Police
document details gang sex assault allegations against cops
Three are charged with sexually assaulting a female parking
officer in 2015. 
From left to right, Sameer Kara,
Leslie Nyznik and Joshua Cabero. (Manisha Krishnan / Toronto Star)
'It's not right, it's racist': First Nations
woman criticizes Thunder Bay police response to alleged rape
Indigenous woman says police took a statement, didn't follow up
until non-Indigenous woman was assaulted
'I think these cops are racist,' says
Jessica Raven. Thunder Bay police ignored her report of being raped, she says.
(Jody Porter/CBC)
A First Nations woman says Thunder Bay,
Ont., police ignored her complaint about being raped and beaten until months
later when a non-Aboriginal woman had a similar experience.
Jessica Raven said she was
attacked on Simpson Street on Oct. 10, 2015, when she was involved in the
sex trade.
"It was supposed to be a
date," she said. "He pulled my hair. He beat me. He raped me. I ran
off with no pants, no shirt."
- Thunder Bay police criticized for response to indigenous woman found naked on city street
- Sex trade stigma can be deadly for indigenous women, chief says
The 27-year-old said she didn't call
police for two days because she was "too scared to do anything"
in the immediate aftermath of the attack.
When police officers came to her
apartment building on May Street on Oct. 12, they refused to go inside and
took her statement "on the street," Raven said.
It was months before she heard
from police again, she said, and only after a non-Aboriginal woman had also
been raped under similar circumstances.
"I was raped and beat up and the
cops didn't do anything," she said. "One of my friends was raped, a
white woman, now they want to talk to me?"
"It's not right, it's
racist," Raven said.
Raven provided the badge number of one
of the police officers she spoke with so CBC News could inquire about her case.
'Why
should I call them now?'
A spokeswoman for Thunder Bay police
said an investigation is continuing, but police are limited in what they can
say because of the victim's right to privacy.
"Investigators would still like to
do more followup with the victim," Const. Julie Tilbury said.
"Why should I call them now?"
Raven asked. "They only called me back about the other woman."
Police could have prevented the
attack on the other woman, she said, if they had taken her
October complaint seriously. She said she provided police with a
description of the man who attacked her, his vehicle and his address. She
believes it was the same man who attacked her friend.
Raven said she has not been involved in
the sex trade since the attack, when she was three months' pregnant. She
has since moved and is "feeling safer" staying at home with her
new baby.
"I just didn't want it to happen
to other girls," she said about sharing her story.
Few
services for sex workers
CBC News asked Thunder Bay police what
they do to ensure the safety of women in the sex trade in the city.
Tilbury said investigators make efforts
"to reach out directly to street workers in the area of personal
safety" and encourage them to seek help from local service agencies.
But there are few services available in
Thunder Bay for sex trade workers, according to Karen Puddicombe.
The pastor at the Salvation Army said
she has studied the issue and found there are few safe spaces for women
involved in the sex trade to turn for support, advocacy or even a hot
meal.
Puddicombe was the co-ordinator of
Sex Workers Action Network, or SWAN.
It's the group Thunder Bay police
said they worked with in the past in an effort to keep vulnerable women
safe.
Unfortunately, Puddicombe said, with
little funding the group of volunteers was only able to operate a
weekly drop-in for women briefly between February and May of 2015.
Police "may misunderstand … what
has happened," she said. "I just think because there's
nothing in town and because SWAN had a name to some degree that was assumed.
"There's not really a connection
with the police," she added. Police "may feel that we were their
only resource as a group of people advocating for women in that field."
Puddicombe said the SWAN committee is
regrouping and hopes to start a monthly drop-in, under a new name: Supporting
Women through Adversity in the North.
Mark 14:18
As they were reclining at the table and eating, Jesus said,
"Truly I say to you that one of you will betray Me--one who is eating
with Me."
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