Two of the people behind charges of political interference in the investigation into the April 2020 mass killing in Nova Scotia will appear before a House of Commons committee on Tuesday. RCMP Chief Supt. Darren Campbell and Leah Scanlan, director of strategic communications, each accused Commissioner Brenda Luckey of saying she faced pressure from the federal government to ensure information about the gunman’s weapons was released at a news conference. Campbell’s handwritten notes, taken of a phone call with Lucki, Scanlan and others hours after the press conference on April 28, 2020, state that Lucki said she had made a promise to the minister and that information about the weapons was linked to the upcoming gun legislation. Bill Blair, then public safety secretary, was accused of exerting this pressure, but he and Luki have repeatedly denied that Blair interfered with the investigation. One gunman’s 13-hour rampage claimed 22 lives and is now the subject of a public inquiry. Lia Scanlan was chief of communications for the Nova Scotia RCMP in April 2020. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press) Scanlan wrote a letter to the commissioner more than a year after the shooting, echoing Campbell’s concerns and telling Lucki the meeting was “disgusting, inappropriate, unprofessional and extremely demeaning.” Several other people will appear before Scanlan and Campbell at the committee on Tuesday, including Deputy Justice Secretary Francois Daigle and Owen Rees, the acting deputy attorney general. Two other RCMP staff members are also set to speak: Alison Whelan, head of policy strategy and external relations, and Jolene Bradley, director general of National Communications Services.
