to take these calls seriously, no matter what. We are calling out for protection, and they’re not giving it to us,” McBride said.
An analysis of Special Inventions Unit cases recording race found that where a person died or was seriously injured during an incident involving an official, people who identified as Indigenous are nearly 6.25 times more frequently represented than the average Ontarian.
In response to Global News’ request for comment on issues raised by the association, Thunder Bay’s Mayor Ken Boshcoff said as the death is still under investigation by the SIU “the City cannot provide any further comment.”
“We offer our deepest sympathies and heartfelt condolences to the loved ones and those impacted by this tragic death,” Boshcoff said.
— with files from Global News’ Melissa Ridgen, Sean Boynton and The Canadian Press
Comments