The people of Nova Scotia have lost faith in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki admitted Tuesday before a commission of inquiry mandated to shed light on the Portapique killings. .
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Gabriel Wortman had killed 22 people, from April 18 to 19, 2020, before being shot. The man had committed his crimes at different locations in the province, while dressed as an RCMP officer and traveling with a replica of an RCMP vehicle he had made.
Asked by the commission of inquiry about the high turnover rate among RCMP personnel in the province after the tragedy, Brenda Lucki indicated that the fact that Canadians have “lost confidence in the RCMP” played a role in the wave of departures, according to CBC News.
“It affects our recruiting when people don’t want to join our organization, in the past we had thousands of people wanting to join us,” the RCMP commissioner added.
Communication problems
Brenda Lucki said the RCMP national team was disappointed with the lack of accessible information during the mass shooting. She said the local communications team in Nova Scotia has been overwhelmed by the events, due to the high number of requests.
The RCMP commissioner confirmed that the national team was only involved eight or nine days after the tragedy. She indicated that the communications team should have been present from the first day to inform the population more quickly.
“The families of the victims deserve no less, the people of Nova Scotia deserve no less,” she said. Canadians wanted to know what was going on. We needed to be better.”
Brenda Lucki will continue her testimony before the Board of Inquiry on Wednesday.