At the request of the Trudeau administration, the federal department of justice withheld notes made by RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell confirming Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s demand for information release.
When the federal government initially sent Campbell’s handwritten notes in February 2022, the four pages describing Campbell’s meeting with Lucki were allegedly missing, according to the Mass Casualty Commission, an independent commission tasked with looking into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
According to the CBC, the committee was left waiting for months before receiving Campbell’s notes, in which he described the demands of the RCMP commissioner.
According to notes from a meeting between commissioner Lucki and several high-ranking RCMP officers, Lucki had demanded that the RCMP to disclose the details of the shooter’s firearm at the request of the Liberal then-public safety minister Bill Blair and Liberal’s gun restriction regime.
The Department of Justice said in a statement made available to CBC that the four pages were held back so that it could review them before making them public—information that DOJ did not initially reveal to the commission.
“Department of Justice counsel should have done so and will work with the Commission to establish a process for review.”
During a media available conference in Rwanda, Justin Trudeau denied claims that the government pressured the RCMP to release information.
“We did not put any undue influence or pressure. It is extremely important to highlight that it is only the RCMP, it is only police that determine what and when to release information,” Trudeau said.
“I have absolutely no doubt the superintendent is an exemplary officer, and I don’t question his integrity in any way. I would simply remind this House that the fact is, that there was no interference in this matter,” Blair said.
