(Halifax) Most Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) senior executives in Nova Scotia felt there were ‘dysfunctions’ in their division before the 2020 mass shooting and then felt let down by their leadership , according to a consultant’s report prepared last year.
Posted at 4:34 p.m.
A summary of a ‘welfare assessment’ of staff, dated September 30, 2021, was made public on Monday during the investigation into the massacre. He says most of the 24 senior officers and civilian leaders interviewed last summer had complained about shortcomings in the operational capability of the Nova Scotia RCMP before the tragedy.
“Nearly all spoke at length about the major dysfunctions of the RCMP which they believed had been allowed to exist for many years,” the report said.
The document was released as Lee Bergerman, the province’s retired commander, testified Monday ahead of the inquest, which is examining how an alcoholic denturist with a history of domestic abuse managed to create a replica police vehicle, to arm themselves with semi-automatic pistols, and engage in a 13-hour rampage that resulted in 22 murders on April 18 and 19, 2020.
The summary says the wellness review was commissioned after reports of burnout, ‘lack of collaboration’ among senior executives and ‘supposedly low overall morale’ reached the ward RCMP general. However, the report says investigators made no attempt to validate the veracity of what they were told.
RCMP staff told investigators that funding formulas between the province and the RCMP have not kept pace with the costs of emergency response teams.
” Many [cadres supérieurs] have pointed the finger at provincial authorities such as Ministers of Justice, who they say have underfunded the RCMP for years.” They are “seeking a bargain from Ottawa” but still want access to “resources ready to deploy whenever” they are called upon, it says.
Lack of staff
Some of the officers told Ottawa-based consultant Quintet Consulting that General Service staff sick leave was sometimes ‘excessively long’ and that there was ‘little or no mechanism to replace missing resources. without “stealing” a person” elsewhere.
Senior managers said there were chronic shortages across the division, leading to excessive use of overtime and additional burdens on healthy officers.
The public inquiry heard testimony from RCMP commanders who said personnel shortages were affecting their detachment. They also claimed that only four officers – instead of the expected six – were available to respond in the crucial first 45 minutes when the first 13 murders took place in Portapique, Nova Scotia.
“A Little Clique”
The redacted summary reports confidential interviews describing key regional leaders as “a small clique of officers” who support each other in the group, but whose others are “treated like outsiders”.
Some participants spoke of “favoritism, biased personalities and non-competency based performance evaluations” among senior division leaders. However, other participants expressed satisfaction with the regional leadership.
Additionally, the report quotes regional staff as saying regional leadership did not do enough to help officers in the aftermath of the shooting. “There was a widespread belief among attendees that senior management was more interested in answering political questions in Ottawa. »
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki has previously apologized for the harsh tone she used when addressing regional staff following a press conference on August 28, 2020, during which she criticized division chiefs for not disclosing details of the weapons used by the killer.
The commissioner – who has been accused of acting under pressure from the Liberal government seeking to promote its gun control measures – said she was upset with the Nova Scotia division over her communication with the public because the media was reporting facts before the RCMP did.
Mme Bergerman testified Monday that she never received a copy of the wellness evaluation, noting that she quit her job last fall shortly after it was completed. The former commander said the report was not what she had in mind when she asked for it.
“I was looking at what strategies we could put in place to help people heal,” she said.
Mme Bergerman also testified that she disagreed with the public release of the summary. “It’s a shame, because the people who participated thought it would be confidential. »