Four crucial pages of Mountie senior notes were missing the first time the Federal Department of Justice sent them to public investigation into the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
The key section included allegations that the head of the RCMP promised politicians that the force would publish information on the weapons used during the April 2020 attack.
The Mass Victims Commission said the federal government sent 132 pages of Supt. Darren Campbell’s handwritten notes in mid-February 2022, but that the archive had no references to a meeting with Commissioner Brenda Lucki on April 28, 2020.
Three weeks ago, the investigation received a second file of notes from Campbell for the same period of time. The package included the pages Campbell wrote about a conference he and other senior Nova Scotia officials had with Lucki.
It was just over a week after a gunman disguised as Mountie killed 22 people, including a pregnant woman, injured others and destroyed several houses with a fire.
Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Goulet, Dawn Gulenchyn, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulenchyn, Sean McLeod, Alanna Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from above: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
In the pages not previously revealed, Campbell wrote that Lucki was upset with local commanders for not disclosing information about the brands and models of weapons used in the attacks, details he believed could jeopardize the investigation into how the shooter went get your weapons.
CBC News has asked the RCMP why it revealed two sets of notes. The story will be updated when a response is received.
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki denies the claim of a Mountie colleague who tried to direct the information the investigators published as part of their investigation into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia. (Adrian Wyld / The Canadian Press)
On May 4, 2020, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on some 1,500 brands and models of weapons, including the two weapons used in the Nova Scotia mass shooting. At the time, police had not disclosed the specific brands and models used in the attacks.
Campbell’s allegation that Lucki had made commitments to Trudeau and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Bill Blair before the new gun control legislation sparked a political storm in Ottawa this week with lawmakers. opposition demanding an investigation into the possibility of political interference.
Both Blair and Trudeau have denied having done so and have claimed that the RCMP makes its own decisions about disclosing information.
Lucki has done the same he denied interfering in a police investigationbut he did not address the claim that he wanted to divulge more information ahead of the Liberals ’plan to introduce new gun control legislation in May 2020.
Campbell and Lucki are expected to be called as witnesses to the investigation late next month. They have also been summoned to appear before a parliamentary hearing in Ottawa in late July to address allegations of possible political interference.
Barbara McLean, the commission’s director of investigations, said in a statement to CBC News that the commission is seeking an explanation from the Justice Department as to why four pages of the original disclosure were missing.
He added that he is “asking for an explanation for any other material that has been withheld” in cases where the commission did not know it was happening.
“The commission is seeking the assurance that nothing else has been withheld under the instructions of the citations,” McLean said.
Files cited last June
The commission said it first requested all RCMP investigation files related to the April 2020 massacre investigation by subpoena on June 15, 2021.
In response, he has received thousands of pages of documents and the files have arrived “continuously” and staff “regularly monitored items that had not yet been received.”
“These documents have often been provided in a disarticulated manner that has required extensive review by the commission team,” McLean said, adding that staff review everything “carefully to detect any gaps or additional information. “.
Conservatives continue to pressure Liberals on allegations of interference in the investigation into the NS shootings
Conservative MP Stephen Ellis questions Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair about allegations the Liberal government pressured for details about the shooter’s weapons so the information could be used as part of a bid for more laws hard on weapons.
CBC News learned of the discrepancy because the joint federal and provincial investigation was initially published 132 pages of Campbell’s notes on his website last week and this file made no mention of Lucki’s meeting.
But the commission cited Campbell’s comments about Lucki in a document released on Tuesday that summarizes how the RCMP communicated with the public in the months following the shootings. A 136-page file containing Campbell’s additional notes, including that April meeting, was shared with reporters under a prior embargo. They have since been posted on the commission’s website.
Sup. Darren Campbell with the RCMP of Nova Scotia took handwritten notes from a meeting he and other local officials had with Commissioner Brenda Lucki on 28 April 2020. (Mass Victims Commission)
Campbell has not been interviewed
The Mass Victims Commission has not yet spoken directly to Campbell about his allegations.
As the support officer in charge of overseeing the units, including the tactical team and the major crime unit, Campbell was Nova Scotia’s chief spokesman for the RCMP at three press conferences in late April and June 2020. He also met with many of the families of the murdered people. .
Campbell said in a statement Thursday to CBC News that “he has been waiting for a while to be interviewed by the Mass Victims Commission” and that it will happen soon. He also said he wants to testify.
“As such, it would be inappropriate for me to make any public comment before testifying under oath,” Campbell said.
Months ago, commissioners overseeing the joint federal and provincial investigation said they hoped to testify to Campbell, along with the former aide. Commissioner Lee Bergerman, who has since retired from the role he held as an officer in command of the Nova Scotia RCMP, and deputy chief of staff. Chris Leather, who was second in command in April 2020.
‘Monumental task’ of combing documents
Rob Pineo, a lawyer representing the families of 14 people killed in the mass shooting, as well as others who have been affected by it, said the discrepancy in Campbell’s notes is “definitely worrying, but it is certainly not surprising given how the information has been distributed during this research.
The Mass Accident Commission typically shares its documents with participants, including attorneys representing families, before disclosing the information to the public. But Pineo said some witnesses who have testified before the commission have shared their background interviews and relevant records.
He attributes this to an unrealistic timetable set when the two levels of government set the commission in the autumn of 2020 and set November this year as the deadline for the final investigation report.
Rob Pineo is a lawyer for Patterson Law and represents the families of 14 people killed in the mass shooting, as well as other people who have been affected by it. (CBC)
“We believe that the time period, the goals that were set for this investigation, did not allow enough time for the information and evidence to be properly reviewed and disclosed,” he said.
Reviewing the thousands of pages of records has been a “monumental task” even for the great team involved in his signing, Pineo said.
“In a regular judicial environment we would have months, maybe years, to digest evidence and work through legal theories. Here we usually have a matter of days or weeks,” he said.
said the commission in its interim report which by the end of March had issued 70 summonses, many of them to the RCMP, both for documents and for the appearance of witnesses.
Campbell, Leather leaves NS
Campbell and Leather leave Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia RCMP confirmed on Friday.
Campbell was promoted to chief superintendent and will work in New Brunswick in the coming weeks. He will be the interim officer of police criminal operations in Division J.
Leather joins the federal police modernization team at the RCMP national headquarters in Ottawa in the coming months.
Neither Campbell nor Leather have started their new roles.
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