Thread by @Tim_Bousquet

Good morning. I'm at the Mass Casualty Commission; RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather will testify today. This will be a long thread; you can avoid it by muting the hashtag #MCC

I've been trying to process Darren Campbell's 2-day testimony but I am both tired and feeling like I need more time to contemplate it before writing a coherent article about it. But some comments... #MCC

There's a lot of anger out there, which is both understandable and warranted. But I think we need a bit of nuance: a lot of things can be true at the same time. #MCC

It's inarguable, for example, that the RCMP failed in myriad ways, long before the murders, during the murders, and after the murders. imo, much of the fault (by no means all) reflects a broken institutional culture #MCC

I can't look at the RCMP without seeing a sprawling bureaucracy that foremost is about protecting itself. This allows bad actors to rise, and sometimes absolutely destroys people who buck the institution. See my reporting on Dave Moore in the Glen Assoun case #MCC

But that doesn't mean that everything and all players are simply evil. There are complex people acting in a broken institution. #MCC

As to Campbell: he is obviously smarter than most of the other brass. You can view that several ways: the pushed him forward to protect the institution. He cleverly covered up mistakes. He lied to the public. He tried to stay relatively ethical and reform the institution #MCC

I think there's probably some truth in all of those views, although I wouldn't go so far as to call him simply a bad actor #MCC

The most telling part of his testimony was the bit about charging Lisa Banfield. I'll probably write more about that. Anyway, back to today: RCMP Chief Superintendent Chris Leather is now being sworn in #MCC

Here's Leather. He's both older and taller than I remember him from 2020 #MCC

Leather says he never received any training for communications during a critical incident. He says any such communication he was involved in, he'd answer to Darren Campbell #MCC

Young now discussing how the communications failures on the night of April 18 about the second route out of Portapique and the fake police car #MCC

Here's what Leather was asked about, and his response, re how to improve those communications, talking about the need for "trained analysts" #MCC

The short of this is that a ton of info comes in during a big incident like an active shooter — it's been called "drinking from a fire hose" — and while there is a "scribe" to keep the documentation straight, no one is trying to analyze it #MCC

We're obviously in the "forward-thinking" aspect of the interview, looking at what recommendations the #MCC might make

I dunno... bringing new people into an emergency response might be helpful, but it also might add layers of complexity and possible miscommunications. #MCC

Leather says general duty cops have so many training courses that by necessity, the division prioritizes some training to be repeated every few years, but other courses fall by the wayside #MCC

Young now moving onto the post-event press conferences, which I think we all agree were a complete disaster, communications-wise #MCC

Here's the RCMP's policy on such communications #MCC

Here's the policy on media releases: masscasualtycommission.ca/files/fd-sourc…

Young: so if there's a big even like the mass casualty, you should tell the public everything you can, unless there's a reason you shouldn't? Leather: We should do the best we can #MCC

Young: if you weren't trained for press conferences, how'd you know what to say? Leather: the comms people prepared the statement. For the Q&A, we discussed what might come, but I was unprepared for the actual questions that were asked #MCC

Leather: I was only handed the talking points 5 or 6 minutes before "we went to air." The date & time of the press conference were made long before, but then comms people prepared the remarks, and it only got to me at the end #MCC

Leather: "the Q&A portion is the more difficult piece, because it's unscripted and you don't know what's going to be asked" #MCC

Leather: there was a lot to remember: scenes, statistics, etc. "I'll say it right now: I missed the mark on a number of occasions" and I made mistakes. I didn't intend to mislead #MCC

Leather: the "now infamous 'in excess of' comment" was made because I didn't want to give an incorrect number that was too large. (Leather said "in excess of 10," but he knew it was at least 15) #MCC

Besides that: they spent 10 minutes talking about Heidi Stevenson and didn't mention the number of other victims until a reporter asked #MCC

Leather: me, Campbell, Bergerman, and Campbell discussed this for "more than five minutes," but we couldn't land on what number of victims we would tell the public #MCC

Young: there were also media releases with your name on them. Did you review those? Leather: yes. #MCC

Young: why were you involved in the press conferences in the fist place? Leather: given the magnitude of the events, the national & international attention... it made "complete sense" that me and Bergerman would go forward to the public #MCC

Young: what was your objective at the press conferences? Leather: to update the public in a timely fashion, providing as much detail as possible without risking the investigation #MCC

Leather: especially for the press conference, we were still out in the field finding out what had happened, and here were reporters wanting a lot of details, and it was a moving situation #MCC

Here's what Leather said at the press conference on April 19 and again 3 days later about a "firearms complaint" in Portapique. Leather agrees that's all wrong and inaccurate #MCC

Young now asks about Leather's statement that the RCMP had "secured the area" (Portapique). Does that mean Portapique was contained? Leather: it just means "our members were on the ground, working" #MCC

Leather: the terminology could be better. "Securing" would've been better than "secured" #MCC

Young points out that as early as 8:07am Sunday, the RCMP knew that Portapique wasn't secure and GW could've been "anywhere in the province" #MCC

We're on a 15-minute break #MCC

Neither here nor there, but there are articles I've wanted to write, but haven't had time to. One, probably minor, article, would look at the damnable luck of timing for the killer. Take a few seconds here or there, and this wouldn't have been as deadly. Or, even more deadly #MCC

