City, police officials to attend Westfort ward meeting, where recent shooting will be top of mind

Members of the public will have their chance to ask questions and voice concerns about gun and gang activity in Thunder Bay at a special Westfort ward meeting scheduled for Tuesday night.

The meeting which begins at 7 p.m. at West Thunder Community Centre will include a number of city councillors, Thunder Bay Mayor Ken Boshcoff, city manager Norm Gale, and new city police Chief Darcy Fleury.

"We have ward meeting opportunities like three, four times a year," said Westfort Coun. Kristen Oliver, who called the meeting. "This one is just come up rather quickly as a result of the gun incident that took place at Spence Court in early May."

That incident, which took place at about 12:45 p.m. on May 2, saw a group of people exchanging gunfire with another individual in the Spence Court Parking lot.

"We've heard from a number of people that have a lot of questions and concerns," Oliver said. "Certainly happy to hear the commentary out there. I think people deserve to be heard, and have that opportunity to express the concerns and things that they're seeing within their neighborhoods and certainly within that complex."

Oliver said one of the concerns she's heard so far is related to the fact that Spence Court was, initially, a seniors' housing complex.

"A lot of people have been reaching out to say why is it no longer just the seniors complex?" she said. "Why are we seeing seniors' lives in jeopardy now, because of what they're seeing with the gun and gang activity taking place in that neighborhood?"

"It's really important to recognize that the City of Thunder Bay does not have care and control of any of the social housing complexes in the city of Thunder Bay," Oliver said. "That is all ran and operated through the [District of Thunder Bay Social Services Administration Board]."

In addition, Oliver said, the Human Rights Commission has ruled that buildings cannot be rented out based on age.

"They declared that as age discrimination," Oliver said. "Rather, anyone that required geared-to-income, low-income housing would be offered an opportunity to take over these departments."

Representatives of the social services administration board are also expected to be in attendance on Tuesday night.

Police have so far arrested three people involved in the Spence Court shootout. A 16-year-old male was arrested in Toronto on May 13, and faces weapons-related charges. The accused, who can't be named under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, is next due in court on May 30.

A 36-year-old Thunder Bay woman and 20-year-old Toronto man are also facing charges relating to the incident.

Oliver said she expects Tuesday's meeting to be very-well attended.

"There's people that don't even live directly in this neighborhood who have concerns," Oliver said. "They're seeing things within their neighbourhoods."

"It's been shared a number of times through social media,so that's sort of an indicator to me that there's a great interest in what this meeting will entail."

One of those planning to attend is Aaron Gillingham, who's a member of the Westfort Village Association.

"I can speak for the other members of our business community that that's something that hasn't taken place in Westfort, or probably Thunder Bay, in a very long time," he said. "It was kind of like shell shock for everybody."

"It's pretty unnerving to know that there is violence of that level going on."

The association, in fact, had a meeting last week, which was attended by representatives of Thunder Bay police.

But members of the association have certainly been discussing the issue among themselves, too.

"The first thing we all say as business owners, is do you have cameras?" he said. "We have our eyes on the street all the time, because our regular customers are residents of Westfort, just like any other business community, so we're talking about what security measures we have in place as business owners."

"We don't want this kind of thing happening in our neighbourhood," he said. "We talk a lot. All of us, as a business community, are very close in Westfort, and we communicate regularly, so we're checking in to see if anyone had any tips, or what they've heard, or if they've seen anything."

"I think just communication and network go a long way."

Tuesday's meeting will also be live-streamed on Facebook, Oliver said.

Police town halls planned

There will be two other opportunities to talk about crime and related issues facing Thunder Bay, as well, with policehosting two town hall meetings with Fleury this week.

The first is scheduled for Wednesday at Oliver Road Rec Centre, and the second will take place Thursday at West Thunder Community Centre.

Both meetings will get underway at 6:30 p.m.