44th Parl. 1st Sess.
June 21, 2022 10:00AM
- Jun/21/22 2:54:23 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very happy to advise this House that this issue has already been dealt with by the Mass Casualty Commission. The commissioner of the RCMP has confirmed for the commission that no such direction or pressure was ever exerted by me or by any other member of this government. Among the important work of the Mass Casualty Commission is examining a number of the significant communication challenges that that event involved—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Jun/21/22 2:55:08 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to have the opportunity to advise this House that this matter was dealt with a number of months ago. The commissioner of the RCMP has confirmed for the Mass Casualty Commission that no such direction or pressure was ever exerted by me or any other member of this government. Among the important work of the Mass Casualty Commission is to examine the important communication challenges that were evident during this tragic event.
We look forward to fact-based findings and recommendations for improvement.
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- Jun/21/22 2:56:25 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I am very pleased to confirm that no one in the Prime Minister's Office or in the public safety office exerted any pressure or direction on the commissioner of the RCMP. The commissioner of the RCMP engaged with our officials, and she has already confirmed for the Mass Casualty Commission that no such direction or pressure was ever given by any member of this government.
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- Jun/21/22 2:57:35 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, the commissioner of the RCMP, in the operations of her police service, is entirely independent of government. I can confirm for the House, as the commissioner has also confirmed, that no such direction or pressure was exerted by any member of this government to influence the commissioner's exercise of her authorities over her police service.
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- Jun/21/22 2:58:40 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I will say it again to my colleague opposite. Since 2015, we have invested over $2 billion to fight tax evasion. If my colleague wants to contribute directly to the outcome of the investigations, I would be pleased to write him a letter of recommendation and send him to work for the RCMP as an investigator.
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- Jun/21/22 3:05:26 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, there can be little doubt that there was political interference from the Prime Minister's Office and the then public safety minister's office because of the handwritten notes by Darren Campbell, a superintendent in the RCMP in Nova Scotia. In his notes, he wrote, “The Commissioner said she had promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister's Office that the RCMP...would release this information.”
To release information in an active investigation could have jeopardized the investigation. Who in the Prime Minister's Office, and who in the public safety minister's office, authorized Commissioner Lucki to speak to the RCMP?
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- Jun/21/22 3:06:13 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, first of all, the answer is no one. Second, perhaps the member opposite is not aware that the Commissioner of the RCMP is the Commissioner of the RCMP and does not require any authorization from anyone else to speak to her own organization. What is also clear, and what the commissioner has made very clear to the Mass Casualty Commission, is that no pressure, no direction and no orders were given to her by any member of this government about doing the job of running her organization.
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- Jun/21/22 3:06:49 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, this is not funny, because in his notes, in particular, the Nova Scotia RCMP superintendent said that Lucki had accused them of disobeying her instructions to include specific information about the firearms used by the perpetrator. In his notes, Campbell also wrote that he had told the RCMP strategic communications not to release information about the perpetrator's firearms out of concern that it would jeopardize the investigation.
The RCMP commissioner said that she had received instructions from the Prime Minister's Office and Mr. Blair's public safety office—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
Mr. John Brassard: Mr. Speaker, they were from Mr. Blair's public safety office to interfere—
Some hon. members: Oh, oh!
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- Jun/21/22 3:07:59 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, it is very apparent that the House leader of the opposition is more interested in drama than in truth.
There is a fact here. The commissioner has confirmed that no direction and no pressure was given by me or by any member of this government to direct her in any way. This is a line of which I am most familiar, and no direction on an operational matter was given to the commissioner of the RCMP by me or any member of this government. She has confirmed the truth of that.
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- Jun/21/22 3:08:54 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, I do apologize, but this is not drama. This is about direction to a commissioner of the RCMP to actively be involved in a case, an ongoing investigation in Nova Scotia, from the Prime Minister's Office and the then public safety minister's office.
That is the accusation that has been made in this case, so this is a serious matter. The police were actively investigating something, and they were being told by the Prime Minister's Office and the public safety minister's office that the commissioner was to interfere. Who told them?
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- Jun/21/22 3:09:33 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, as I have said many times already today, and I will say again, no one told the RCMP commissioner or gave her any direction or exerted any pressure.
The conversations that the commissioner has with her subordinates in her organization is entirely independent of government, and the commissioner is doing her job, but she has already confirmed for the Mass Casualty Commission, a public inquiry intended to get to the facts of this matter, that no such direction was given by any member of this government.
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Madam Speaker, I would say this to the member for Cumberland—Colchester, in whose riding these killings took place. The Mass Casualty Commission has revealed some things and we have to wait for its final conclusions. I think it was a mistake not to require all of the RCMP officers who participated in the events to be part of the inquiry and to testify. I know some of the families have even withdrawn participation because they are so disappointed with the path of the inquiry. What I will say is this. Whether the guns were legal or illegal, many neighbours tried to tell the RCMP they were scared of this man and nothing was done.
Bill C-21 will help deal with that.
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Mr. Speaker, as I mentioned, freezing the pool of legal handguns would not solve the problem in and of itself. It would reduce the risk going forward of illegal handguns from a growing pool making their way into the hands of criminals.
It would minimize the risks, but there are other actions that need to be taken at the border. Those actions are being taken through budget investments that would help pay for new technologies, new scanning technologies. As I mentioned in my speech, there is money being spent to enhance the intelligence gathering and investigative capacity of the RCMP and the CBSA. We have to tackle gang activity through different programs, and so on and so forth. It is not just one solution to a complex problem.
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