Contents
[ad_1]
Article content
On one side we have respected members of the RCMP saying the Trudeau government interfered in a critical investigation. On the other side we have politicians with weasel words of denial.
Advertisement 2
Article content
On Tuesday, more evidence was released saying political pressure was applied on the investigation team in the April 2020 Nova Scotia massacre.
So, who are you going to believe?
The latest evidence is a scathing letter sent to RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki by the now former director of communications for the RCMP in Nova Scotia, Lia Scanlan. In her letter, written a year after an April 2020 meeting, Scanlan detailed how Lucki had “attacked” the work being done by the local team in Nova Scotia in the week after 22 people were killed.
“You didn’t think our communications were strategic and believed we had ‘let the boys down’, referring to the two young boys whose parents had been brutally murdered in front of them,” Scanlan wrote noting she was mystified by Lucki’s words and tone.
Advertisement 3
Article content
“Eventually, you informed us of the pressures and conversation with Minister Blair, which we clearly understood was related to the upcoming passing of the gun legislation…and there it was. I remember a feeling of disgust as I realized this was the catalyst for our conversation and perhaps a justification for what you were saying about us.”
Scanlan’s letter goes on to blast Lucki for raising the issue of the two little boys.
“It was a revealing moment, one where I realized we were not aligned. Our focus was on the families and the boys not on the legislation being passed May 1, 2020,” Scanlan wrote.
On May 1, 2020, the Trudeau Liberals announced that they were banning 1,500 different firearms that they referred to as “military-style assault weapons.” In the days before this announcement, Blair’s office and Trudeau’s PMO had been pressuring Lucki to ensure the types of guns used in the massacre were released to the public. They wanted to use that news to push for support of their new gun ban and promised legislation.
Advertisement 4
Article content
The investigators on the case were trying to figure out how the killer, Gabriel Wortman, a man with no gun licence and who had faced a previous court ban on owning guns, was in possession of these firearms. That required working with the Canada Border Services Agency and the FBI in the United States.
Investigators didn’t want certain information out, but Lucki did, citing pressure from Blair and Trudeau.
“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,” read the handwritten notes of Supt. Darren Campbell.
The government response has been all over the map.
On June 21, after the initial story was released, Lucki issued a statement denying that she interfered in the investigation. That was never the claim, she’s the RCMP commissioner, she can’t interfere, all the officers report to her. What her statement didn’t deal with were claims that she made a promise to Blair or that he or the PMO pressured here.
Advertisement 5
Article content
“There was no political interference,” Blair said on June 22.
On June 23, when Trudeau was asked about pressuring Lucki, he said, “We did not put any undue influence or pressure.”
Saying there was no “undue” pressure simply means Trudeau felt it was appropriate.
Now, in light of the second piece of evidence claiming interference, Lucki has a new denial.
“I want to re-emphasize that I did in no way seek to interfere in the ongoing investigation, nor did I feel any political pressure to do so,” she wrote.
She still hasn’t addressed the claim she made a promise to Blair and the PMO, and she still hasn’t denied they pushed her to act, just that she didn’t “feel any political pressure.”
That’s not how her subordinates saw or felt things. I’m more inclined to believe them than the weasel words coming from the politicians known as Trudeau, Blair and Lucki.
