Father of victim calls for public inquiry
The father of a victim of the worst mass shooting in Canada’s history says he supports recent calls for a public inquiry into the RCMP’s handling of the tragedy.
“I don’t think you could have a mass murder like this and not have an inquiry,” said Dan Jenkins, whose daughter Allana Jenkins along with her partner Sean McLeod was fatally shot by the gunman at their Wentworth home on the morning of April 19.
“It needs a second look at all the facts to decide did the (RCMP) do everything right and what can be made to work better,” he said.
To date, several legal experts in the province (including Dalhousie University law professors Archie Kaiser and Wayne Mackay) have said a comprehensive, independent inquiry is needed to get to the bottom of the unprecedented event and have called on the province to commit to one.
While Jenkins agrees the New Glasgow resident also supports the RCMP’s handling of the investigation so far and the job it did tracking down the gunman after being on the loose for 13 hours and killing 22 people, including RCMP officer Heidi Stevenson.
“I think they did an excellent job given what they were up against at the time, there were a lot of detachments involved. They acted on the information they had quickly and efficiently when they had it and they’re working very hard on a complicated investigation."
He said since the tragedy an RCMP officer has been updating his wife on the investigation daily and they’ve been in regular contact with the province’s medical examiners office. Like the general public, they still have no idea of the gunman’s motive or why he went after their daughter and son and law.
Darryl Davies, a criminology professor at Carleton University in Ottawa and a well-known RCMP critic, is also calling for a public inquiry. He criticized the RCMP’s choice of sharing information about the investigation, saying the sporadically scheduled news conferences offer only “tidbits of information” on the investigation and are "at best haphazard."
“They are not providing the kind of information that we deserve,” said Davies. “We all do have a vested interest in peace and security in this country. These press conferences will not satisfy the fundamental questions: What were the shortcomings of the RCMP’s response to the incident in Nova Scotia and what can we do to prevent this level of violence in Canada in the future?”
Davies has first-hand experience working with the RCMP. Five years after the 2005 shooting deaths of four RCMP officers in Mayerthorpe, Alta., the professor produced a report for the force recommending it immediately supply carbines for all uniformed officers for their protection. Four years later, in June 2014 three Moncton officers were fatally shot by a gunman. None of them were armed with carbines.
The RCMP was convicted in May 2017 under the Canada Labour Code for failing to ensure the health and safety of its employees by failing to provide them with adequate use of force equipment, specifically carbines. It was Davies' testimony that helped secure that conviction.
Davies called the federal government’s immediate response to address the widescale tragedy "smoke and mirrors." Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a new law last week banning assault rifles, covering 1,500 models of firearms. The law wouldn’t have prevented the gunman from obtaining the automatic weapons he used in the mass shooting, nor does it address the RCMP's historic inability to respond appropriately to mass shooting situations, said Davies.
"Simply banning assault rifles will not do because we know they can be obtained illegally and anyone who is intent on committing mass killing will find them."
He said the RCMP doesn't have an effective strategy or protocols to respond effectively to active shooting situations. Secondly, he said, there's no plan in place to respond quickly to these situations in isolated areas, like in Portapique where the shooting rampage began and where local detachments are often short-staffed, said Davies. "
"There needs to be a protocol and when help is needed it arrives rapidly. These are commonsensical things, especially from what we’ve learned from Mayerthorpe, and what we learned from Moncton. That is there are individuals in this country who are intent on killing people when they have grievances against the authorities."
“So if we want to address this we can’t wait for an inquiry two years from now. We need to hold the government's feet to the fire to ensure all recommendations are implemented and there are consequences in law if they are not.”
Both federal and provincial ministers responsible for the RCMP in the province (Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and Nova Scotia’s Justice
Minister/Attorney General Mark Furey) haven’t ruled out the possibility of a public inquiry.
But both Blair and Furey said that the force is in the midst of a complex investigation and maintain that Nova Scotians will get answers to their questions.
An email response from the Justice Department on Sunday said: "Nova Scotians can be assured that the Attorney General/Minister of Justice is currently exploring all available options to ensure Nova Scotians’ questions are answered."
But Davies has little confidence there will be a public inquiry or any external review of the force’s handling of the shooting rampage.
“This whole investigation will go on for two years and therefore people will forget and therefore nothing significant will change," said Davies. "People die. We have these massive funerals; we honour the dead; we pay tribute to them as human beings and then we wait for the next shooting.”