RCMP releases strategy to learn lessons from 2020 Portapique shooting

Photo: Adrian Wyld The Canadian Press RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme admits that the federal police force's response to other external reviews of its work over the past 20 years “has not always been comprehensive.”

The Canadian Press in Halifax

March 27, 2024

• Canada

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) released a strategy Wednesday that it says will ensure “serious and positive changes” are made to its ways of doing things in response to the recommendations of the public inquiry that examined on the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia, in which 22 people lost their lives.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme released a statement admitting that the federal police force's response to other external reviews of its work over the past 20 years “did 'has not always been exhaustive.”

He also acknowledged that the RCMP has not always been transparent about the work it has done to change its practices.

This is why the federal police force has created a new sector dedicated to reform, accountability and cultural change — which, according to it, “concretely demonstrates (its) desire for change “.

The new strategy was published three months after the deadline imposed by the police force and almost a year after the publication of the final report of the federal-provincial public inquiry commission.

Also read

• The commission of inquiry into the Portapique massacre recommends reform of the RCMP
• RCMP made several mistakes during Nova Scotia shooting, documents show

The Mass Casualty Commission looked into the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history and made 130 non-binding recommendations to improve public safety, most of which apply under a form or another to the RCMP.

“The work of the Commission, as well as the tragedy itself, has highlighted the urgent need to improve how we prepare for, respond to and learn from crisis situations in order to “keeping communities safe,” reads the new strategy released Wednesday by the RCMP.

“Our goal is to ensure that the outcome of the Commission's final report will have a lasting impact on our organization and the communities we serve from coast to coast. »