The former head of communications at the RCMP in Nova Scotia said it was “appalling” to hear the mountain commissioner raise federal political pressure in the days leading up to the post-mass shooting.
New documents released on Tuesday by the massacre investigation into 18-19 April 2020 contain accounts of three senior officials and officers stating that the firearms used by the attacker were mentioned at a meeting with the RCMP Commissioner. Brenda Lucky.
Leah Scanlan, former communications director of Nova Scotia’s RCMP, wrote in a scathing email to Lucky that during a meeting on April 28, 2020, which he attended with Nova Scotia’s commissioner and senior officials, Lucky informed the group of “the pressure and the conversation with [then public safety] Minister Blair ”, which the group clearly understood to be related to the forthcoming arms control legislation.
“I remember feeling disgusted when I realized that this was the catalyst for the conversation,” Scanlan said in an email on April 14, 2021, about a year after the shooting.
“I could not believe what you, the leader of our organization, were saying and I was embarrassed to be aware of what was happening. It was horrifying, unprofessional and extremely demeaning.
Leah Scanlan was Head of Communications for Nova Scotia’s RCMP in April 2020 (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
On May 4, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on about 1,500 brands and models of weapons, including two of the weapons used in the mass shootings in Nova Scotia. At the time, police did not reveal the specific brands and models used in the attacks.
Scanlan’s email reflects conflicting notes posted last week by Supt. Darren Campbell on the same subject.
Campbell’s claim that Lucky made commitments to Trudeau and Blair before the new gun control legislation sparked a political storm in Ottawa and led to an upcoming parliamentary hearing to address allegations of potential political interference.
Both Blair and Trudeau denied doing so, saying the RCMP made its own decisions about releasing information.
In an email to Lucky Scanlan, she said she suspected the April 28 meeting could be weapons-related, as she was asked if Campbell could talk about firearms less than two hours before the press conference he gave that day.
Before April 28, Scanlan said there had been talks between the Nova Scotia RCMP team and the National Headquarters about the caliber of the weapons used in the shooting, but the Nova Scotia team believed these details could not be discussed publicly from the point of view of the investigation.
Scanlan wrote that the Nova Scotia department has pledged to share any new information with the victims’ families to the media to prevent their re-sacrifice, and the details of the weapon have not yet been shared with them.
Campbell’s notes also say he believes this information could jeopardize the investigation into how the shooter acquired his weapons.
The reality of NS “very different” from Ottawa: Scanlan
Scanlan writes that during the Lucky meeting, the mountains of Nova Scotia were engaged in global control while processing the loss of their colleague Const. Heidi Stevenson and stories of “incredible” horror for the 22 victims.
Suffice it to say that what we face in Nova Scotia, day after day, probably looked and felt very different from Ottawa’s point of view.
In addition to Scanlan’s letter, the committee released handwritten notes from former Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, who has since stepped down as Nova Scotia’s RCMP commanding officer and chief aide. Chris Leder, who was the second commander in April 2020.
Bergerman’s notes indicate who attended the meeting and include the phrase “angry about the lack of details about the weapons,” but not who commented. Leder’s notes said the meeting with Lucky was for “firearms used” and noted a “correction to include information on firearms in the notes.” He also noted that the emerging topic was a concern about the “flow of information”.
Neither Bergerman’s nor Leder’s references refer to what Lucky said about Blair.
Michael Scott of Patterson Law, the firm representing the families of most of the shooting victims, said he was concerned about possible political interference. He said it would be useful for participants in the April 28 meeting to confirm “exactly what has been said” in order to eliminate any debate on the issue.
“Then we will have some real questions about what the RCMP’s involvement in the Ottawa headquarters is in this investigation, because we will be extremely concerned about using the event with mass casualties as a political opportunity,” Scott told reporters in an inquiry Tuesday.
Michael Scott is a lawyer with Patterson Law, whose firm represents more than a dozen families of Portapic victims. (CBC)
The Justice Department retained four important pages of Campbell’s notes, containing information about the April 28 meeting, until four weeks ago, when it shared them with the Commission on Mass Victims, which is leading the investigation. The Federal Ministry of Justice said the pages required an assessment of whether they were privileged.
Scott said it was “particularly disturbing” that the mountains had not told the commission about this review of the privilege.
“The fact that it’s these four, especially these four pages, I think speaks for itself,” Scott said.
Last week, Lucky also denied interfering in the police investigation, but did not respond to claims that he wanted more information released before the Liberals’ plan to introduce new arms control legislation in May 2020.
Campbell and Lucky are expected to be called as witnesses during the investigation at the end of next month. They are also invited to appear before a parliamentary hearing in Ottawa in late July.
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