RCMP boss: ‘Things are going to change’
•Ayear after a public inquiry released a report that offered a blistering critique of the Mounties’ response to the 2020 shooting rampage in Nova Scotia, RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme said he can understand why Canadians remain skeptical about the RCMP’S commitment to change.
The inquiry’s report found the RCMP missed warning signs about the killer, including reports of domestic violence, possession of illegal firearms and repeated runins with the law. As well, the inquiry found the Mounties failed to promptly send alerts to the public until it was too late for some of the victims.
“This was the worst mass shooting that Canada has ever seen,” Duheme told a news conference in Millbrook, N.S., this week. “I’m sitting here in front of you, committed to saying, ‘Things are going to change.’ If we don’t change, then we’re going to lose the trust of the Canadian people.”
Millbrook is one of more than a dozen rural communities the killer drove through during a 13-hour rampage that started in Portapique, N.S., on the night of April 18, 2020. Disguised as a Mountie and driving a car that looked exactly like an RCMP cruiser, Gabriel Wortman fatally shot 13 people on the first night, and the next day he killed another nine people, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP officer.
“I struggle with what they went through,” Duheme said Wednesday. “I can’t even imagine what they went through, losing loved ones in such a way. I’m sorry for what happened.”
In the new strategy document, Duheme admits RCMP responses to previous external reviews have “not always been fulsome.” As well, he says the organization hasn’t been transparent about the work they have done to change.
“I want you to be able to put your trust in the RCMP,” he told the news conference before citing a long list of steps the Mounties have taken since 2020 to improve public safety. “When I accepted the job of RCMP commissioner (almost a year ago), I knew we could change. You have my commitment we will continue on this path.”
Lawyer Sandra Mcculloch, who represents most of the victims’ families, said the clients she spoke with were not impressed with the RCMP strategy.
“The (RCMP) is taking responsibility for recommendations and change, but there’s a lot of vagueness and ambiguity when it comes to the changes that have been made,” she said after the news conference.
The public inquiry, formally known as the Mass Casualty Commission, found widespread failures in how the RCMP responded to the mass shooting. Last March, it issued 130 non-binding recommendations, a majority of which apply in some form to the Mounties. The RCMP say they have already responded to two key recommendations that each had six-month deadlines — one dealing with critical incident response training and the other with management culture.
In terms of critical incident response, the inquiry’s three commissioners found that when the shooting started in Portapique, the Mounties were quick to discount witness statements and were so poorly managed that officers were always one step behind the killer.
I CAN’T EVEN IMAGINE WHAT THEY WENT THROUGH.