Lucki affair keeps getting worse for government
New evidence contradicts denials
Virtually every day seems to be yielding some new piece of evidence to contradict Trudeau government denials that they exercised any political “interference” in the aftermath of an April 2020 mass shooting that killed 22 people.
This week, the Mass Casualty Commission — the federal inquiry struck to probe the Nova Scotia massacre — released a letter from a top civilian employee in the Nova Scotia RCMP expressing “disgust” with RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki for allegedly exploiting the tragedy to push a federal gun control package.
“I could not believe what you, the leader of our organization, was saying and I was embarrassed to be privy to what was unfolding,” reads the letter by Lia Scanlan, the division's communications director at the time of the shooting.
Since last week, Lucki has been under fire over allegations that she berated Nova Scotia Mounties into releasing sensitive investigatory details for the sole purpose of providing political cover to a Liberal plan to ban “assault-style” firearms.
Specifically, Lucki was angry that Nova Scotia investigators were refusing to release details about the types of firearms used in the shooting, arguing that such information was needed to help support “pending gun control legislation that would make officers and the public safer” and that she had “promised” Public Safety Minister Bill Blair that she would obtain it.
In a tense April 28 meeting conducted only eight days after the massacre, Lucki is accused of belittling Nova Scotia Mounties to the point of tears over the issue.
Investigators were refusing to release the details of the guns on the grounds that it could jeopardize an FBI investigation into the source of the firearms, three of which were smuggled in from the United States.
But Lucki apparently ignored the claim, expressing her “disappointment” and accusing the Nova Scotia division of “disrespecting” her.
Details of the meeting first came to light when the Mass Casualty Commission released the handwritten notes of Nova Scotia RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell.
“The Commissioner was obviously upset. She did not raise her voice but her choice of words was indicative of her overall dissatisfaction with our work,” reads Campbell's summary of the meeting.
“Some in the room were reduced to tears and emotional over this belittling reprimand.”
Lucki has since said in a statement that she had “regret” for her behaviour at the meeting, but denied taking “actions or decisions that could jeopardize an investigation.”
Scanlan's letter — which was written to Lucki in the wake of the encounter — is the second primary source to detail what happened in the April 28 meeting.
Scanlan gets into much more detail into Lucki's alleged verbal “attack” on the division, including the Commissioner accusing Mounties of having “let the boys down” — a reference to two young boys who witnessed their parents being murdered during the massacre.
When Lucki mentioned that the gun information was needed to bolster a pending gun control package, Scanlan said she remembered a “feeling of disgust as I realized this was the catalyst for the conversation and perhaps a justification for what you were saying about us.”
“Our focus was on the families and on the boys not on the legislation being passed on May 1, 2020,” she added.
According to documents obtained by the National Post, Liberal cabinet members — including Blair — already knew within days of the massacre what guns had been used by the shooter. The issue was that the information wouldn't be public knowledge on May 1, when the Liberals did indeed unveil a sweeping ban on more than 1,500 types of long guns.
Notably, that list just happened to include two of the four guns possessed by the shooter. Both were possessed illegally, but one had indeed originated in a Canadian gun store — potentially bolstering Liberal arguments that the firearms needed to be permanently barred for sale.
In the wake of the Scanlan letter, Lucki issued her second statement on the matter, which mostly reiterated the details of the first. “I want to re-emphasize that I did in no way seek to interfere in the ongoing investigation, nor did I feel any political pressure to do so,” she said Tuesday.
Lucki is soon set to testify in person before the Mass Casualty Commission, and has been called before a parliamentary committee to be convened next month.
SOME IN THE ROOM WERE REDUCED TO TEARS AND EMOTIONAL OVER THIS BELITTLING REPRIMAND.