Tim Bousquet Profile picture
Sep 9 43 tweets 15 min read
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 Image
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. Image
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
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 ImageImage
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 Image
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 Image
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.

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More from @Tim_Bousquet

Sep 8
Nova Scotia is reporting 10 new deaths from COVID, for the most recent reporting week, Aug. 30- Sept 5 /thread
This graph shows the weekly COVID death count since January. Note that due to a change in the reporting period, the week ending April 11 has just 6 days. In total, 507 people have died of COVID in NS through the pandemic, 395 of whom are considered Omicron deaths. Image
The monthly demographic (age) info and vaccination data of the deceased is released on the 15th of the following month.
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Sep 6
Cst. Greg Wiley's testimony before the Mass Casualty Commission will NOT be broadcast, and only those registered can watch the webcast. However, I WILL be live-tweeting his testimony, which is scheduled to begin in 10 minutes. You can avoid this threat by muting the hashtag #MCC
Both @skimber and I wrote about the #MCC's decision to grant Wiley special accommodations. Here's Kimber: halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house…
Read 129 tweets
Aug 27
Strang: “I am concerned that over the past few months we have collectively become too complacent and unconcerned about COVID."

MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE STOPPED PROVIDING FULL AND TIMELY COVID DATA, EH? What the fuck did you think would happen?

halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house…
In January, Strang told reporters that he, personally, was leading the national effort to provide less frequent covid reporting.
The degradation of data: We've lost:
• contagions sites
• demographic info (health zone, age) and vaccination status of new cases
• positivity rate of PCR testing
• full access to PRC testing
MORE
Read 8 tweets
Aug 26
I've been out on personal business all day. Some things happened in my absence...
First, Nova Scotia Health issued the current COVID hospitalization status:
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• in hospital for something else but have COVID-19: 138
• in hospital who contracted COVID-19 after admission to hospital: 110
The above figures do not include any (if any) children hospitalized at the IWK.
Read 6 tweets
Aug 25
Good afternoon. I'm at the proceedings of the Mass Casualty Commission; today, Halifax Police Chief Dan Kinsella will testify. You can avoid this coverage by muting the hashtag #MCC
ICYMI, based on her (uninformed) testimony before the #MCC, this morning I called for Brenda Lucki to be removed as Commissioner of the RCMP: halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/the-v…
Here's Kinsella #MCC
Read 16 tweets
Aug 25
Nova Scotia is reporting 8 new deaths from COVID, for the latest reporting period, August 16-22 /thread
This graph shows the weekly reported death count since January. Note that due to a change in the reporting period, the week ending April 11 has just 6 days. Image
I don't yet demographic (age) or vaccination status of the newly deceased, as those data will not be released until Sept. 15.
Read 9 tweets

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