Senior Mountie Who Oversaw NS Shooting Probe Explains Why Keeping Firearm Details Confidential Was Important

RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell provides testimony at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass murders in rural Nova Scotia, in Halifax on July 25, 2022. The Canadian Press/Kelly Clark

Testifying before the public inquiry into the  mass murders in rural Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020, RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell explained why it was important for the ongoing investigation to keep details of the firearms used by the killer confidential.

His remarks come amid allegations of political interference in the investigation after meeting notes surfaced suggesting RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki wanted details of the firearms released to fulfill a promise she had made to the federal government to support the Liberals’ gun control legislation.

Campbell told the Mass Casualty Commission on July 25 that if police get a confession from an individual or witness accounts about specific details that are not on the public record, the accounts would have significantly more weight.

“The weight of the witness statements that are provided help us narrow our focus on the value of certain witnesses, as well as the weight of any confessions that an offender may make,” he said.

Campbell added that it was a “no brainer” for him that the information about the firearms shouldn’t be disclosed.

Campbell’s notes from an RCMP meeting with Lucki on April 28, 2020, released by the public inquiry last month, said the commissioner scolded RCMP staff at the meeting for not disclosing details about the firearms, saying she had made a “promise” to then-public safety minister Bill Blair and the Prime Minister’s Office that the information would be released. The notes said that “this was tied to pending gun control legislation.”

Another RCMP employee provided a similar account of the meeting

“Eventually, [Lucki] 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,” said an April 14, 2021, letter to Lucki  from Nova Scotia RCMP strategic communications director Lia Scanlan. The letter was released by the inquiry last month.

Further documents released by the inquiry this month showed Lucki initially recommended that information about the types of guns used not be made public. She made the recommendation in emails to Blair’s chief of staff and deputy minister on April 23, 2020, ahead of the April 28, 2020, meeting where she had apparently changed her stance.

According to police, the guns used by the killer in the tragedy were not legally obtained.

In May 2020, shortly after the mass killing, the federal government banned 1,500 types of weapons, and has since introduced other gun control legislation.

Conservatives say the released information show that there was political interference in the investigation.

“The Liberals placed political gain above the integrity of the most important RCMP investigation in Canadian history,” said Tory MP Raquel Dancho, her party’s shadow minister for public safety, on July 25.

Lucki has denied interfering with or exerting political pressure in the investigation, as has the federal government.

“The commissioner has confirmed that no direction and no pressure was given by me or by any member of this government to direct her in any way,” Blair said.