The former RCMP communications director, who previously told the public poll that she did not regret the way communications were handled during the April 2020 mass shootings, said there was room for improvement while he was reflecting on how long it took to tweet about the gunslinger cruiser’s retort.
Lia Scanlan was the Civilian Director of Strategic Communications for the Mounties in Nova Scotia on 18 and 19 April 2020.
Scanlan told the Mass Victims Commission investigators in an interview last fall that she was “super proud” and after thinking about it extensively, “it wouldn’t change anything” about the way her team shared information with the public.
The team sent a dozen tweets and posted similar information on Facebook during the 13 hours they saw a gunman in a replica of the RCMP cruise killing 22 people, including a mountie and a pregnant woman.
Scanlan’s tone sounded more moderate, and at times he wept as he answered questions from the commission’s attorney during a public hearing in Truro, NS, Wednesday morning. The day before, one of his team members, now retired Corporal Jen Clarke, testified waiting almost half an hour for Scanlan’s approval to post.
Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19. Top row from left: Gina Goulet, Dawn Gulenchyn, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulenchyn, Sean McLeod, Alanna Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from above: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
Roger Burrill, a lawyer for the investigation, asked Scanlan his thoughts on approving a director to delay tweets.
“I think we should try to do everything to reduce the slowdown in anything, so I think this is definitely an area that has gone back and we have looked at this incident critically specifically, improvements can be made,” he said. to say. “The goal is punctuality and public safety outweighs the rest, so I think improvements can be made.”
The communication has been a point of discussion for the families of the victims, who have expressed concern about the choice of the force of communicating information exclusively through Twitter and Facebook instead of the provincial Alert Ready system.
They also commented on how long it took to inform the public that the gunman was driving the cruise replica and was wearing a police uniform.
Awaiting operational approval
Scanlan said he learned of a police operation in Portapique, NS, around 6 a.m. on April 19. For the next few hours, he worked from home and talked to half a dozen senior agents about what was going on. He also assigned team members tasks, from finding a place for a press conference to tweeting about the cruise.
Sgt. Addie MacCallum previously told commission investigators she sent Scanlan photos of the gunman and his vehicle shortly after 8 a.m. after he was tasked with working with her to get a message across to the public.
Clarke finally posted a photo of the cruise on Twitter at 10:17 a.m. on April 19. During his testimony on Tuesday, he said he would not have done so without Scanlan’s permission.
Scanlan said he did not remember when he first saw the photo of the cruise, only that he knew investigators were investigating whether the gunman was using it. She also insisted that despite MacCallum’s statements, he had spoken to her about what information could be “processed”, was not told to post the car photo and only had instructions to tweet about the gunman, which made at 8:54 p.m.
RCMP Nova Scotia tweeted a photo of the replica of the gunman’s police cruise at 10:17 a.m. on April 19, 2020. (Twitter from RCMP Nova Scotia)
Burrill asked if he had the photo of the cruise at 8:10 a.m., why he didn’t share it on social media in a matter of minutes.
“At the time, he understood that the decision had not been made operationally,” Scanlan said, adding that he understood that the command team was considering factors such as the risk to officers ’safety.
“I wasn’t making any assumptions … I wasn’t asked to send the photo.”
He also said he did not raise the cruise when he spoke to the supervisor in chief. Chris Leather, the head of criminal operations, and his plans to share information with the public.
Clarke assigned to tweet
He never explained in his testimony when he heard that operational approval had been given, but at 9:04 a.m. he assigned Cpl. Jen Clarke to tweet and get MacCallum’s approval.
He said he didn’t see Clarke’s email at 9:49 a.m. asking for Scanlan’s final approval because he was on his personal and work phone phone at the time and didn’t have his email open in front of him. He said it wasn’t until after he called a conference with his team about 20 minutes later that he read it and Clarke’s two follow-up emails. She verbally told him to hang her.