The "15-minute break" turned into 40 minutes. But we're starting again. #MCC

Young is showing Leather these bits from a press conference. "Immediately is probably not the best word to use," says Leather #MCC

Young: why did Campbell take over the press conferences? Leather: "it became more focused and operationally oriented... and it was decided that Campbell was best positioned" for several reasons including his "presentational skills" #MCC

At a June press conference, Leather spoke about the officer safety bulletin. He now says the bulletin was in RCMP possession on April 18/19, but it wasn't findable #MCC

Young: was the public ever told that the RCMP *did* have the bulletin on April 18? Leather: I don't know, but I remember we talked about it #MCC

Young: was the information about the bulletin withheld because it might embarrass the RCMP? Leather: it was obvious to me that this information was significant, but I wondered if "this person" — he means the informant — might be important to the investigation #MCC

Young; but what about the issue that an RCMP cop said he would follow up with the suspect, but never did? Leather: that's a fair point, but it's a separate point #MCC

Young reads this passage from Leather in June. Why were you talking about an April 24 alert in a press conference about the April 18/19 murders? Leather: I was trying to educate the public about the use of alerts #MCC

Young: you didn't tell people not to call 911 when an alert is issued. Leather: we were sharing our observations. Young: how do you know many calls were not answered? Leather: we did a statistical analysis; the calls were delayed, but it doesn't mean they weren't answered #MCC

Young points out that when the OCC is very busy, 911 calls are rolled over to other centres, so there's a discussion about whether the calls would FOR SURE not be answered #MCC

We could get very much in the weeds, but I think the gist of this is that "communications" is way too often "spin." I would say this is a big problem with the entire PR industry, not just the RCMP, but also there #MCC

We're taking a "one-hour" lunch break. Might be 2 hours! Maybe 3! I'm gonna grab a sammy #MCC

We're back. Young is asking Leather about how he sent info about the firearms to Bergerman. Young: why? Leather: she asked for it #MCC

On Monday, Leather testified at Parliament that Lucki called him directly on his cell phone and asked him for the gun info. He sent that info to Bergerman in order to get to Lucki #MCC

Leather said Monday that he agreed to provide the gun inventory to Lucki, but only to be used internally in the RCMP #MCC

Leather failed to mention this communication with the #MCC. Why not? asks Young. Leather: "I'm not at liberty to answer that without speaking with counsel"

In a call 5 days later, Leather says he became aware that the firearms info was expected to be relayed to the public in a press conference #MCC

Leather: I thought it was of "organizational interest" from Ottawa... "it took me a few minutes to piece it together" that they wanted it released to the public. Campbell was against this #MCC

Leather: "I had no idea what her [Lucki's] interest was when she made the request"... "it would be somewhat unusual for the commissioner to call the CROPS officer, but not unheard of" #MCC

Leather did not take notes of his phone call with Lucki @MCC

Young: would you consider the minister to be outside of the RCMP? Leather: Yes. Young: Would you consider the prime minister to be outside of the RCMP? Leather: yes. #MCC

The webcast is freezing up for me. I don't know if that's on the commission end of things, the crappy internet here, or my computer, but either way, I can't post photos of the docs being discussed #MCC

There's a long discussion of the request by Campbell for an internal RCMP review of the response to the mass murders #MCC

Young moves on to the RCMP discussion about whether to charge Lisa Banfield, which Leather was part of #MCC

Leather says they didn't talk about how charging Banfield would impact the #MCC

Young says supplying ammo was a "minor charge." I'm not so sure of that, although I do think there's a difference between *buying* ammo and simply transporting it, which aiui, is what Banfield was accused of. Maybe a distinction without a difference, I dunno. #MCC

Young asks Leather how many RCMP officers are employed in Nova Scotia, and he says that's protected information. #MCC

(I'm sure that information is publicly available, although it might take some work to get it) #MCC

To Clarify: what Young is asking for is how many cops are there *actually*, as opposed to how many are contracted for #MCC

This is the point exactly #MCC

https://twitter.com/RangerNS/status/1552353124748337152?s=20&t=2Rl_Z_wfVWFtrD8WusGG8Q

Young asks Leather where he would shift officers from, should he shift cops around to meet the fully general duty number. He answers: traffic services. #MCC

Leather says that the "Freedom Convoy" moving around Nova Scotia made the RCMP look again at how resources can be moved around the province and coordinate with the municipal police forces #MCC

Leather says all the senior RCMP leadership, including himself, retiring or leaving Nova Scotia since the mass murders will be a good thing, as their replacements won't have the baggage that prevented better integration with the municipal police departments #MCC

Young asks Leather about Truro Police chief Dave MacNeil's claim that Leather and Janice Gray were trying to bury the officer safety alert. Leather says "just the opposite" was happening; he wanted to talk with the officer who wrote it for investigative purposes #MCC

Leather: we should have released a joint press release #MCC

Leather: we weren't trying to look for their records, etc. None of this makes any sense to me #MCC

Young: besides that, did you investigate Cst. Wiley for not pursuing that investigation? Leather: it wouldn't be me, it'd be his line officer for a code of contact investigation (that never happened) #MCC

imo, Leather isn't credible here. There is at least one internal RCMP memo that raises concerns about the officer safety bulletin being made public #MCC

For example, a "situation report" written on May 28, 2020 raises exactly that issue. #MCC

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