The former Mountie in Nova Scotia has highlighted what she believes went wrong during the response to the 2020 mass shooting, including the “failure” to properly search the small rural community where the massacre began.
Lee Bergerman, a retired assistant commissioner and commander of the Nova Scotia RCMP, testified Monday in Halifax before the Mass Casualty Commission that led the investigation into the April 18-19, 2020, shootings, when a gunman went killing 22 people across the province.
Bergerman said he believed there were “failures” and breakdowns in communication during the response, later specifying that it included radio communications between officers on the ground and those in command posts.
He also said there were problems communicating with the public and that there could have been better “streamlining” of the RCMP’s messages. Bergerman also saw deficiencies around the coordination of where officers were stationed and said it would have been helpful for community members to become more involved with the command center to provide insight into the “dark paths.”
“These are all things I think we can learn from, and I hope a lot of that comes out of this commission,” said Bergerman, who will retire from the RCMP in October 2021.
He was also asked about his thoughts on how the RCMP did not fully clean up all crime scenes in Portapique, NS, until 19 hours after the shootings began, meaning some victims in Cobequid Court, a small road at the southern end of the community, they were not. discovered until the afternoon of April 19.
Bergerman said he doesn’t know why this happened and wasn’t involved in those decisions on the ground, but it was an “extraordinary event” where people went all out.
“Obviously, if it takes 19 hours to find a crime scene, that’s a failure to have the proper resources to do that,” Bergerman said.
When asked if it would have been helpful to have municipal forces nearby to help search Portapique, Bergerman said it could definitely be a “lesson learned.”
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 top: 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)
He also highlighted that certain things have been done very well, and described the efforts of the first RCMP officers on the ground in Portapique and the emergency response team as heroic.
A lawyer for the commission, a lawyer for the victims’ families, the police union and the federal Justice Department questioned Bergerman about several issues, including what morale was like at the highest ranks in the year following the tragedy.
“There was a lot of attrition … we had some of our key, senior people who were sick on duty and a lot of our officers were working three jobs,” Bergerman said.
Bergerman said officers were coming to her to set up succession plans for their roles so they could move out of the province, so she went to the RCMP’s national headquarters in Ottawa for help.
The welfare report came from Ottawa: Bergerman
He said he spoke to Assistant Commissioner Brian Brennan about the mental health issues of senior officers and asked for strategies to better support their needs.
Brennan then turned to RCMP human resources chief Gail Johnson, and they made the decision to commission an independent wellness assessment from Quintet Consulting, Bergerman said, which would examine factors affecting morale.
Consultants interviewed 24 commissioned officers or civilian equivalents during the summer of 2021, according to a summary of the report released by the commission, including Bergerman.
The final report was due in September 2021, but Bergerman said it did not address the issues he initially raised.
Instead, the report described how participants felt about underlying problems with RCMP leadership, police partners in municipal forces, the response to the shooting, and criticism of Bergerman’s own performance.
Commissioners Leanne Fitch, Michael MacDonald, chair, and Kim Stanton, left to right, look on as Lee Bergerman, right, former assistant commissioner and recently retired commanding officer of the Nova Scotia RCMP, testifies. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan)
“I was looking for, ‘What strategies can we have to help people heal?’ “We do team building, we do retreats, we bring in psychologists, we do additional members to support the officers … that’s what I was looking for,” Bergerman said.
He added that he asked for details on succession planning for senior officials that were not part of the report, but that “it was done eventually.”
While Bergerman said relations between the Nova Scotia RCMP and municipal forces were “good” before the mass shooting, things have worsened since then. It became “popular” for people to move away from the mountains and certain police chiefs publicly criticized the RCMP, Bergerman said, and the RCMP’s push for policing standards across New Scotland has “caused a rift” between the Mounties, the provincial justice department, and municipal forces.
While Bergerman said the commission should ask a city manager why this has given them a problem, he suggested it could be because the standards include specialized units like emergency response teams, all of which are “prohibitive of costs for many municipalities”. .”
He added that municipal chiefs were also upset by the RCMP’s decision to start tracking expenses whenever police departments like Truro or Bridgewater call in special RCMP units they don’t have in their own forces But Bergerman said the RCMP hasn’t been billing municipalities for those services, just keeping track to show the province where their money is going when they run a deficit.
Police funding model questioned
Bergerman suggested the commission take a “tough look” at the funding model for policing in Nova Scotia and how that influences Nova Scotia’s resources for both the RCMP and municipal forces.
Asked if he agreed with senior officers’ comments in the welfare report about how the province had underfunded the RCMP for years, Bergerman said “overall, I would say yes.” While Bergerman said the province often turned down requests for funding outside the regular budget, he understood it came down to “dollars and cents” and that health care was more of a priority.
The understaffing worsened after the mass shooting, Bergerman said, when many people were left traumatized and on sick leave. Last year, he said, the district where most of the shootings occurred gained six new officer positions, but that’s not enough.
“It’s a vicious cycle … you don’t have enough resources, you’re using the resources you have overtime and it’s not sustainable,” Bergerman said.
Before his testimony, the commission interviewed Bergerman in early August. At the time, Bergerman said he only learned about the gunman’s replica car when he saw it on the news the morning of April 19.
She said she was convinced one of the RCMP cruisers had been stolen, so she called the chief superintendent. Chris Leather to ask if this was the case. “He confirmed that all of our police cars had been accounted for,” Bergerman said.
The photo had been sent to the RCMP from Halifax Regional Police around 7:30 a.m., but the photo wasn’t shared publicly until the Mounties issued a tweet about three hours later.
Bergerman also said that when it comes to the commission’s recommendations, he would like to see “robust follow-up mechanisms” that can be followed after the final report is delivered, perhaps handled by lawyers or others involved in the commission.
A lawyer for the family, Tara Miller, suggested a standing committee made up of street-level officers, RCMP senior management and the public to ensure the inquest’s recommendations don’t sit on a shelf.
“I agree with that,” Bergerman said.
Commissioners leading the investigation will question Bergerman on Tuesday, before RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki takes over.
Lucki has been embroiled in political controversy for weeks after allegations she was under pressure to release specific information about the gunman’s firearms ahead of the Liberal government’s gun control legislation.
The commission has set aside Tuesday and Wednesday for Lucki’s evidence, while on Thursday, Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella will testify.