(OTTAWA) RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki says there was a miscommunication between her office and that of the Nova Scotia RCMP in the days following the shooting that left 22 people dead in April 2020.
Posted at 9:44 p.m.
“It is for this reason that I called the meeting (April 28) to express my frustration and disappointment,” she told the House of Commons Public Safety Committee on Monday.
“It had to happen. It was essential that I had more accurate and timely information. »
The committee heard conflicting versions of this meeting from Mr.me Lucki and other RCMP officials.
Mme Lucki said she did not intervene in the investigation, but felt frustrated with the Nova Scotia Division for its poor communication with the public as well as the media revealing information before it is made public by the RCMP.
“I remember looking at a screen and seeing 22 faces on the screen,” the commissioner shared, adding that the RCMP was reporting a different number of casualties at that time. “We had to get ahead. »
RCMP officials in Nova Scotia said Mr.me Lucki was angry at the April 28 meeting, but for another reason. They claimed she had come under political pressure to reveal details of the weapons used by the shooter.
Darren Campbell, who was superintendent at the time, wrote in his notes from the April 28 meeting that Mr.me Lucki had told Nova Scotia officials that she had promised the federal government that police would release the information.
On Monday, her colleagues, Chief Superintendent Chris Leather and retired Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, also said they recalled hearing the commissioner say she made a promise to the minister.
Mr. Bergerman said that his reaction to the commissioner’s words was initially marked by confusion and shock because “every police officer knows that in the middle of an investigation certain information cannot be disclosed”.
Monday, Mme Lucki said she did not recall using the word ‘promised’ and said it was ‘confirmation’ from her to then Public Safety Minister Bill Blair who wanted the list of weapons used to be revealed.
According to Mme Lucki, she would have inquired with her communications department to find out if the list would be made public and she would have been told “yes”. It is this message that she would have relayed to the minister.
When this turned out to be false and the list was not released, the commissioner said she “felt that she had misinformed the minister and, by extension, the prime minister,” she explained.
Brenda Lucki said she tied the weapons information to “the minister’s mandate letter” at that meeting, specifically the directive to ban assault weapons.
The committee is looking into allegations that the federal government interfered in the police investigation into the Portapique killings. Documents released during the public inquiry into the tragedy reveal that the commissioner provided the list of the shooter’s weapons to the federal government on April 23, specifying that this information should not circulate outside the hands of the Prime Minister and the Minister.
However, according to Mr. Leather, this list simply should not have left the RCMP at this time of the investigation because the document was also part of an investigation by the Incident Response Team. severe.
Superintendent Campbell’s handwritten notes describing the April 28, 2020 meeting with Mr.me Lucki, do not discuss the involvement of the Response Team, but still reveal that he was concerned about the impact on the investigation.
He believed that revealing information about the weapons used in the murders would compromise the investigation in both Canada and the United States. Gunman Gabriel Wortman smuggled a number of handguns and assault weapons from Maine, including one given to him by a friend. No one in Canada or the United States has been charged with weapons offenses in this case.
For his part, Mr. Blair told members of the committee that the government had chosen the date of 1er May 2020 to announce a ban on 1,500 assault weapons after 22 people were murdered in Nova Scotia less than two weeks prior.
Blair said the horrific events of the Nova Scotia shootings gave him “great motivation” to move forward with the Liberal government’s promise to ban guns, but he adds the ban was in preparation for months.
He said tougher gun control was one of the reasons he entered public service after a career in policing. “There is no place in a civil and safe society for such weapons. »
Blair and Deputy Minister Rob Stewart were also questioned by MPs on Monday about whether the government interfered in the Nova Scotia shooting investigation in an effort to garner support for the prohibition of weapons.
Blair told the committee that he believed there was already “significant support” among the Canadian public for a gun ban, and that he did not believe the government needed link the measure to the shootings to justify his decision.
“I don’t think it’s relevant, to be frank,” he said.