Blair, Lucki insist ‘request’ about Nova Scotia shooting info was not political pressure
Global News
The House of Commons committee on public safety called the two officials back to drill down into details of a tense call between Lucki and RCMP staff days after the shooting.
The head of the RCMP and the former public safety minister continued to insist on Monday that there was no political interference in a police investigation into the Nova Scotia mass shooting of April 2020.
The House of Commons committee on public safety called back Emergency Preparedness Minister Bill Blair and RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki to drill down into the details of a tense conference call between Lucki and senior staff in Nova Scotia that was held in the days after the shooting.
Partial recordings and transcripts of the call released by the Mass Casualty Commission earlier this month have revived allegations of political pressure by Blair’s office on Lucki and the RCMP to release details about the firearms used.
The Conservatives have called on Blair to resign, and Tory members on the committee grilled the minister on Monday about whether he or his staff had requested the information to be released, which Blair denied.
“It wasn’t something I had requested or required of her,” he said, adding he never directed police to release information pertaining to any investigation while he was public safety minister.
At issue was a reference Lucki made during the April 28, 2020, call to a “request” she said she received from a minister’s office, though she did not specify which minister or the exact nature of the request.
Lucki explained to the committee that the request was actually a clarification from Blair’s then-chief of staff about whether or not basic information about the firearms would be made public.
Lucki said it would be, based on guidance from communications staff, only to become frustrated when Nova Scotia RCMP did not do so.
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