(Halifax) A Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) officer who investigated the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia has been linked to the alleged mishandling of a 2017 murder case that is the subject of a federal review.
Posted at 6:29 p.m.
Greg Wiley is among three officers named in a 2018 police review into RCMP shortcomings in the Susie Butlin murder case. The Nova Scotia shooting investigation revealed the identities of the officers this week.
Mme Butlin had complained to the Nova Scotia RCMP that she had been sexually assaulted and harassed by Ernest Ross Duggan, who ultimately killed her in September 2017. In August of that year, Mr. Wiley received the complaints by Mme Butlin for harassment and was named lead investigator.
According to the internal police report, Constable Wiley “determined there was no basis for charges” and advised the lady to block Duggan on Facebook.
The investigation into the murder of M.me Butlin is now the subject of a federal investigation examining the RCMP’s response to his complaints and the police force’s handling of sexual assault investigations.
Mr. Wiley is also the police officer who was asked to check if Gabriel Wortman – the man who murdered 22 people in April 2020 – had guns at his home in Portapique, Nova Scotia, in 2010. Around this time, Wortman had threatened to kill his parents in New Brunswick.
On July 15, Wortman’s spouse, Lisa Banfield, testified at the inquest that Constable Wiley had come to the Portapique residence in June 2010 to see “if he [Wortman] had firearms at the cottage”. Mr Wiley’s visit came after Wortman’s threats.
Mme Banfield said Mr Wiley had seen antique weapons in the house during a visit which lasted 10 minutes.
During his interview last year with attorneys for the public inquiry, Mr. Wiley could not recall details of the June 2010 investigation. In a follow-up letter, an RCMP attorney said that Mr. Wiley no longer had his notes from that time.
The June 2010 investigation into alleged death threats Wortman allegedly made against his parents resulted in no charges.
Rectify the situation
The RCMP’s internal report on the Susie Butlin case was initially submitted to the investigation in a redacted form that censored the names of the officers. Jennifer Cox, a lawyer for the public inquiry – known as the Mass Casualty Commission – told the hearings on Monday that the decision not to release the names of the officers “affected our ability to do the job”. .
Me Cox added that the inquest will work to rectify the situation and “overcome the fact that we may have missed opportunities to interview witnesses when they appeared before the commission.”
Mr. Wiley has not yet testified under oath and is expected to appear at a later date.
When interviewed last year, Mr Wiley told commission investigators he had a good relationship with Wortman and they often had brief conversations at the killer’s residence. Mr Wiley estimated he had visited Wortman at the ballpark on 15 occasions over the years, but said he hadn’t noticed anything unusual.
According to a police report released by the inquest in May, Halifax police conducted the 2010 investigation into Wortman’s threats against his parents. The investigator, Sergeant Cordell Poirier, now retired, had referred to Mr. Wiley as a “friend” of Wortman. Mr. Poirier said he repeatedly asked Mr. Wiley to come to Wortman’s Portapique residence to check the firearms and determine if a search warrant was needed.
Also named in the case are Susie Butlin Stuart Beselt – the first officer to arrive in Portapique the night the rampage began – and Rodney MacDonald.
During the first night of the mass shooting, Mr Beselt requested that an alert be sent to warn neighbors of the killer. He was told that people in the area were being called directly and that no alert had been made. Mr. Beselt received praise for his bravery from RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.
Mr MacDonald was one of the first responders during the killings, voluntarily coming to the scene before his scheduled shift after a friend alerted him that an active shooter was killing citizens. He parked his police car on a bridge near Portapique to try to stop the killer – who, unbeknownst to him, had already fled the area – from escaping. He also took part in the hunt for the killer the following day, as the rampage continued in the Wentworth area.
2018 Internal Report
MM. Beselt and MacDonald responded to a call from Ernest Ross Duggan’s wife – April Duggan – to police on August 21, 2017, in which she said she thought “her husband was going to kill [Susie] Butlin,” according to the 2018 internal RCMP report. The report says the two officers located Duggan, who was drinking and appeared intoxicated. Duggan told the two officers that he “would never hurt anyone.”
It is five days later that Mme Butlin spoke with Mr. Wiley about Duggan’s continued harassment and that the officer told him there was no basis for charges.
On September 14, 2017, Mr.me Butlin told Corporal Neil Wentzell that she was unhappy with the police response to her allegations.
Mme Butlin was found dead in her home on September 17, 2017.
A spokesperson for the National Police Federation said in an emailed statement that once the federal civilian review of Mme Butlin published, the federation “will examine it carefully and critically”.
A spokesperson for the Nova Scotia RCMP wrote in an email that they are “committed to investigating complaints promptly and thoroughly, sensitively and without bias while putting the needs of the victim “.
With information from Michael Tutton in Halifax.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of Meta and The Canadian Press News Exchanges