RCMP Commissioner’s Reversal on Releasing Gun Information Suggests Political Interference, Conservatives Say

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki appears at a House of Commons committee in Ottawa on May 7, 2018. The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s reversal on releasing information about the types of firearms used in the Nova Scotia mass shooting incident suggests she was under political pressure, the Conservatives say.

“When the Commissioner of the RCMP tells the government that releasing certain information would compromise an active investigation, that should be the end of the conversation,” MPs Raquel Dancho and Pierre Paul-Hus wrote in a July 12 statement.

“Clearly, that wasn’t the end of it and somewhere in those five days, the Commissioner was worn down. It is not believable that the Commissioner suddenly changed her mind without influence.”

The MPs were reacting to the latest revelation from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) looking into the April 2020 tragedy that left 22 dead.

The MCC released emails from Lucki dated April 23, 2020, which indicate she wrote to then-public safety minister Bill Blair’s chief of staff and deputy minister.

In an email, Lucki provided the models of firearms used by the killer but cautioned against sending the information to anyone else other than the prime minister and minister Blair.

She said the information is “directly related to this active investigation.”

Five days later, Lucki allegedly scolded RCMP staff in Nova Scotia during a teleconference for not following her directive to release the information on firearms to the public.

The MCC previously released internal documents from two RCMP employees suggesting that Lucki had been pressured by the Liberal government to release the information.

“The commissioner went on at length saying that she was ‘sad, disappointed’ and that we disrespected her by not providing these details to the media,” said the handwritten notes of Superintendent Darren Campbell who attended the teleconference.

Campbell wrote that Lucki had made a “promise” to Blair and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) that the information would be released, and that this was tied to “pending gun control legislation.”

Lia Scanlan, the Nova Scotia RCMP strategic communications director at the time, provided a similar retelling of events in an email to Lucki sent a year after the tragedy.

“Eventually, you informed us of the pressures and conversation with Minister Blair, which we clearly understood was related to the upcoming passing of the gun legislation…and there it was,” wrote Scanlan.

At the time, the Liberals were about to ban 1,500 models of what they referred to as “assault-style” firearms.

Dancho and Paul-Hus say the government needs to reveal what led Lucki to change her mind about releasing the information during the active investigation.

“This coverup cannot continue any longer,” said the Tory’s statement.

The government has defended its handling of the issue.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on June 23 that his government did not “put any undue influence or pressure” on the RCMP.

“At no point did our government pressure or interfere with the operational decisions of the RCMP,” Blair said on June 22.

Meanwhile, the MCC issued a subpoena to the RCMP on July 4 over concerns that the federal police service could be withholding documents.

The federal Justice Department had previously withheld the four pages of Supt. Campbell’s notes on the teleconference with Lucki in order to determine if they were “privileged.”

Change in Stance

It’s not the first time that Lucki has changed her public stance on a controversial issue.

On June 10, 2020, a few days after George Floyd’s murder in Minneapolis, Lucki was asked if her organization was “systemically racist.”

“I can’t say for sure. We put in policies and procedures to make sure we don’t have systemic racism and I think, for many of our members, are doing great work every single day,” Lucki told Global News at the time, while acknowledging there could be instances of racism that should be dealt with.

Two days later, Lucki issued a statement to say “definitively” that “systemic racism exists in the RCMP.”

The Canadian Press contributed to this report.