Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki both told a House of Commons committee on Monday they did not interfere in the RCMP investigation into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.."Let me be clear. I did not interfere in the investigation around this tragedy," Lucki told members of the House of Commons public safety and national security committee.."Specifically, I was not directed to publicly release information about weapons used by the perpetrator to help advance pending gun control legislation.".Last month, controversy erupted when handwritten notes by RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell emerges, which claimed Lucki tried to get investigators to reveal the type of weapons used in the April 2020 Nova Scotia Massacre. The notes surfaced as part of a Mass Casualty Commission probing the shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 Canadians..The notes suggested Lucki promised Blair and the Prime Minister's Office that the RCMP would release the caliber, make, and model of the guns used by the shooter. Campbell believes this information would be tied to impending gun control legislation. Following the shooting, the Liberal government introduced legislation banning 1,500 types of assault-style firearms..Lucki told the committee that there was a miscommunication between herself and the Nova Scotia RCMP. She claimed ahead of a press conference on April 28, 2020, federal government officials asked her what items of information police would reveal in the briefing.."I provided information to the government about what would be released," Lucki said. "At that time, I was asked if the information about the weapons would be included. When my communications team told me that it would be, I relayed this information back to Minister Blair's chief of staff and the deputy minister of Public Safety.".But Lucki said the Nova Scotia RCMP later told her that information about the guns would not be revealed at the news conference, leading her to feel she had "misinformed the minister and, by extension, the prime minister.".Lucki added that while she may have said the word "promise" in a call with RCMP officers after the press conference, it was not a formal promise to government officials about what information the RCMP would reveal..Blair told the commission that there was "only one set of facts."."I did not ask Commissioner [Lucki] to reveal that information, and she did not promise me that she would. You are also referring to a conversation the Commissioner had with her subordinates in NS. I was not a party to that," he said..Blair added that the RCMP was under public pressure to reveal more information about the massacre, but he repeatedly denied pressuring Lucki to reveal the information..When Blair was asked why Campbell's notes alluded towards a "promise" that was tied to impending gun control legislation, Blair said it was a question "better put to the participants in that conversation."."I was not a party to it, I had no knowledge of that conversation. At no time did I give operational direction to the RCMP Commissioner [Lucki] to release that information," he said..Blair's testimony contradicted a letter Lia Scanlan, the former communications director for the Nova Scotia RCMP, released last month. Scanlan said during the April 28 meeting she attended with Lucki and senior Nova Scotia officers, the Commissioner informed the group of "the pressures and conversation with [then public safety] minister Blair," which were related to impending gun control legislation.."I remember a feeling of disgust as I realized this was the catalyst for the conversation," Scanlan said in her email to Lucki dated April 14, 2021. "I could not believe what you, the leader of our organization, was saying and I was embarrassed to be privy to what was unfolding. It was appalling, unprofessional and extremely belittling.".Former assistant commissioner Lee Bergerman also had notes on who attended the meeting and included the phrase, "angry about lack of detail about guns," but did not include who made the comment. .The RCMP Act states the RCMP commissioner "has the control and management of the force and all matters connected with the force" but "under the direction of the minister [of public safety].".Blair said he knows where the line is when it comes to politicians directing police operations.."It's a line of which I'm quite familiar. I spent many years as a police chief," Blair told the committee, adding he would never try to influence or direct a police investigation.
