Ontario's SIU is now handling the fatal shooting of Bruce Frogg at a Kenora RV park.Courtesy of family
A Northwestern Ontario community is in shock after the police shooting death of a First Nations man in a Kenora, Ont., RV park Tuesday afternoon.
Ontario’s Special Investigations Unit is now handling the fatal shooting of Bruce Frogg at Anicinabe Park. The SIU took over the case after being notified of the death by the Ontario Provincial Police late Tuesday. The agency is mandated to investigate when someone is injured or killed in a police interaction.
“He was always happy. He was always laughing and joking and ready to give a helping hand to anybody,” Noreen Meekis-Frogg said Wednesday about her brother-in-law Mr. Frogg, 57.
In a statement, the SIU said preliminary information indicates OPP officers were called to the park at about 12:40 p.m. and discovered a man with knives. The man had set fire to a building and firefighters were on the scene to extinguish the blaze.
“One officer shot the man. The man was taken to hospital where he was pronounced deceased,” the SIU said in the statement.
A video clip of an incident on social media shows a man in distress standing beside the park office, which is engulfed in flames with smoke billowing out. The man appears to be holding something in both hands as he waves erratically while police officers stand several metres away and traffic drives by the usually-busy summer park.
Ms. Meekis-Frogg said Mr. Frogg was the son of former Wawakapewin chief Simon Frogg, now deceased, and an avid hunter who loved his community. He’s also related to the current Chief AnneMarie Beardy.
“He was a person who loved the land, and he always stayed in the community. He was always out hunting. He always said, I’ll never leave Wawakapewin, it’s my home. Because he would rather be on the land than out in the urban areas,” Ms. Meekis-Frogg said about the father who leaves behind daughters.
She said Mr. Frogg had been staying in a halfway house in Kenora after serving time in the district jail. She said it was shocking to watch the videos of him online and said his behaviour was unlike him.
“I’ve never known him to be violent,” Ms. Meekis-Frogg said.
Tania Cameron, a community advocate living in the Kenora area, said Anicinabe Park has a long history of violence between Indigenous people and police.
“There’s a historical connection to the land. It was known as Indian House and it was a place where ceremonies were held, it was a meeting place for First Nations people in Lake of the Woods,” Ms. Cameron said.
It eventually fell under ownership of the City of Kenora, said Ms. Cameron, and has been operated as a summer park with recreational vehicle camping and swimming on the historic Lake of Woods for decades.
In 1974, a youth conference turned into an armed occupation by the local Ojibway Warrior Society and American Indian Movement who were fed up with the federal Department of Indian Affairs and its policies. Throughout the summer, Indigenous occupiers were arrested and gunfire rang through the park until a truce was called. The 50th anniversary of the Anicinabe Park Occupation was commemorated just last week.
Ms. Cameron said Kenora and northern remote communities are overwhelmed with increasing addictions, mental health and incarceration rates.
“Our leaders need to step up and look at this issue and advocate for services from the province and into Northwestern Ontario,” she said.
She also called for Kenora citizens to address its racism after seeing people online call for the death of the man in the video.
“I wasn’t there but in that little video clip that I saw, there was a man that needed help. Not to be killed.”