Trudeau denies his office pressured RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to release gun details in N.S. mass shooting

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki speaks during a news conference in Ottawa on Oct. 21, 2020.Adrian Wyld/The Canadian Press

MPs voted to hold a hearing into allegations of political interference with the RCMP, planning for testimony next month into whether the government pressed the Mounties to advance its gun-control agenda.

The Commons Public Safety Committee voted Thursday to hold a hearing in July but the actual date remains unclear. It could be as late as July 25 under a timeline supported by the Liberals, NDP and Bloc. The Conservatives had wanted a much earlier hearing.

Separately, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau denied his office pressured RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to take measures that could give momentum to the Liberal firearms control legislation.

Speaking to reporters in Kigali, Rwanda Thursday where he is attending a Commonwealth meeting, Mr. Trudeau said he and his office did “absolutely not” interfere with RCMP decisions about when to release details of guns used in the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.

Notes from RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell made public this week say Commissioner Lucki told the RCMP in Nova Scotia that she had “promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister’s Office” that the force would disclose the type of firearms used in the mass shooting because it would support the government’s “pending gun-control legislation.”

Mr. Trudeau said it would be wrong to tell the RCMP what to do.

“We did not put any undue influence or pressure,” he told reporters in his first comments on the matter. “It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police, that determine what and when to release information.”

Mr. Trudeau declined to say whether it thought it was appropriate for Commissioner Lucki to have directed subordinates to take actions based on political imperatives, such as building support for gun control legislation.

“We continue to have confidence in the commissioner,” Mr. Trudeau said.

He added however that his government did have “a lot of questions” for the RCMP in the wake of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history and that he received regular briefings on the matter.

As the Globe and Mail has reported, former RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson and other retired Mounties are defending the integrity of Supt. Campbell.

Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair has said he does not accept Supt. Campbell’s written account of a conference call, on April 28, 2020, between Commissioner Lucki and RCMP commanders overseeing the criminal investigation into the rampage 10 days earlier by a lone gunman in Nova Scotia. Twenty-two people were killed in the shooting.

Mr. Blair was public safety minister at the time.

In the call, according to the notes, Commissioner Lucki chastised senior commanders for withholding information about the guns used in the attack – allegedly telling them those details could be leveraged for the Liberal government’s gun-control agenda.

Supt. Campbell’s notes recounted that Commissioner Lucki was upset because he refused to do so out of concern that politics could jeopardize the cross-border police investigation. The gunman had smuggled three of the weapons into Canada from the United States.

Mr. Blair has questioned Supt. Campbell’s handwritten notes that were submitted to Nova Scotia’s Mass Casualty Commission probe.

“The superintendent obviously came to his own conclusions and his notes reflect that. But 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,” Mr. Blair told reporters Wednesday.

“I gave no direction as to what information they should communicate. Those are operational decisions of the RCMP. And I respect that and I have respected that throughout,” he said Wednesday.

Mr. Blair has not said whether he or the PMO obtained assurances from Commissioner Lucki that the type of weapons used in the shooting would be quickly released to the public.

The Globe and Mail asked Commissioner Lucki on Wednesday to confirm or deny Supt. Campbell’s allegations about the alleged promise to Mr. Blair and the PMO.

She declined to answer and RCMP headquarters pointed to what she had said in a statement on Tuesday when the matter first came to light.

“The Commissioner clearly indicated that she did not interfere in the ongoing investigation, nor did she feel any political pressure to do so,” RCMP media relations said.

Mr. Paulson, who was commissioner from 2011 to 2017, would not be drawn into the political controversy involving his successor. But he defended Supt. Campbell, a former homicide investigator from the RCMP’s Vancouver office who he promoted and brought to headquarters in Ottawa during his tenure.

“Darren is one of the best investigators in the force and a highly reliable officer with tremendous integrity,” Mr. Paulson said. “You won’t find a practicing police officer who will speak ill of Darren Campbell.”

Former deputy commissioner Pierre-Yves Borduas said there is no way that Supt. Campbell would make up a story about Commissioner Lucki.

“This officer has a solid reputation,” he said, and added: “There is a blend of politics and a big political slant to it and it is regrettable.”

Former RCMP superintendent Peter Lepine also spoke out in support of Supt. Campbell.

“I’ve followed Darren Campbell since the day he was a recruit,” Mr. Lepine said. “He’s an extremely competent police officer and extremely well trained in the world of major investigations.”

Mr. Lepine said he doesn’t believe Supt. Campbell “would falsify any notes or have any agenda to hang anybody out to dry.”

The recently released testimony is not the first example that the Nova Scotia probe has uncovered where Mounties recount the Liberal government’s effort to exert control over the RCMP.

In an interview with commission investigators, Lia Scanlan, the RCMP’s former director of strategic communications in Halifax, talked about the pressure from Ottawa. The transcript was made public earlier this month.

Ms. Scanlan told the investigation that federal government officials including Mr. Blair and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “were weighing in on what we could and couldn’t say” during media briefings.

The transcript of her remarks was heavily redacted in some sections by the Mass Casualty Commission before its release and so some details of the testimony remain secret.

At another point, Ms. Scanlan talked about Commissioner Lucki’s conduct in an interview and attributes what happened to “political pressure,” adding “that is 100 per cent Minister Blair and the Prime Minister.”

She then told investigators: “We have a Commissioner that does not push back.”

Bill Elliott, a former federal bureaucrat who became the country’s first civilian head of the RCMP from 2007-2011, said he did not see anything wrong with Commissioner Lucki’s conduct.

“I can understand the reluctance on behalf of investigators to releasing information. I think it is appropriate for people like the Commissioner of the RCMP to bring other considerations to bear,” he said.

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