RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki promised former Public Safety Minister Bill Blair and the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to leverage the 2020 Novia Scotia attacks, which claimed 22 lives, for gun control legislation. .On April 18 and 19, 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the RCMP..The crime spree lasted 13 hours, and three people, including Wortman's spouse, were charged with supplying him the ammunition used in the attacks..A week after the murders, Lucki pressured RCMP in Nova Scotia to release details of the weapons used by the killer, saying she had promised Blair and the PMO that the RCMP would release the information as it was "tied to pending gun control legislation," as reported by the Halifax Examiner. .The RCMP repeatedly refused, citing the ongoing investigation..Lucki's push to support the federal government's efforts on gun control legislation dates back to one week after the Nova Scotia mass murder, said Nova Scotia Supt. Darren Campbell in an April 28, 2020, news briefing..In response to questions about firearms, Campbell told reporters he “couldn’t get into details … because the investigation is still active and ongoing." He could only confirm the gunman had several semi-automatic handguns and two semi-automatic rifles..Following the briefing, Campbell was summoned to a meeting with other officials, including Lucki and a deputy from Ottawa. In Campbell’s notes from the call, he wrote that Lucki expressed her dissatisfaction with their work and said he disrespected the commissioner..“The Commissioner said she told Comms to tell us at H Division to include specific info about the firearms used by [the killer]. … However, I said we couldn’t because to do so would jeopardize ongoing efforts to advance the US side of the case as well as the Canadian components of the investigation,” the note reads. .Campbell said he tried to explain he meant no disrespect, but he could not release the information at the time. ."The Commissioner then said that we didn’t understand, that this was tied to pending gun control legislation that would make officers and the public safer. She was very upset and at one point Deputy Commissioner (Brian) Brennan tried to get things calmed down, but that had little effect. Some in the room were reduced to tears and emotional over this belittling reprimand.”.The RCMP later learned the killer paid a man named Neil Gallivan to purchase one assault-style rifle at a 2019 gun show in Houlton, Maine, in the US. The killer also obtained two illegal handguns from a close friend and collector named Sean Conlogue. No charges have been laid against either men..Last month, the federal government proposed legislation preventing the importation, purchase, sale, and transfer of handguns. It would also strip firearms licenses from those convicted of domestic violence or stalking and increase criminal penalties for gun smuggling and trafficking.
