HALIFAX-
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki initially recommended that the federal government not share information about the types of weapons used in the Nova Scotia mass shooting, a stance that apparently changed a few days later.
Emails released Monday by a public inquiry indicate that Lucki wrote to then public safety minister and deputy minister Bill Blair on April 23, 2020, four days after the gunman killed 22 people using multiple firearms.
She lists the names of two semi-automatic pistols and two semi-automatic rifles used by the killer, and says the information should not be sent beyond the prime minister and minister as the information is “directly related to this asset”. research.”
However, by the time of the press conference on April 28, Lucki’s stance had changed, as she seemed displeased that the RCMP superintendent. Darren Campbell had refused to provide journalists with details about the weapons.
She commented in an email to Blair’s chief of staff that afternoon that Campbell’s refusal to disclose the information “was not the execution I expected.”
Blair and the Prime Minister’s Office are accused of pressuring Lucki to divulge details about the type of weapons used by the gunman, and two RCMP officials, including Campbell, allege that Lucki told them the information was related to the next legislation on weapons.
After allegations surfaced in the public inquiry into the April 18-19 mass shooting, Conservatives and the NDP accused Liberals of using a tragedy to further their gun control policy.
Lucki acknowledged in a statement that he “expressed his frustration with the flow of information” in a meeting with the Nova Scotia RCMP in the hours after the April 28 news conference.
However, both Blair and Lucki denied that there was pressure to release a list of the weapons used in the shooting, and in fact neither they nor the Nova Scotia RCMP released that information to the public before it was reported by the media in November 2019. 2020. .
Some gun and criminal investigations experts have suggested that lost in the partisan bickering was the issue of the public’s right to know about the firearms in question.
AJ Somerset, the author of a book on gun culture, told The Canadian Press that people who knew they had been involved in selling a gun to the mass murderer would avoid contact with the police, regardless of whether details of the weapons had been revealed.
However, the public inquiry recently issued additional subpoenas to the RCMP, following concerns that documents were withheld by federal police. The public inquiry continues “to seek assurance that nothing else is being withheld,” Emily Hill, the commission’s senior adviser, said in an email last week.
The government announced the ban on assault-style weapons on May 1, 2020, after the cabinet approved an order-in-council enacting the changes.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on July 11, 2022.