The federal minister charged with overseeing the RCMP says the force follows no specific protocols for issuing public alerts but admits such a warning might have been useful during a gunman’s deadly rampage last weekend.
“There is a lot of reflection on whether that should have been used and of course an appreciation that it might have been useful, in hindsight, given the events as they transpired, but there is no precise protocol as I understand it," Public Safety Minister Bill Blair said in an interview from Ottawa.
Both the province and the RCMP have come under heavy criticism for not issuing an alert during the gunman’s rampage spanning over 13 hours from late Saturday night until the 51-year-old denturist was killed by police late Sunday morning. Premier Stephen McNeil has said the province’s Emergency Management Office was set up to issue the alert by about 10 a.m. Sunday but never got the go-ahead from RCMP.
On Wednesday, a day after the premier’s comments, Chief Supt. Chris Leather said RCMP were in the process of drafting an emergency alert when the gunman was shot and killed in Enfield.
Blair, former chief of the Toronto Police Service, said he isn’t directly involved with operational matters or procedures that are followed by each provincial force. But the minister defended the absence of an alert, saying that the fatal shooting spree that claimed the lives of 22 people was unprecedented and put the force under extreme strain.
Details of the chaos police faced from the outset of the large-scale tragedy came out during an RCMP news conference Friday. The gunman, posing in an RCMP uniform, carried out the murders in a near-exact replica patrol car.
Blair stopped short of saying that an early alert could have saved lives.
“That’s speculative," he said. "I don’t know if there’s any way to determine that."
The RCMP have also come under fire for using Twitter as their primary communication tool with the public as the tragedy unfolded. While Blair said the force could have considered other communication platforms, he defended the force’s reliance on social media while the shooting unfolded.
“We should use every tool available to make sure we’re communicating effectively with the public," he said. "In my 10 years as (Toronto) police chief, social media is used for the public but also the media, that’s how timely information is passed on to the media and through the media to the public.”
He said he's discussed the contentious issue with RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and Nova Scotia Justice Minister Mark Furey. Blair said the federal government is prepared to do whatever it takes to make sure a similar tragedy does not happen again.
“People have every right to ask questions and every right to expect answers to these questions," Blair said. "Nova Scotians need to hear that, they need to be informed by the evidence, be informed by facts.”
