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Mountie has ‘impression’ Liberal government interfered with N.S. mass shooting probe

Jul 28, 2022 | 11:11 AM

HALIFAX — A senior Mountie says he believes political inference was behind RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s determination to have police release details on the guns used in the Nova Scotia mass shooting. 

Chief Supt. Chris Leather made the comment today during the public inquiry into the rampage that took 22 lives on April 18-19, 2020, during cross-examination by Tom MacDonald, a lawyer who represents two family members of victims.

MacDonald asked if Leather believed, after the officer participated in a teleconference with Lucki shortly after the shootings, that the commissioner’s comments reflected political interference in the criminal probe underway at the time.

Leather responded “that’s my impression,” and he said he came to that conclusion after gathering the facts about the “lead-up” to the meeting with Lucki.  

RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell has alleged that during a meeting on April 28, 2020, Lucki said she promised the Prime Minister’s Office that the information on the guns would be released in connection with the Liberal government’s “pending gun control legislation.”

Campbell and Leather have both testified this week that releasing the information on the guns would have interfered with the ongoing investigation into who provided the killer with the semi-automatic weapons.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 28, 2022.

The Canadian Press