TRURO: Revelations that someone withheld four pivotal pages of a senior RCMP officer’s notes from the inquiry investigating April 2020’s mass shooting and arson rampage are raising questions about the potential for other omissions.
The Mass Casualty Commission is seeking an explanation from the Department of Justice about the missing pages, which included allegations the head of the RCMP made promises to politicians to disclose the kinds of guns used in the massacre to help bolster the case for new gun control legislation.
The public inquiry’s head investigator, Antigonish native Barbara McLean, said in an emailed statement that the commission is also “seeking assurance that nothing else has been held back.”
Linda Hupman, a lawyer representing relatives of Lillian Campbell, Aaron Tuck, Jolene Oliver and Emily Tuck, who were killed in the rampage, echoed that concern.
“The natural response for us, and I expect other participant counsel … is to ask ourselves, how confident are we that there have not been other items not fully disclosed?” she told Advocate Media. “We find it appalling and very disappointing that anyone connected to the RCMP response to the (Mass Casualty Commission) subpoena for documents would hold back relevant documents or portions of documents as was apparently done with the four pages of the notes of Supt. Darren Campbell.”
Hupman is also concerned the inquiry’s tight timeline won’t allow for a full investigation into the issue of missing information. The commission’s inquiry is scheduled to take two years, concluding on Nov. 1 with a final report with recommendations to prevent a similar tragedy in Canada. Public hearings began in February and are expected to last through the summer.
“We have always been of the view the timeframe set for this public inquiry was far too optimistic from the get-go considering the scope of event, the work to be done, the thousands of documents to be gathered and reviewed, witnesses to be heard from and the time needed for the commissioners to consider all the evidence (and) expert reports… in order to write the comprehensive final report that everyone is expecting at the end of this process,” the Truro-based lawyer with Burchell MacDougall said. “The timeline was always unrealistic, and this latest development only confirms that in our opinion.”
The missing four pages of handwritten notes by Campbell, who was leading the RCMP’s investigation into the mass shooting and arson rampage, were revealed in a new trove of documents sent to the commission by the federal government.
The notes, jotted down during a phone conversation nine days after the gunman disguised as a Mountie killed 22 people and injured others, say RCMP head Brenda Lucki was disappointed details about the firearms used weren’t released at press conferences in Halifax.
While Campbell was concerned disclosing the makes and models of the guns could jeopardize the investigation into how the gunman procured the weapons, he alleges Lucki told the Prime Minister’s Office that the information would be disclosed to help make officers and the public safer with gun control legislation.
Lucki said in a statement issued last week that she didn’t interfere with the investigation.
“As a police officer, and the RCMP commissioner, I would never take actions or decisions that could jeopardize an investigation,” she said.
She said briefings with the federal minister of public safety are “standard procedure” and don’t interfere with the integrity of ongoing investigations or interfere with the RCMP’s independence.
The missing pages were uncovered last week. The Justice Department initially sent 132 pages of notes in February. The missing notes appeared at the end of May in a 136-page submission of the material.
Members of Parliament voted to call Lucki, Campbell and other key players to testify before the House of Commons Public Safety and National Security Commission about the allegations of political interference.
Subpoenas from the Mass Casualty Commission have generated thousands of documents from the RCMP over the course of several months.
McLean said the documents “have often been provided in a disjointed manner that has required extensive commission team review.”
She added that the commission’s investigators are reviewing all disclosure carefully for any gaps or additional information required to fulfil the inquiry’s mandate.
New disclosures are being provided to lawyers representing the families of those killed and other participants in the inquiry. McLean said they are welcome to identify any gaps.
“If additional information is required, we then make a request to the appropriate institution for those documents,” she said.