The former commander of the RCMP in Nova Scotia told the inquest into the April 2020 mass shooting Monday that officers who responded to the rampage did their best, but admitted that not everything went smoothly. The first police officers on the scene in Portapique, NS — including emergency response team members — were “heroic,” Lee Bergerman testified. “I think the response and the members that were there did the best they could with what they had at the time,” Bergerman said. “It was a great event.” But Bergerman, the former assistant commissioner who retired in October 2021, later admitted under cross-examination that the public inquiry revealed parts of the police operation went wrong. On April 18, 2020, a gunman murdered 13 people in Portapique and then escaped in a replica police cruiser. The killer went on to murder nine more people the next day before being shot dead by police at a gas station. Bergerman said radio communications between the RCMP command post and members in the field can be improved. He also said the force should communicate better with the public and learn more about the communities it polices. “These are all things we can learn from,” he said. But when asked about her main recommendation in the inquiry, Bergerman said more resources should be given to the RCMP, which has long complained that it doesn’t have enough staff or equipment to adequately police the province. “Under these circumstances it would have been helpful to have more resources to draw upon during the event,” Bergerman said of the killings. He added that there needs to be a conversation with the provincial government and the public about expectations for policing. “I would imagine it’s dollars and cents within the province, and a big priority for this province is health care. So I wonder if there’s a debate — do we want five doctors or 10 police officers?” In a transcript released Monday of Bergerman’s Aug. 2 interview with attorneys, she said she had few details early on April 19, 2020, about what happened the night before in Portapique. Bergerman said she was first informed something was happening in the community around 11pm on April 18, before she went to bed. She confirmed that she found out the next morning about the car replica of killer Gabriel Wortman, but was “surprised” to see it on the news, just before she left home to go to her office at around 9.30am. , surprised when I saw the patrol car they had,” Bergerman said. She added that she was convinced one of the RCMP cruisers had been stolen, so she called Chief Inspector Chris Leather to ask if that was the case. “He confirmed that all of our police cars were registered,” Bergerman said. Bergerman said it wasn’t until she arrived at her office that she was told the photo had been given to the RCMP by a witness. In fact, the photo had been taken by a relative of Lisa Banfield — the killer’s wife — from the Halifax Regional Police, who had sent it to the RCMP around 7:30 a.m. The photo was not shared publicly by police until the RCMP posted a tweet about three hours later. During her public testimony, Bergerman said she was aware that some senior officers in H-Division had complained about her performance after the shooting escalated. She said her immediate supervisor in Ottawa, Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan, told her in the fall of 2020 about the criticism. “I completely disagreed with them (the complaints) and suggested he come to the department,” Bergerman said she told Brennan. She added that she was not told who made the allegations. She said Brennan visited her department and said he encouraged her officers to talk to him and be “open and honest about what they think and how they feel.” Bergerman said she later learned Brennan’s visit was not well received by H-Division members. “He was just trying to do a fact-based fact-finding visit, but I found out later that people were upset,” he testified. Bergerman’s public testimony will be followed Tuesday by an appearance on the stand by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki. Both senior Mounties have testified before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa investigating alleged political interference in the RCMP’s handling of the case. This report by The Canadian Press was first published on August 22, 2022.
