Commissioner Brenda Lukey faces questions from the Mass Casualty Commission leading the public inquiry into the April 2020 mass shooting in Halifax on Tuesday. The webcast broadcasting the testimony can be found here. When asked about the high turnover in Nova Scotia’s senior ranks after the mass shooting, Lucki said while there is often a spike in people leaving their jobs after a traumatic event, she believes it’s also due to the negative narrative and to Canadians who “lost confidence in their region. RCMP.” Until the mass shooting on April 18 and 19, 2020, Lucki said the Nova Scotia RCMP had a good relationship with its citizens. “But then things happen, and you don’t want it to be a defining moment — you don’t want it to be a turning point, and that’s kind of what happened,” Lucki said. “I think it’s been a tough pill for managers to swallow because they take it internally and I honestly wouldn’t have expected anything different.” The committee heard that three of the province’s top officers have since retired or moved to roles in other provinces since this month, which Lucki said was a “very unusual” amount of senior-level turnover. Lucki noted that in the immediate aftermath of the mass shooting, there was not only criticism of how Nova Scotia’s response was handled, but more discussion about systemic racism in policing in general following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a police officer. Minneapolis. “It affects our recruiting when people don’t want to join your organization, and before that we had thousands of people who wanted to join,” Lucki said. Lucki said Canadians are “losing confidence in their local RCMP.” (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan) “That has to hurt you. I know it does because it weighs on me every day and I think, ‘How can we do better?’ Lucki also addressed the committee in early August when she addressed the controversy over whether she was under political pressure to release information about the gunman’s firearms in the run-up to the Liberal government’s gun control legislation. The political dispute began in June when Chief Supt. Darren Campbell’s notes from an April 28, 2020, call with Lukey and members of the Nova Scotia RCMP were released as part of the investigation. Campbell wrote that the Commissioner was “sad and disappointed” and “had promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Office of the Premier that the RCMP, [we] will make this information public.” He repeated that claim earlier this month before a House of Commons committee, saying Lucki appeared to reject his argument that releasing details about the makes and models of firearms could affect the ongoing investigation. Bill Blair, who was public safety minister at the time, has denied asking Luki to pressure the RCMP to release the weapons information. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said the government did not put any “undue” pressure on the RCMP.
Miscommunication problem: Lucki
Lucki told the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Committee that things went awry after a miscommunication between her and the Nova Scotia RCMP. Before Campbell’s press conference on April 28, 2020, Luckey said Blair’s chief of staff asked her if details of the gun would be made public. Lucki said she contacted her national RCMP communications team, who told her the details would be released. Luki passed this information on to Blair’s office and the deputy public safety secretary. But when details of the weapon were not made public, Lucki was upset because, “I felt I had misinformed the minister and by extension the prime minister.” Details of the firearms were only released through a briefing note given to the prime minister by Luki, which emerged through an access to information request. Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Goulet, Dawn Gulensin, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulensin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from top: 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) Despite a request from the Nova Scotia Mounties that firearms information be shared only internally with the RCMP, emails show Lucki sent those details to the offices of the minister of public safety and the premier’s national security adviser. Earlier Tuesday, the commissioner finished questioning retired Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, who was the Nova Scotia RCMP commander at the time of the mass shooting. The inquiry also learned on Tuesday that the federal Justice Department had yet to disclose a year of Bergerman’s memos to the committee, following a pattern of late disclosure and withholding pages of documents to check for privilege. Lori Ward, an attorney for the department, said that while they had collected and shared Bergerman’s notes through October 2020, it took some time to gather the rest of the notebooks between that point and her retirement in October 2021. “I’m sorry about the situation,” Ward said. The commission had set aside Tuesday and Wednesday to hear Luki.
