Lack of Police Oversight in Manitoba Highlights Need for Systemic Complaint Process – Winnipeg Free Press Article
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Posted by Shelby Percival
- Posted in BlogsNews
Falconers LLP partner Julian Falconer and Montreal-based lawyer Meaghan Daniel (current agent and former associate of Falconers LLP), recently spoke to the Winnipeg Free Press about the issue of lack of oversight for police services in Manitoba, in contrast to the avenues for “systemic complaints” available in Ontario.
In an article by Marsha McLeod, published on June 13, 2025, Falconer and Daniel both speak to the importance of having a process for complaints that go beyond a single incident that would allege patterns of behaviour from a police service, i.e. complaints that are systemic in nature. This process exists in Ontario, but Manitoba does not benefit from the same.
McLeod highlights in her article the story of the death of Stacy DeBungee, an Indigenous man whose death was not adequately investigated by the Thunder Bay Police Service (“TBPS”) and that it was the result of a complaint filed by his brother Brad DeBungee which led to the investigation of TBPS’ investigative practices and handling of Indigenous deaths. This complaint also resulted in the release of the report Broken Trust: Indigenous People and the Thunder Bay Police Service by the Office of the Independent Police Review Director (then OIPRD and now referred to as the Law Enforcement Complaints Agency or “LECA”). Broken Trust found that there is systemic racism in respect of the entirety of the TBPS.
As quoted in McLeod’s article, Falconer maintains that “systemic complaints are a tool for telling the truth” and that the systemic racism finding set out in Broken Trust “represents the first such finding in Canadian history that [he] is familiar with” in his 34-year career.
Daniel commented on the current oversight structure in Manitoba and how “[t]he state’s tactic to individualize things allows them to scapegoat a particular person and avoid the systemic scrutiny — the scrutiny of the policies and the procedures and the ways in which these structures are set up to benefit some of us and not others.”
For link to the full article, click here.
