The suggestion that Commissioner Lucki attempted to influence a police investigation to aid the government has embroiled her in a political storm that reaches all the way to the Prime Minister’s Office
RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki told an inquiry into the deadliest gun rampage in Canadian history that concerns over political interference in the police investigation have been overblown, and said she is growing frustrated with questions on the subject.
She also largely deflected any blame for the fallout from the killings, while accusing the media of adopting a “negative narrative” around the shooting spree. Her cross-examination continues Wednesday. She told the inquiry she was disappointed with how the RCMP were communicating with the public in the aftermath of the shooting, and said releasing the information would have been in the interest of transparency. She also said she was not trying to pressure her subordinates in a series of calls and e-mails on the subject in the days after the attack. And in any case, she said, she wasn’t contacting them because of orders from her political bosses in the federal government.
Nothing in the government’s gun control legislation would have helped close loopholes that allowed the killer to smuggle his guns into Canada from Maine, Mr. Scott said. The commissioner’s interest in releasing the gun details seemed to be purely for political reasons, to boost public support for the upcoming legislation, he added.
In a previous interview with inquiry staff, on Aug. 4, the commissioner acknowledged that she had gone too far in criticizing her exhausted subordinates during the conference call. “When I think about it before I go to bed, I honestly can’t sleep,” she said. Mr. Scott seized on that complaint, arguing that a series of mistakes by the RCMP during the mass shooting