Scanlan admitted it was “absolutely a bottleneck,” but said he did not expect Clarke to ask for his approval and the messages were lost. She also said she could appreciate why Clarke was looking for her for final approval, given the considerations.
Cpl of the RCMP. Jennifer Clarke testified Tuesday about a delayed Twitter message with a photo of the gunman’s police cruiser retort. Clarke, who retired in April 2022, was a public intelligence officer during the mass shooting. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
In general, tweets should be approved when there are operational concerns about the safety of officers, public safety or the integrity of an investigation, he said.
“There are a lot of lawsuits; we’re in a state of constant evaluation,” Scanlan said.
He also testified that “standard operating procedures” would prevent delays in sending future tweets.
Wiping away the tears, Scanlan asked for a moment to calm down and said, “If I could go back and let those minutes go, I would do anything.”
Later during interrogation, Sandra McCulloch, a lawyer representing the families of more than half of the victims, asked about the tweet approval process and whether it was “fair to say the dollar is stopping.” with her.
“Yes,” Scanlan replied.
No explanation in previous interviews
Commission staff interviewed Scanlan in September 2021 and February 2022. He previously did not offer an explanation for the delay in sending the cruise tweet beyond that he attributed the delay to Clarke in his second interview. At the time, Scanlan said he could not “could not speak the truth” because it took so long to pass.
In those interviews, Scanlan said he told his team on the morning of April 19 that speed was key to getting information to the public.
“All the rules about Twitter are: it doesn’t matter right now. It’s input information, output information,” he said.
Clarke said Tuesday that the unwritten rules on approving messages in a large-scale incident were clear and said he could not have tweeted without Scanlan’s approval.
Commissioners Leanne Fitch, Michael MacDonald, chairman, and Kim Stanton, from left to right, watch as Lia Scanlan, director of strategic communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP, is questioned by lawyer Roger Burrill in the investigation. Commission on Massive Victims of Mass Murder in Rural Areas. Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, 2020, in Truro, NS, on Wednesday, June 8, 2022. Gabriel Wortman, dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica of the police cruiser, killed 22 people. THE CANADIAN PRESS / Andrew Vaughan (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
On Wednesday, McCulloch asked about the discrepancies between Scanlan’s earlier statements in the investigation and his testimony.
Scanlan, who left work in January 2021, responded that last fall’s interview was the first time he had returned and relived the morning of the shootings.
“I had never looked at my notes, I had never looked at emails, I was out of pure memory,” Scanlan testified.
He said he believes the RCMP “should learn from” the incident. Since then, Scanlan has returned to work in a different role.
“Raw emotion” in previous interviews
It was only after the second interview that he reviewed the chronology of his team’s actions and the comments of others on the committee, he said.
Before concluding his testimony, the Justice Department asked the commission if Scanlan could make a final comment.
Addressing the courtroom in Truro, NS, Scanlan said he wanted to apologize.
“I just want people to know that not a day goes by that I don’t wake up and think about the victims, their families and their children,” he said. “You know the delivery, or how I found myself … my interviews were just raw emotion and I didn’t even understand where that was going to end up.”
Police blocked the freeway in Debert, NS on Sunday, April 19, 2020. Nine people were killed that day by a gunman wearing a police uniform and driving a fake RCMP cruise. The previous night 13 people died. (Andrew Vaughan / The Canadian Press)
In his interviews with the commission, Scanlan echoed concerns raised by other executives who said the dissemination of information about the replica cruise through an alert would have led to vigilant justice.
“You’ll have more police dead, because that’s rural police,” he said. “People take care of the shit themselves. So, you know, I had a member who called me and they were petrified for being on the road. They thought they were going to kill them because it was public that I was a police officer.” .
When asked if he stayed behind on those comments Wednesday, Scanlan said he did it because his grandfather had imagined it.
“Rural Nova Scotia, hunter, access to guns. I can tell you I probably would have done it,” he said before concluding. He said he had no anecdotal evidence, but he believes that this mentality …