Details of response to Hill shooter to be released
OTTAWA — The RCMP will make public a summary of reviews into police actions during the Oct. 22 attack on Parliament Hill, assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud says.
The report will cover reviews by the Ontario Provincial Police of the RCMP and Hill security response inside and outside Parliament, as well as an inter-agency review prepared by the security services involved after ISIL sympathizer Michael Zehaf-Bibeau killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial and stormed Centre Block, where security personnel shot him dead.
Michaud said the report will not disclose information that could reveal possible security vulnerabilities or actions being taken to remedy them.
However, “We’re hoping that we’ll be able to provide as much detail as possible because we do want to inform the public as much as we can as to what transpired,” he said.
The RCMP hopes to have the summary ready for release by June 6, he said.
The OPP reports were delivered to the Speakers of the House of Commons and Senate and the RCMP in early April, and are known to conclude that RCMP and Hill security officers were justified in using lethal force to stop Zehaf-Bibeau in an attack that brought him within steps of meeting rooms holding Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Opposition leader Tom Mulcair and other parliamentarians.
Michaud described the third report as “basically an after-action review of how the RCMP with its partners responded to the event.”
In a message to employees of the RCMP National Division, however, Michaud referred to “false media reports” that he said contained “erroneous facts which stray far from the truth.”
He said the summary of reviews into police actions will shed light on what happened and on “the courageous and dedicated actions of our members.”