HALIFAX –
Nova Scotia’s former commanding officer of the RCMP told the inquiry into the April 2020 mass shooting on Monday that officers who responded to the rampage did their best, but she acknowledged that not everything went smoothly.
The first police officers on the scene in Portapique, NS — including members of the emergency response team — were “heroic,” Lee Bergerman testified.
“I think the response and the members that were there did the best they could with what they had at the time,” Bergerman said. “It was an extraordinary event.” But Bergerman, the former assistant commissioner who retires in October 2021, admitted under cross-examination that the public inquiry had revealed parts of the police operation had not gone well.
On 18 April 2020, a gunman killed 13 people in Portapeak and then fled in a replica police boat. The killer went on to kill nine more people the next day before being shot dead by police at a gas station.
Bergerman said radio communications between the RCMP command post and members in the field could be improved. She also said the police need to communicate better with the public and learn more about the communities they police.
“These are all things we can learn from,” she said.
But when asked about her main recommendation to the inquiry, Bergerman said more resources should be given to the RCMP, which has long complained it doesn’t have enough staff or equipment to adequately police the province.
“Under these circumstances, it would be helpful to have more resources to draw upon during the event,” Bergerman said of the killings. She added that there needs to be a conversation with the provincial government and the public about expectations for the police.
“I guess it comes down to dollars and cents within the province, and a big priority for this province is health care. So I wonder if there is a discussion – do we want five doctors or 10 police officers?’
In a transcript made public Monday of Bergerman’s Aug. 2 interview with investigating attorneys, she said she had only scant details early April 19, 2020, about what happened the night before at Portapique. Bergerman said she was first notified that something was happening in the community around 11 p.m. on April 18 before she went to bed.
She confirmed that she learned about the replica of the killer Gabriel Wortman’s car the next morning, but was “stunned” to see it on the news shortly before she left her home to head to her office at around 9.30am. “I remember being, I would describe it, stunned when I saw the police car they had,” Bergerman said.
She added that she was convinced one of the RCMP cruisers had been stolen, so she called Chief Superintendent Chris Leather to ask if that was the case. “He confirmed that all of our police cars were accounted for,” Bergerman said.
Bergerman said it wasn’t until she got to her office that she was informed the photo had been provided to the RCMP by a witness.
In fact, the photo was obtained by a relative of Lisa Banfield – the killer’s wife – from the Halifax Regional Police, who forwarded it to the RCMP around 7:30am. The photo was not shared publicly by police until the RCMP issued a tweet about three hours later.
During her public testimony, Bergerman said she was aware that some senior officers in H-Division had made complaints about her performance after the rampaging shooting. She said her immediate supervisor in Ottawa, Deputy Commissioner Brian Brennan, told her in the fall of 2020 about the criticism.
“I completely disagreed with them (the complaints) and suggested he come to the department,” Bergerman said she told Brennan. She added that he did not tell her who made the complaints. She said Brennan visited her department and said she encouraged her staff to talk to him and be “open and honest about what they think and how they feel.”
Bergerman said she later learned that Brennan’s visit was not well received by H-Division members. “He was just trying to do something like a fact-based fact-finding visit, but I learned later that people were upset,” she testified.
Bergerman’s public testimony is to be followed Tuesday by a bench appearance by RCMP Commissioner Brenda Luckey. Both high-ranking foresters testified before a parliamentary committee in Ottawa investigating alleged political interference in the RCMP’s work on the case.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published on August 22, 2022.
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