The inquest heard that tensions have escalated over the past two years over disputes over the response to mass shootings, policing standards, monitoring of special services, funding and the emergency alert system. Although senior officers from both sides said the deterioration of the relationship was at senior management level, with little impact on front-line officers, a member of the Mass Casualty Commission leading the inquiry disagrees. “The reality is it makes a huge difference to the people on the front line because, without the support of their senior leadership, you’re not going to get people to step up,” Commissioner Leanne Fitch said Thursday during the regional police chief’s inquiry of Halifax Dan. Kinsella. “They’re going to want to be out there working together. But if there are obstacles because there is a lack of cooperation and communication in relationships at the senior management level, we will not overcome it and that is bad. for public safety”.
Municipalities offered help
During the mass shootings on April 18 and 19, 2020, when 22 people were killed, municipal police leaders reached out to the RCMP to offer assistance. Among them were Kinsella and Chief David MacNeil of Truro Police, one of the forces closest to Portapique, where the rampage began. Julia Cecchetto, who was Kentville’s police chief at the time and head of the Nova Scotia Association of Chiefs of Police, sent an email on April 19 to all her fellow chiefs seeking resources. Most responded to offer what they could. But the Mounties received no offer of help from the municipal police force during or after the 13-hour rampage as the gunman criss-crossed the province killing residents and destroying homes. Instead, the RCMP turned to the Mounties in New Brunswick for immediate support on the night of April 18. In the months following the murders, RCMP officers from Quebec and Ontario were flown to Nova Scotia to relieve local members. About 100 members of the Halifax Regional Police were active in various roles over the weekend and also assisted with some investigative work, but did not respond to a request for assistance from the Mounties. Head of Ministry Chris Leather, one of the senior Mounties in Nova Scotia at the time of the shooting, testified last month that bringing in municipal forces during a major event is “fraught with danger.” “If they’re not reading off the same page, if they’re not aligned in their thinking, their training and how they approach a situation, what a terrible place to experience that breakdown,” Leather said. Municipal forces also complained that they were not informed during the shooting. When he testified in June, MacNeil said he learned from news reports that the gunman had passed through Truro. The gunman’s mock RCMP police vehicle is seen here driving down Esplanade Street in Truro, NS, on the morning of April 19, 2020. (RCMP) A major sticking point between the RCMP and municipal forces came in April, when the Nova Scotia Association of Chiefs of Police voted to redefine the RCMP as an associate, non-voting member. MacNeil has testified that the union made that decision after a dispute with the Mounties over several policy issues, some connected to the mass shooting and some not. “It gave us a little bit more of an independent voice,” MacNeil said. MacNeil said the RCMP wanted Nova Scotia chiefs to say the Alert Ready system essentially doesn’t work for police use, a position the chiefs didn’t support. Both MacNeil and Kinsella told the inquest they knew issuing a notice was an option. The RCMP’s demotion to the commission was “disappointing,” Commissioner Luckie wrote in a May letter to chiefs, saying it undermined the association’s goals of developing deep cooperation between police forces in the province. Leather also said that when it comes to building trust and working together, “actions speak louder than words.” “If you demote us and take us out of the major leagues, what do you think … the expectations for results will be for that? Nothing but more difficulties and challenges,” Leather testified. Although Kinsella said Thursday that the RCMP was not “kicked out” of the union, it was certainly a difficult day for all sides. He said the club would like to see the Mounties join as associate members, but “we haven’t been approached about that at this time.”
The RCMP move to monitor the services caused concern
In January 2021, the RCMP began monitoring requests from municipal forces for special services such as police dog units or forensic identification services. Hayley Crichton, executive director of public safety and security at the provincial Department of Justice, told a committee interview in January that Leather made the motion to track requests so the government would understand the “significant” cost the RCMP absorbs from these calls . Since then, requests must go directly through the RCMP’s criminal operations officer and flagged to the province — a practice that has raised concerns among municipal leaders. Kinsella said Thursday there were no conversations about the change between the RCMP and police chiefs before it happened, and there will be problems when anything is “triggered” on someone without warning. Lee Bergerman, former assistant commissioner and recently retired commander of the Nova Scotia RCMP, testifies last Monday in Halifax to the Mass Casualty Commission’s inquiry into the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020. (The Canadian Press/ Andrew Vaughan) Lee Bergerman, the retired commander of the Nova Scotia RCMP, testified this week that the move caused “concerns” among municipal forces that they would be charged for these services, but that did not happen. “It was important for us as the RCMP to be able to track and tell our story to the province about why we were in a deficit because we weren’t always spending money within our own police jurisdictions,” Bergerman said. Although Crichton said RCMP law prohibits Mounties from directly billing any municipality for their services, the roles and responsibilities of all police agencies in the province may change when new standards are announced.
Policing standards issues widen ‘rift’
Although Crichton said the province is working slowly to update policing standards, it wasn’t until April 2021 that the Ministry of Justice created two commissions to finally finalize them. The standards, which Crichton said were last updated in 2003, set a “minimum basic requirement” that all agencies across the province must meet. He said they would not only define how policing should be done, but also formalize access to these special services. “Annapolis Royal doesn’t need to have a major crime unit, but it does need to have formal access to one,” Crichton said. “What that means in terms of cost recovery … we’re not there yet.” Bergerman testified that the RCMP’s push to introduce these standards also widened the “rift” between the Mounties, the provincial Department of Justice and municipal forces. Halifax Regional Police Chief Dan Kinsella testifies last Thursday at the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020. (The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan) While Bergerman said the committee would have to ask a township leader why that gave them a problem, she suggested it could be because the standards may require specialized units like emergency response teams — all of which are “prohibitive in terms of costs for many municipalities”. Members of the RCMP have also taken issue with the existing standards. Leather testified that a main reason the RCMP chose not to take part in recent policing audits is because all forces are measured by standards that are “nonexistent or outdated.”
Integration issues have worsened: Kinsella
Another point of contention has been tension over who has jurisdiction and control over certain affairs and resources within Halifax Township, Kinsella testified. Although Kinsella said he learned about problems with the current criminal investigation division’s embedded model once he took the chief’s job in 2019, the mass shooting “reinforced it a little bit.” Municipal and RCMP members in the department work side-by-side, but Kinsella said last August the Mounties pulled their detectives from the department’s main crime unit where they made up about 20 per cent of the membership. Kinsella said he had understood that an incoming RCMP inspector didn’t think the structure was appropriate and decided to handle major crime cases on his own in his jurisdiction in Halifax. This echoes themes from a 2021 wellness report of senior Nova Scotia RCMP officers and civilian equivalents. Respondents described an ongoing “turf battle” over operational control and funding between Halifax Regional Police and the RCMP. Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row from left: Gina Goulet, Dawn Gulensin, Jolene Oliver, Frank Gulensin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Zahl, Lisa McCully, Joey Webber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joanne Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom row: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corrie Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC) Several participants also reported that despite Mounties doing their best to become “partners” in this integrated model, “HRP leadership did everything they could to undermine and break the relationship with the RCMP in order to access more resources from (Halifax Regional Council) and the province.” When asked about how to move…
