The public inquiry into the mass shootings in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020, released a series of written responses by Mark Furey in response to questions raised by the Mass Casualty Commission in August 2022. The commission is looking into the circumstances surrounding the killings, when a gunman dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica cruiser killed 22 people in various rural communities across Nova Scotia. Among a series of questions about Furey’s role and interactions with the RCMP both as an officer and as justice minister, the commission asked about a January 2012 briefing note he drafted for the chief advocate. Brian Brennan, the criminal operations officer in Nova Scotia at the time. “Properly manages availability and implementation a [public alert system] in Nova Scotia could/would be considered an asset to front-line police service providers in response to emergency situations (eg wildfires, floods, weather events, etc.),” reads the last paragraph of the memo. Furey was the emergency management program officer for the RCMP and told the commission that the provincial Emergency Management Office (EMO) had approached his office about a “concept or tool” that would use public broadcasting to broadcast information to public. Brian Brennan, a former RCMP commander in Nova Scotia, received a briefing note from former Justice Minister Mark Furey that read, in part, that a public warning system “could/would be seen as an asset to frontline police service providers in response in emergency situations”. (Canadian Press) Furey said his briefing note came after “many and difficult” discussions with the support services officer and the criminal enterprise controller, two senior officers who were “not supportive” of the Alert Ready idea. “They expressed strong opposition,” Fuey wrote in his response to the committee. “The memo … reflected what my superiors advised that they would approve from my office. There was very clear opposition to the concept of Alert Ready.” Fuey went on to write that his frustration with these senior officers was a “key decision” to leave the force in early September 2012.
Criticism of lack of emergency alarm
The RCMP’s communications strategy during the 13-hour shooting spree has been a point of contention for victims’ families, who have raised concerns about the force’s choice to communicate information solely through Twitter and Facebook rather than through the provincial Alert Ready system. They also talked about how long it took the RCMP to inform the public that the gunman was driving the replica cruiser and wearing a police uniform. Provincial EMO officials told the commission they had been in discussions with the RCMP about using Alert Ready since 2011 — but many officers told the commission in testimony over the past six months that they were either unaware of the system’s existence or that its use it would have caused mass panic among the public. Some members of the RCMP have even suggested that its use would have resulted in further loss of life. But an emergency communications expert dismissed that prospect, saying there was no evidence of a “mass panic” response in other jurisdictions where alert readiness has been used.
The deputy commissioner answers
Fourey, who was Nova Scotia’s justice minister at the time of the shootings, was interviewed by the commission on Sept. 6, but the transcript of the interview has not yet been released. He declined to be interviewed by CBC News, citing the ongoing investigation. Brennan, who is now the RCMP’s deputy commissioner of contracts and indigenous policing in Ottawa, testified before the committee on Friday. He said he recalled discussions in 2012 about a system that could be used by police for natural or environmental disasters — blizzards, wildfires or hurricanes. Brennan said he also recalled discussions about the logistical challenges of using the public notification system. “You have to have the ability to have resources and manage it 24/7 because you can never predict when you might need it,” he said. “Well, discussions of investments, etc. Brennan said the two high-ranking officers Fury cited as opposed to the proposal would have been empowered to reject it based on cost or logistics. Commission attorney Jamie Van Wart asked Brennan why the warning system was not considered outside of the natural disaster context. “From the outside looking in … as a police agency, it doesn’t seem like a big leap to the idea of being able to use a public warning system for, say, a forest fire, to think, ‘Oh, wow. it may apply to certain operational policing issues where we need to notify the public,” Van Wart said. RCMP block the road to Gabriel Wortman’s property in Portapique, NS, during a criminal investigation into the shooting in April 2020. (Jonathan Villeneuve/Radio-Canada) Brennan again suggested that the resources and infrastructure in place in 2012 made the Alert Ready system impractical for communicating about a crime event. “For something like mass casualty where it’s dynamic, it’s fluid, it’s across a large geographic area, it’s very difficult,” he said. “We just didn’t have, we didn’t have the infrastructure, we just didn’t have the policy. We’ve never tested it. We’ve never trained our employees and our members on how to use it and how to communicate it properly… so I just don’t think the pieces were in place.” Furey said there was no written response to his memo and no further discussion of Alert Ready while he was in charge of the emergency management program. He also said he was not involved in any discussions or decision-making about Alert Ready as justice minister, but could “vaguely recall” some discussions on the issue while he was municipal affairs minister. EMO director Paul Mason told the committee his department offered direct access to the alarm system to the RCMP and regional police forces in 2016 and 2017, but they declined.
Differences of opinion
RCMP opposition to the system continued after the shootings. In an August 2021 interview, Kentville’s outgoing police chief told the commission that shortly after the shootings, the RCMP asked the province’s municipal chiefs to join them in declaring the Alert Ready system “flawed.” “We had a meeting that the RCMP called through Teams with all the chiefs and we were asked if we were willing to support them basically when they said the Alert Ready system was flawed,” said Julia Cecchetto. Cecchetto, president of the Nova Scotia Association of Chiefs of Police, said former commander Lee Bergerman and Chief Supt. Chris Leather, the two highest-ranking Mounties in the province at the time, was on call. “The Nova Scotia Chiefs didn’t support them because we weren’t necessarily of that view,” Cecchetto said. Mason said the Halifax Regional Police and RCMP have been trained in the Alert Ready system and are now able to issue their own alerts. The EMO is also urging Nova Scotia police forces to follow New Brunswick’s example, where the RCMP issues all police alerts.
