A month after the controversy first made headlines, key players are testifying Monday as part of a parliamentary probe into allegations of political interference in the RCMP's investigation of the Nova Scotia mass shooting.
Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki took turns Monday denying pressuring the RCMP, or interfering in the police investigation into the Nova Scotia mass shooting, saying that their actions and motivations at the time were warranted given the unprecedented situation.
For her part in the controversy, RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki testified that she was not directed to publicly release information about the weapons used to help advance federal interests, but there was pressure for information about the incident, information she said she too didn't think was flowing freely enough from the RCMP investigators in Nova Scotia.
At the time, the Nova Scotia RCMP — which was under heavy scrutiny for its handling of the case from the start — said that releasing additional information would jeopardize the ongoing investigation into the perpetrator’s access to firearms. "It needed to happen. It was essential that I had more timely and accurate information. And it was important that my team understood my expectations going forward," Lucki said.
Lucki also told MPs that she did connect the sharing of the N.S. perpetrator's guns to "the minister's mandate letter," after facing questions from her colleagues about why sharing those details was so important.Blair—who at the time of the shooting was Canada's public safety minister—was accompanied by Rob Stewart, deputy minister of the Department of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness.
The minister detailed months of work done to compile the list of guns that would be included, tracking it from the election commitment mention, through to it being mentioned in the subsequent throne speech and put in Blair's mandate letter. He also cited strong public support for the measures, suggesting that the government did not need to tie the move to the shooting.
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