The former head of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP said it was “horrifying” to hear the Mountains commissioner raise federal political pressure at a meeting days after the mass shooting.
The new documents released on Tuesday by the investigation into the April 18-19, 2020 massacre contain accounts of three officers and senior officers indicating that the firearms used by the gunman were raised in a meeting with the RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.
Lia Scanlan, former director of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP, wrote in a scathing email to Lucki that during the April 28, 2020 meeting she attended with the commissioner and senior officials of Nova Scotia, Lucki informed the group of “the pressures and the conversation with [then public safety] Minister Blair “, which the group clearly understood was related to the forthcoming arms control legislation.
“I remember a feeling of disgust when I realized that this was the catalyst for the conversation,” Scanlan said in his April 14, 2021 email, about a year after the shooting.
“I couldn’t believe what you, the leader of our organization, was saying and I was ashamed to be aware of what was going on. It was scary, unprofessional and very contemptuous.”
Lia Scanlan was the head of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP in April 2020. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
On May 4, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on some 1,500 brands and models of weapons, including two of the weapons used in the Nova Scotia mass shooting. At the time, police had not disclosed the specific brands and models used in the attacks.
Scanlan’s email echoes controversial notes released last week by the Supt. Darren Campbell on the same subject.
Campbell’s allegation that Lucki had made commitments to Trudeau and Blair before the new gun control legislation has sparked a political storm in Ottawa and led to an upcoming parliamentary hearing to address allegations of possible interference. policies.
Both Blair and Trudeau have denied having done so and have claimed that the RCMP makes its own decisions about disclosing information.
In his email to Lucki, Scanlan said he suspected the April 28 meeting could address the issue of guns, as he was asked if Campbell could talk about firearms less than two hours earlier. of a press conference he gave that day.
Prior to 28 April, 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 considered these details they could not be discussed publicly from the point of view of research.
Scanlan wrote that within the Nova Scotia division, they had pledged to share any new information with the victims’ families to the media to prevent them from being re-victimized, and details of the weapons have not yet been released. they had shared with them.
Campbell’s notes also said he believed this information could jeopardize the investigation into how the shooter obtained his weapons.
The “very different” NS reality of Ottawa: Scanlan
Scanlan wrote that at the time of Lucki’s meeting, Nova Scotia teams were facing global scrutiny as they prosecuted the loss of their colleague Const. Heidi Stevenson and “amazing” horror stories about the 22 victims.
“Suffice it to say that what we faced in Nova Scotia, day after day, probably looked and felt very different from the Ottawa lookout.”
In addition to Scanlan’s letter, the commission also published handwritten notes from former assistant commissioner Lee Bergerman, who has since retired from his role as an officer in command of the Nova Scotia RCMP. deputy director in chief. Chris Leather, who was second in command in April 2020.
Bergerman’s notes listed who attended the meeting and include the phrase “angry at the lack of details about the weapons,” but not who made the comment. Leather’s notes said the meeting with Lucki dealt with “the firearms used” and noted “an adjustment to include firearms information in speech notes.” He also noted that one issue that arose was concern about the “flow of information”.
Neither Bergerman nor Leather’s notes referred to what Lucki said about Blair.
Michael Scott, of Patterson Law, the company that represents the families of most of the shooting victims, said he was concerned about possible political interference. He said it would be helpful for participants at the April 28 meeting to confirm “exactly what was said” to eliminate any debate on this point.
“Then we’ll have some real questions about what involvement the Ottawa-based RCMP had in this investigation, because we would be very concerned about using the mass casualty event as a kind of political opportunity,” Scott told reporters at the consultation on Tuesday.
Michael Scott is a lawyer for Patterson Law, whose firm represents more than a dozen families of Portapique victims. (CBC)
The Justice Department withheld four crucial pages of Campbell’s notes containing information about the April 28 meeting until four weeks ago when they shared them with the Mass Victims Commission that led the investigation. The Federal Department of Justice has said the pages required an evaluation to see if they were privileged.
Scott said it was “especially worrying” that the Mounted had not explained to the commission this review of privileges.
“The fact that it’s those four, specifically those four pages, I think speaks for itself,” Scott said.
Last week, Lucki also denied interfering in the police investigation, but did not address the claim that he wanted to divulge more information ahead of the Liberals’ plan to introduce new gun control legislation in May 2020.
Campbell and Lucki are expected to be called as witnesses to the investigation late next month. They have also been summoned to appear before the parliamentary hearing in Ottawa in late July.