By: Greg Staley
Written On: 2022-07-02
Canadians have become alarmed at the revelations that their RCMP Commissioner may not be independent of the Prime Minister’s Office. Unfortunately, they haven’t come to realize the full scope of the situation. RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki is already under a pending code of conduct investigation for her refusal to open a criminal investigation into the downing of flight PS752 – a flight that was taken down by two missiles and resulted in the loss of 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents.
Diverge Media’s Greg Staley and Gillian Davis recently sat down for an interview with retired RCMP officer Andy Brooke to discuss the complaint he helped launch against the RCMP commissioner. The complaint was “deemed to have a national security implication.” Mr. Brooke told Diverge Media that he first filed the complaint with the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission (CRCC) after being strongly advised to do so by colleagues because they feared if the complaint was made to the RCMP it would be buried. Within weeks, the complaint was elevated to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency and to date, it is still an open investigation.
The press release above was shared by retired RCMP officer Andy Brooke and in it, shows a snippet from the letter they received from Michelaine Lahaie, the Chairperson of the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission.
It reads, “Subsection 45.53(4.1) of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Act (RCMP Act) required the CRCC to refuse to deal with any complaint that is closely related to national security. Furthermore, the CRCC must refer such complaints to the National Security and Intelligence Review Agency (NSIRA). Therefore, given that your complaint is closely related to national security, it was referred to NSIRA on September 16th, 2021 for whatever action it deems appropriate.”
For context, Mr. Brooke made the complaint on August 27th, 2021 – just weeks earlier. By September 16th, the CRCC had referred it to NSIRA for review as they’re required to refuse any complaint that is closely related to national security – a threshold this complaint was deemed to have met.
Recent Revelations in context
The story to date is that RCMP Support Services Officer Darren Campbell made notes just minutes after a conference call with the RCMP Commissioner that was held 9 days after the shooting rampage in Nova Scotia. In those notes, officer Campbell wrote that the “Commissioner said she had promised the Minister of Public Safety and the Prime Minister’s Office that the RCMP (we) would release this information” and that the officers didn’t understand that “this was tied to pending gun control legislation.”
This story was recently corroborated when a letter on the conference call emerged from RCMP Communications Manager Lia Scanlan. In the letter, Scanlan wrote that Lucki “informed us of the pressures and conversation with (Public Safety) Minister (Bill) Blair, which we clearly understood was related to the upcoming passing of gun legislation.” Scanlan also wrote that “It was appalling, inappropriate, unprofessional and extremely belittling.”
We now have multiple sources affirming the story about what unfolded on that conference call about the Nova Scotia shooting rampage with the RCMP Commissioner but we must remember there is more to this story. These allegations of political interference bare a similar pattern to RCMP Commissioner Lucki’s earlier refusal to open an investigation into the events that led to the deaths of 55 Canadian citizens and the 30 permanent residents aboard flight PS752 – they both seem to be driven by political motives. In total, 176 people perished aboard the flight and Canada refuses to open a criminal investigation.
The government of Canada instead appears to be relying on Ukraine to lead the investigation even though the country is now racked by war with Russia and unlikely to be able to perform its duties properly concerning the investigation. In the government of Canada’s official response to the downing of flight PS752, they stated that “RCMP Federal Policing National Security investigators are engaged with their Ukrainian counterparts to support the Prosecutor General of Ukraine’s investigation into the matter under Ukraine’s criminal law” but do not mention opening an RCMP led criminal investigation.
The Canadian governments official position on flight PS752
In a video sent to us by former RCMP officer Andy Brooke, Shahin Moghaddam asks government lawyer Michelle Cameron why the Canadian government has not opened a criminal investigation into the downing of flight PS752. Mr. Moghaddam’s wife and 10-year-old son perished aboard the flight. The response from the government-appointed lawyer was illuminating – the government of Canada considers the downing of flight PS752 an “unintentional act.”
This is despite the ruling from an Ontario court that awarded $107 million dollars to the family members of six people who had died in the terrorist act. In his ruling, Judge Belobaba said that the plaintiffs had established that the shooting down of Flight 752 was an “act of terrorism and constitutes terrorist activity.”
“I find on a balance of probabilities that the missile attacks on Flight 752 were intentional and directly caused the deaths of all onboard.”
Justice Edward Belobaba
Justin Trudeau has even gone as far as to insinuate that because this happened in another country we don’t have jurisdiction to pursue a criminal investigation here in Canada. When the Prime minister was asked why Canada wasn’t launching a Canadian-led criminal investigation into the matter by a family member of one of the victims of PS752 the Prime Minister responded that “it happened in Iran.”
The irony of the statement from the Prime Minister is that Ukraine has stated that they too don’t have “access to the remnants of the plane wreckage” and won’t be able to question witnesses and other persons in the territory of Iran but none the less are carrying out a criminal investigation into the matter.
When the question of jurisdiction came up former RCMP officer Mr. Brooke was clear – the RCMP had the right under the Canadian criminal code to open an investigation and more importantly had the duty to do so. The importance of this revelation may not be obvious but once understood it is staggering.
The Trudeau government’s official position on PS752 is that it was an “unintentional act” despite an Ontario court ruling stating that it was indeed a terrorist act. We must then ask why the RCMP won’t open a criminal investigation into the matter even though Ukraine is currently at war (not in a position to investigate) and 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents perished aboard the flight. Do the lives of these Canadians not matter to the RCMP commissioner enough to open an RCMP investigation?
In the Commissioner’s statement addressing the allegations of political interference in Nova Scotia she never denied the allegations directly. As Mr. Brooke, the former RCMP officer behind the complaint against Commissioner Lucki’s handling of PS752 said, “People do not want to lie. They will settle on the easiest form of deception.” It was easier for the Commissioner to say I would never interfere in an ongoing investigation than it was to say I didn’t interfere.
“People do not want to lie. They will settle on the easiest form of deception.” It’s easier for a person to be dishonest using “never” as opposed to directly telling a lie by saying “I didn’t do it.” A slight change in wording can reveal something a person may tend to withhold “
former RCMP officer Andy Brooke on RCMP commissioner Lucki’s letter after poliitical intereference allegations in nova scotia
What we have in Canada is a refusal from the RCMP Commissioner to open an investigation into a terrorist act that took the lives of 55 Canadian citizens and 30 permanent residents aboard flight PS752. The Canadian government called the event an “unintentional act” despite an Ontario courts ruling calling it a terrorist act. We also have alleged political interference by the Commissioner to help pass gun control legislation for the Trudeau government – it’s not looking good for Trudeau and the RCMP Commissioner.
Is the RCMP Commissioners office independent of the Prime Minister’s office? There appears to be a pattern here of the RCMP bending to the wishes of the Prime Minister’s office but will Canadians pay attention?
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