SENIOR MANAGEMENT FAILED NOVA SCOTIA

Further to the recent tragedy in Nova Scotia and as I reflect more on this topic, I find that

I am of two trains of thought. First, the front-line responders did all they could to control the situation given the magnitude and complexity of this horrific event. While people were shot and houses and cars burned, they did their best to search for the shooter or shooters, with almost no knowledge of events at that point, but with the knowledge there were several dead citizens. This was all happening on a dark, wooded road late at night.

So to that group of first responders, we say thank you for your diligence and doing your job.

However, where the RCMP failed citizens was at the senior management administration level. The leadership was void by senior officers failing to sound the alarm so the greater public would be protected going forward. By midnight on Saturday night, they knew there was a killer on the loose. They should not have presumed that he was confined to one area and the alarm should have been sounded immediately as a precaution. That is precisely the purpose of the early warning system — in this case, to warn the public that a shooter was on the loose and everyone was in danger and they should be wary.

The front-line police did their job well, but the behind-thescenes police administrators did not do theirs, and as a result, many more people may have died because of their inadequate decision making.

Ron D. Berry,

Moncton, N.B.