N.S. shooting tragedy 'happened for absolutely nothing' if RCMP doesn't learn: commissioner

The commissioner of the RCMP says the police service he oversees is different from the one that was denounced a year ago for failing to keep Nova Scotians safe during the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history.

After a gunman killed 22 people, including a pregnant woman, in Nova Scotia in April of 2020, an inquiry was struck to examine how the tragedy could have unfolded. 

Almost exactly a year ago, the Mass Casualty Commission released its final report, which took aim at the RCMP's response to the crisis on almost every level. It called out a lack of preparation, a lack of communication and a lack of leadership and recommended Ottawa rethink how the RCMP operates.

On Wednesday, Commissioner Mike Duheme provided an update on the national police force's response to the Mass Casualty Commission's recommendations, promising "meaningful change." 

"As an organization, if we don't learn from this, this tragic incident happened for absolutely nothing ... I don't want that to happen," Duheme told CBC News in an interview ahead of Wednesday's announcement. 

"We want to prove to people that we can change as an organization."

The federal-provincial public inquiry made 130 recommendations, more than half involved policing in Canada. 

The RCMP said it is focused on the 33 under its direct control. The force said it's improving its overall approach to managing crises, including alerting the public, and has deployed software to track the locations of its officers out in the field.

In documents shared with the public on Wednesday, the RCMP said implementing those "represents a significant challenge for the RCMP, we do not feel it is impossible."

"Police work doesn't have a blueprint — we train our folks the best we can. But certain environments, or certain calls we go to, are so dynamic and fluid that members have to think on their feet, adjust according to a threat that's perceived, and then react accordingly. And that's sometimes what you can't capture in training," Duheme said.

"But for the most part, we are better off today than we were two years ago, or four years ago."

Canadians have heard promises of change from the RCMP before.

The RCMP has an uneven record when it comes to implementing recommendations and guidelines following tragedies. For example, a review of the 2014 shooting spree in Moncton, N.B., that left three members of the Codiac RCMP detachment dead and two others wounded, made recommendations around scene containment and crisis management. But Mounties testifying before the Nova Scotia inquiry said they weren't aware of them. 

Duheme believes that won't happen again.