MPs hear more testimony about alleged political meddling in the NS shooting investigation
Nova Scotia RCMP Supt. Darren Campbell and Lia Scanlan, former director of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP, testify at a parliamentary hearing to address allegations of possible political interference in the Nova Scotia mass shooting investigation.
Two of the people behind an allegation of political interference in the investigation of the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia will appear before a House of Commons committee on Tuesday.
RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell and Lia Scanlan, director of strategic communications, have accused Commissioner Brenda Lucki of saying she faced pressure from the federal government to ensure information about the gunman’s weapons was released at a conference in press
Campbell’s handwritten notes, taken on a phone call with Lucki, Scanlan and others hours after the April 28, 2020 press conference, say that Lucki mentioned that he had made a promise to the minister and that information about the weapons was related to the next weapon. legislation
Bill Blair, then public safety minister, was accused of applying that pressure, but he and Lucki have repeatedly denied that Blair interfered with the investigation.
A gunman’s 13-hour rampage claimed 22 lives and is now the subject of a public inquiry.
Lia Scanlan was the head of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP in April 2020. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
Scanlan wrote a letter to the commissioner more than a year after the shootings, echoing Campbell’s concerns and telling Lucki the meeting was “appalling, inappropriate, unprofessional and extremely despicable.”
