Portapique

A strong denial on Monday of any political interference by the Liberal government in the Nova Scotia mass shooting investigation.

The House of Commons standing committee on public safety and national security heard from RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair on Monday.

Committee members are searching for answers regarding whether or not there was government pressure to release the details to the public on the guns used in the 13-hour rampage that began in Portapique on April 18th, 2020. Twenty-two lives were lost.

Bill Blair, a former police officer and chief, remained steadfast in his belief that at no time was there any political pressure.

“I’ll reiterate that at no time did I cross that line. I did not direct the commissioner of the RCMP and I did not have any private conversation with her in which that was done,” Blair says. “The commissioner did not promise me that she would do this. I think the commissioner understood her job, and her job was to serve the people of Canada and the people of Nova Scotia, to give them information that they desperately needed and wanted with respect to the terrible tragedy that had taken place there.”

Former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair. (Source: CPAC)

The allegations surfaced last month when handwritten notes penned by RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell during an April 28th meeting with Lucki were released in a report published by the mass casualty commission.

The notes indicated Lucki was upset the details were not included in a press conference citing a “promise” made to the Prime Minister’s Office and Blair, ahead of the Liberal government’s impending gun control legislation.

Cumberland/Colchester MP Dr. Stephen Ellis, who is the Conservative shadow minister for public safety and member of the committee, says the goal of today’s meeting is to get answers.

“All of this leads us to believe that there are back-room deals, and a lack of political integrity from the Liberal government on how they deal with the RCMP,” says Ellis.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has also denied the allegations. Blair was moved to the Emergency Preparedness portfolio last October.

“I want to be very clear. I did not direct the RCMP. I did not direct them in their operations or in their communications,” Blair says.

RCMP cruisers parked in front of Portapique Beach Road during the NS mass shooting that claimed 22 lives in April 2020.

Meantime, Lucki says there was, of course, pressure given it was the worst mass shooting in Canada’s history. She says there was also frustration over the media reporting details before police regarding the number of fatalities and even the background of the perpetrator, for example.

She explained that did not mean there was interference on a political level.

“First of all, there was pressure for every single bit of information related to this incident, the number of deceased, where the deceased were located, who the deceased were, the background of the deceased, the perpetrator, the background of the perpetrator, the perpetrator’s common-law spouse … it went on and on,” Lucki says. “It was relentless, especially from the media.”

She was questioned on why in the days after the mass shooting she pivoted from not wanting details on the firearms to be released due to the active nature of the investigation to calling for the information to be made public. Lucki says it was due to the fact that the details were changing rapidly, even hourly, when it came to the investigation.

She says at every press conference new information would be released.

Lucki believes the allegations stem from miscommunication, adding she’s a calm person who at no time got upset that the details were not given out.

“There were a lot of issues we were having with the flow of communication. Whether or not it was released was not my concern. Somebody asked me if it was going to be a part of it. I asked them, and they said yes, and it wasn’t,” Lucki says. “We were getting criticized by the media at every angle for the lack of timely information.”