Nova Scotia RCMP say they are working on accountability and transparency as they progress through the recommendations in the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report.
On Wednesday morning in Millbrook, commissioner Mike Duheme and assistant commissioner Dennis Daley provided an update on the RCMP’s progress on recommendations in the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report, which was released in March 2023. That report included 130 recommendations, including many about the police response during and after the tragedy.
April 18 and 19 mark four years since the shootings started in Portapique in which 22 people were killed.
At Wednesday’s briefing, Duheme said Nova Scotia RCMP are focused on 33 of those 130 recommendations that are under its “direct control.”
“We are contributing to another 55 recommendations, where the work requires collaboration with our federal and provincial government or policing partners,” Duheme said in his statement. “For the remaining recommendations, we are actively seeking ways to contribute with governments and other partners.”
RCMP also released a strategy on its website that details some of the work they say was started before the Mass Casualty Commission released its final report.
“It explains some of the work that is ongoing, and confirms that there is more to be done,” Duheme said.
The strategy includes work RCMP will do on critical incident management, such as increased use of the Alert Ready system, improving RCMP policies like the decommissioning of vehicles and limiting access to uniforms, work on recruitment, responding to gender-based and intimate partner violence, and focusing on wellness of victims and RCMP members. You can read details of the strategy here.
“Meaningful progress and long-lasting change require the full participation of all RCMP employees across the country,” Duheme said.
“I’ve already seen that level of commitment throughout the RCMP, and you have my commitment on behalf of the organization.”
Response from families
Duheme said RCMP met with the victims’ families on Tuesday, saying “They have endured hardship that I truly can’t even imagine, and they continue to persevere and honour the memory of their loved ones.”
But according to this article by Catharine Tunney at CBC, Sandra McCulloch, a lawyer with Patterson Law who represents some of the family members, they were “underwhelmed” with Wednesday’s update.
“There’s a lot of vagueness and ambiguity,” McCulloch said.
Response from Premier Tim Houston
Premier Tim Houston’s office released a statement on Wednesday to “reaffirm” the province’s work on the recommendations. That work includes:
- $18-million project with the federal government to offer mental health, grief, and bereavement services in Cumberland and Colchester counties
- mental health services through the mobile health clinic that visits Colchester, Cumberland, and Hants counties three times each week,
- 2,000 new trunked mobile radios to volunteer emergency responders by the end of this fall.
So, if you are told the same story time after time after time and you expect change who is the fool, the teller (RCMP) or the listeners (THE GENRAL PUBLIC). There is no defense to a crazy person going off on the first night, the RCMP members (excluding so called management/leadership) on the ground that night did what they could. The issue lies directly at the feet of the leadership or in this case the more TOTAL LACK OF LEADERSHIP.
The ignorance of the RCMP to deliberately and blatantly ignore the Chief and deputy chief of the Onslow Belmont Fire Department is sinful and further illustration that they do not give a fiddler’s ****; what the public thinks.
Now the now repentant RCMP allowed the loal and national leadership to retire with the gold-plated pension plans and medical benefits, even shielded their chicken &*it asses from the MCC so they would not get their feelings hurt or lord behold TELL THE TRUTH answering a hard question about their own decisions that night plus what their own incompetencies caused. The ones that could not retire they promoted with healthy raises which the general public is paying. It was exposed that the RCMP showed favoritism, cronyism, and nepotism in the promotion and selected of management white shirted positions, hiring husband of wives etc. All the efforts since those unfortunate 2 days have been woefully weak (Including the MCC) at exposing what really happened and who should be accountable. you can bet your bottom dollar (the taxpayers’) it will not be the RCMP. Those souls deserve so much better and so do we but don’t hold your breath waiting for it to happen.
You can count me as one of the nondrinkers of the RCMP KOOLAID