Thread by @Tim_Bousquet

Good morning. Today, I'm sitting in (virtually) on the testimony of RCMP Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan before the Mass Casualty Commission. These threads can be quite long; you can avoid this by muting the hashtag #MCC

Brennan will be asked about:
• after-action reviews
• the H Division Issues Management Team
• communications within the RCMP and with the public
• H Division leadership challenges including the wellness review and summary report.
#MCC

Here's Brennan
#MCC

I have another question, which hopefully someone will get around to asking. He told the #MCC that he was told the killer used cocaine. I want to know who told him that.

Brennan is being questioned by #MCC lawyer Jamie Van Wart.
Van Wart: what is it you do when you're notified of a mass casualty event like on April 19, 2020?
Brennan: I try to make sure the response has all the resources it needs.

Brennan: after the first call, I contact the commissioner, and monitor the situation
#MCC

Brennan says he was "regularly updating" Lucki on the 19th and the days after. Which makes her ignorance of the particulars of the police response even more disturbing.
#MCC

VanWart: the RCMP held a press conference at 4pm on April 28, 2020. You told us Darren Campbell was not going to disclose the makes and models of the weapons.
Brennan: that's right. And I passed it on to Lucki.
#MCC

Van Wart: did you watch Lucki's testimony before the #MCC ?
Brennan: I did.
Van Wart: she said you didn't tell her about that.
Brennan: Yes, "I failed to recall" that she wasn't in the office that day.
CLARIFYING NEXT TWEET

In this tweet, Brennan didn't *today* say that he told Lucki. He said that in his previous interview, before seeing Lucki's testimony #MCC

https://twitter.com/Tim_Bousquet/status/1568243304860647425?s=20&t=GOyoXPLS-MEKQq5K84G2pw

Van Wart: Lucki told you she didn't like the press briefing on April 28
Brennan: Not just the press conference, but overall communications.
#MCC

Brennan: I thought that press conference went better than the previous 2... I told Lucki it wasn't the best time (at the end of the day) to call H division and complain to them
#MCC

Brennan: But she "advised that she wanted to have that meeting immediately," and a teleconference began 15 minutes later
#MCC

Van Wart: People in NS were upset about the call.
Brennan: oh yeah
Van Wart: did you tell Lucki about that?
Brennan: no
#MCC

Brennan: I didn't really understand how upset they were until about a year later when Lia Scanlan wrote her letter
#MCC

Van Wart: let's talk about the Issues Management Team that was established after the murders. Were you involved in setting it up?
Brennan: No.
Van Wart: Has that been done before:
Brennan: Yes, but it can be called different things.
#MCC

Van Wart: one of the issues looked at by the Issues Management Team was the 2011 Truro police bulletin about the killer wanting to kill a cop.
He points to the notes of Supt. Dimopolos from May 5, and what he told the #MCC

Van Wart: the bulletin hadn't yet been made public. It appears that you said it shouldn't be made public.
Brennan: I sorta remember that conversation, but it was a whole group of people, not a one-on-one conversation
#MCC

Brennan: when they said they wanted to go public with the bulletin, I said "to what end?" It wasn't our document, it came from Truro police. Were we trying to put it out to distort the narrative before it got to the #MCC

This is not a terribly believable take on events.
#MCC

Van Wart: did you know the Truro police had a Freedom of Information request about it?
Brennan: No.
Van Wart: wouldn't the public want to know about it?
Brennan: They needed context. We don't tell the public about these kinds of bulletins.
#MCC

Van Wart: was there any investigative reason to withholding it?
Brennan: I can't speak to that, because I wasn't involved in the investigation.
#MCC

Brennan says Bergerman told him she was worried about the emotional and mental health of senior leadership in NS after the murders
#MCC

Van Wart: why didn't the wellness review make its way to Lucki until Spring 2022?
Brennan [doesn't really answer the question]
#MCC

In the scheme of things, the wellness of senior commanders doesn't strike me as very important relative to the 22 murders, but it speaks to the institution that the RCMP didn't seem to take it very seriously
#MCC

I don't know if #MCC staff reads these threads, but sometimes the video of the signer obscures parts of the documents being shown.

Van Wart: when will Assistant Commander Dennis Daley take over in NS?
Brennan: probably in October. He's looking for a house now.
#MCC

In his notes from Aug 2021, Brennan recorded that Chief Superintendent Gray wanted "to mover her entire team out of the HRP Police Headquarters building."
He was opposed to it, and said Halifax RCMP needed to get along with HRPD
#MCC

This should make the next Police Commission meeting interesting, eh @zwoodford ?

In his notes from June 13, 2022, Brennan recorded that a senior level committee wanted to "reinstate the sale of RCMP vehicles"
#MCC

Brennan: we were holding a lot of cars because it had been decided that there would be no further sales of RCMP vehicles because of the mass casualty. We were paying a lot of money for storage, and it wasn't just formerly decalled cars, but also unmarked cars, etc.
#MCC

Brennan: we made a lot of money from those sales.
#MCC

Brennan: but if we couldn't sell them, maybe we could crush them or something.
#MCC

Van Wart: when I read your words, I see that you were talking about "reinstating" the sale
Brennan: you weren't there. We weren't going to do it ourselves, but approach the minister with some options.
#MCC

Van Wart: what do you think?
Brennan: if we're talking about a truck that was never decked out, that's one thing, and it's different than a frontline police vehicle
#MCC

Brennan: you can go buy a white Taurus right now.
#MCC

Van Wart is showing Brennan former RCMP officer and later Justice Minister Mark Furey's written response to the #MCC. Furey said that in 2012, when he was a cop, he wanted Brennan, then in charge in NS, to adopt Alert Ready for police, and Brennan said no. MORE

Furey said that his frustrations with the failure of Brennan to agree to access the Ready Alert system were "key factors" leading to his (Furey's) decision to retire from the RCMP

Van Wart: do you remember this?
Brennan: a little. I remember that resourcing it 24/7 was an issue.
#MCC

Brennan says his subordinates would've made the call.
#MCC

Van Wart: they could do that without your direction?
Brennan: it depends. If the discussion was that we would take over the whole system, they could just say no. But if they thought we could do it, there'd have to be talk of money, and that would come to me.
#MCC

I haven't tweeted the conversation about after-event studies, but now Brennan says the RCMP needs more funding, which of course he says. #MCC

The #MCC is on break until 2:40. I have some personal business to attend to, not sure if I'll be able to livetweet the rest, but I'll review the recording later to see if I should write something up.