The phone call that gave rise to allegations of political interference in the RCMP’s investigation of the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shootings has been released to the public.
The Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) made public on Oct. 20 recordings and transcripts of the phone call between several RCMP officials, including Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Chief Supt. Darren Campbell, wherein Lucki berates staff for failing to release details about the guns used in the shooting.
“I was very frustrated, very disappointed, and I was feeling quite disrespected by what happened today,” she said.
Later in the call, while discussing Campbell’s discomfort with releasing the make and model of guns used in the shootings, Lucki brought up the Liberals’ pending gun legislation.
The phone call took place about 10 days after a gunman killed 22 people around Portapique, N.S. on April 18 and April 19, 2020.
‘Not Comfortable’
RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan told the MCC on Sept. 9 that recordings of the phone call had been deleted.“It doesn’t exist because Mr. Brien has deleted it from whatever phone he was using,” Brennan said.
“[That] I didn’t seem to understand the importance of why this information was important to go out—the information specific to the firearms as it was related to the legislation,” he said.
During the April 28 phone call, then-RCMP Commanding Officer of Nova Scotia’s H Division, Lee Bergerman, said Campbell was “not comfortable noting the make and or models for the weapons seized” in a news release.
‘Chew Us Up’
Speaking to staff from the RCMP’s communications office during one of the phone calls, Lucki complained how “the little one line I needed” containing details about the firearms was not added to Campbell’s notes before a press conference.“How did it get to me that that one line was going to be in his speaking notes and it wasn’t?” she said.
Lucki said the staff’s failure to release the information “was very saddening.”
Lucki further expressed disappointment at “not being able to come through for the minister on the simplest of requests.”
“It’s disheartening for me to try to manage our RCMP, which is bigger than Nova Scotia, and trying to at least give the prime minister a bit of information before he hears it on the news.”