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Dan-in-Ottawa

Troubling allegation in N.S. shooting inquiry

Interference in investigation?

On Wednesday morning of this week many, Canadians awoke to breaking news under the headline: “Top Mountie denies claim she interfered in N.S. shooting investigation".

This, by many accounts, is an alarming news story.

Currently, in Nova Scotia, the Mass Casualty Commission is independently reviewing the events related to the horrific mass shooting in 2020 that claimed the lives of 22 people. As documents are now being released, a particularly noteworthy disclosure was from a Nova Scotia RCMP superintendent.

According to the claim, as reported by the Halifax Examiner, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki “made a promise” to (then) public safety minister Bill Blair and the Prime Minister’s Office to leverage the mass murders of April 18 and 19, 2020 to get a gun control law passed.

That is a very serious allegation that has already resulted in denials from Blair, (now the minister for emergency preparedness), as well as Lucki. Unfortunately, these denials do not explain how the RCMP superintendent would have otherwise been aware the federal government was working on such a political announcement, that was subsequently released 10 days later, using information not publicly available at the time.

What is also interesting is, while the RCMP commissioner denied interfering in the investigation, she did not deny the conversation occurred, nor that she confided to her RCMP colleagues in having made such a promise to the Prime Minister’s Office and the minister of public safety.

That raises the obvious questions of how the promise came to be and why does it matter?

It matters because the police must always be independent of government to secure the public trust. It is critically important that law enforcement cannot be manipulated politically or used in a manner to achieve the political agenda of the prime minister.

In this case it is not a secret that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau campaigned on changing Canada’s gun laws.

The RCMP commissioner does not deny requesting confidential information at the time (information was being withheld to protect the integrity of the investigation) that ultimately appeared to have been used by Trudeau within 10 days of the troubling events.

I believe this raises some serious questions and concerns and deserves further investigation so Canadians can learn the truth of what happened.

My question this week:

Is this something that concerns you or do you believe the Opposition should move on and focus on other pressing concerns, such as the lack of affordability and rising inflation here in Canada?

That is not to suggest that Opposition parties cannot focus on different topics at one time, but rather how seriously do you see this situation.

I can be reached via email at [email protected] or at 1-800-665-8711.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.



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About the Author

Dan Albas is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Central Okanagan-Similkameen-Nicola and the co-chair of the Standing Joint Committee for the Scrutiny of Regulations.

Before entering public life, Dan was the owner of Kick City Martial Arts, responsible for training hundreds of men, women and youth to bring out their best.

Dan  is consistently recognized as one of Canada’s top 10 most active Members of Parliament on Twitter (@danalbas) and also continues to write a weekly column published in many local newspapers and on this website.

Dan welcomes comments, questions and concerns from citizens and is often available to speak to groups and organizations on matters of federal concern. 

He can be reached at [email protected] or call toll free at 1-800-665-8711.



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The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet does not warrant the contents.

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