On Monday, the commissioner of the RCMP and the previous minister of public safety insisted that there had been no political meddling in the investigation into the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
The House of Commons committee on public safety re-called RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair to delve more into the specifics of a contentious conference call that Lucki had with senior personnel in Nova Scotia in the days following the massacre.
Partial recordings and transcripts of the call released by the Mass Casualty Commission earlier this month have revived allegations of political pressure by Blair’s office on Lucki and the RCMP to release details about the firearms used.
Conservative party members interrogated the minister on Monday about whether he or his staff had asked for the information to be disclosed, which Blair denied. The Conservatives have called for Blair to go.
“It wasn’t something I had requested or required of her,” he said, adding he never directed police to release information pertaining to any investigation while he was public safety minister.
The reference Lucki made to a “request” she claimed to have received from a minister’s office on April 28, 2020, during which she did not identify the minister or the specifics of the request, was at question.
The request, according to Lucki, was actually a clarification from Blair’s former chief of staff over whether or not fundamental details about the weapons would be made public.
Based on advice from the communications team, Lucki predicted it would be, only to get upset when the Nova Scotia RCMP did not follow through.
That ask from Blair’s office was one of several she said she received in the days after the shooting from the media and politicians in Nova Scotia and Ottawa about when certain information about the shooting would be released and when.
She replied, “We’re making this all about the guns, but it wasn’t just about the guns.
Lucki went on to say that the reason for her annoyance during the 2020 conversation was a communication gap that caused her to think information about the guns and a timeline of what happened during the shooting would be made public earlier than it really was.
She informed the committee that when she mentioned delivering an apology to the minister, Blair’s office received it rather than the minister himself. Despite this, she insisted that it was not because she had broken any kind of promise regarding the firearms that was connected to upcoming gun control legislation.
If I were to say, Mr.
She told Conservative MP Dane Lloyd, “Lloyd, that I’m going to provide you information tomorrow by 4 o’clock, that I’m expecting to have the information by tomorrow at 4 o’clock.
“You know what? I’m going to call you up at 4 o’clock if I don’t get you the information by then. I apologise; I’m sorry I couldn’t get you the information.
Blair added that Lucki never directly apologised to him and that it is unnecessary for him to do so.
In addition, he refrained from speculating on any discussions about the nature of the information that would be revealed concerning the mass massacre that he was not directly involved in between his senior staff, Lucki, and the senior staff of the RCMP commissioner.
Lucki denied Conservative MP Raquel Denko’s claims that political influence was implied by the call’s multiple references to a “request,” an apology, and upcoming legislation.
I’m grateful for your perception, but it’s not accurate, Lucki said.
She explained that she only wanted to give the “whole context” of what was going on at the time when she was questioned later about why she even brought up the law.
“We can’t be naive about what’s going on around us,” she said.
— with information from Global’s Brian Hill and the Canadian Press, as well as notes taken by Nova Scotia RCMP commanders and communications staff during the conference call. Blair and Lucki have consistently refuted claims of political meddling.
Blair and Lucki contend that their “request” for information regarding the Nova Scotia shooting was not an attempt to exert political pressure.
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