Amid allegations that the Trudeau government used the Nova Scotia mass shooting to implement its gun control measures, a new email reveals that RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki did not support releasing the details of the firearms used in the tragedy.
According to an April 23, 2020 email released by the Mass Casualty Commission investigating the shooting, Lucki told then-public safety minister Bill Blair that she did not support releasing details of the firearms used in the massacre.
In the email, Lucki named the firearms used in the shooting while telling Blair that the details of the weapons should not be released to reporters as the information is “directly related to this active investigation.”
However, Lucki seems to have reversed her position only a few days later. On April 28, she demanded senior RCMP officials release information on the guns used in the massacre despite concerns that releasing the information may compromise the investigation into the gun’s origin.
When RCMP superintendent Darren Campbell did not release the firearms information to reporters in an April 28 press conference, Lucki emailed Blair’s chief of staff expressing disappointment with the decision, saying it was “not the execution I was expecting.”
Multiple RCMP officers have come forward confirming that Lucki demanded the release of the gun information on behalf of the Trudeau government to promote the Liberal subsequent gun restrictions announced only a few days after the meeting.
Notes taken by superintendent Campbell during the April 28 meeting between senior RCMP officers show that Lucki had said she made a promise to the Trudeau government to make the firearm info public in an effort to promote the Liberal’s gun restriction legislation that they unveiled on May 4, 2020.
“The Commissioner said she had promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister’s Office that the RCMP (we) would release this information,” reads Campbell’s notes.
The former head of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP Lia Scanlan confirmed in an April 14, 2021 email that Lucki attempted to interfere in the RCMP’s Nova Scotia mass shooting investigation to advance the Trudeau government’s gun control agenda, calling Lucki’s behaviour “appalling, unprofessional and extremely belittling.”
Commissioner Lucki and the Trudeau government are denying allegations that the government demanded Lucki release the information for the political benefit of the Trudeau Liberals.
“I’m telling you, and I would tell the superintendent, if I spoke to him, that I made no effort to pressure the RCMP to interfere in any way with their investigation,” said Blair.
