A public inquiry is hearing arguments today on whether RCMP officers who responded to the worst mass shooting in Canadian history should be compelled to testify and be cross-examined.
The National Police Federation has argued that all of the officers who responded to the killings that left 22 people dead over two days in April 2020 run the risk of being re-traumatized on the witness stand.
The union has said the commissioners must consider the inquiry’s mandate to be “trauma-informed” in dealing with witnesses.
Union lawyer Nasha Nijhawan asked the commission to accept Nicholas Carleton, a clinical psychologist and professor at the University of Regina, as qualified to provide expert evidence on the potential for this trauma.
Rob Pineo, the lawyer for 14 families of the 22 people killed, questioned Carleton today about how he could know whether the officers involved were suffering trauma if he hadn’t talked to them.
However, Michael MacDonald, the chairman of the commission, said after a brief break in morning testimony that the commissioners had decided they didn’t need to hear evidence from Carleton.
After that decision, several lawyers for family members proposed that constables Stuart Beselt and Vicki Colford be asked to testify under oath about the early hours of the attacks in Portapique, N.S., the community west of Truro where the shootings began on April 18, 2020.
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Beselt was an acting corporal who was among the first four RCMP members to respond to 911 calls after the killer began his shooting spree.
Steve Topshee, a lawyer who represents two of the victims’ families, noted that Beselt was the first to arrive and within minutes encountered Andrew MacDonald, who had been shot and injured, and MacDonald’s wife, Kate MacDonald, as they were exiting the community.
The inquiry’s summaries, released earlier this week, indicated that it was Beselt who determined that there was a mass shooting underway and decided to advance on foot with his body armour and carbine at the ready, along with constables Adam Merchant and Aaron Patton.
Colford, meanwhile, remained at the main entrance to the community, assisting the MacDonalds and helping contain the area.
“It’s not to put him (Beselt) on the stand to cross-examine him … it’s to get to the truth and get to the facts,” Topshee said. “It’s not a blame-seeking situation. It’s an inquisitorial and fact-seeking situation.”
He noted that as Beselt prepared to enter the community on foot, rather than continuing in his patrol car, he talked about the Moncton, N.B., shooting of RCMP officers in June 2014. During an interview Beselt gave to the commission before hearings began, he told investigators that the Moncton shootings had taught officers that it was riskier to be in a car during a mass shooting than on foot.
“What is he talking about? … That has to be explored,” Topshee said. “That has to be looked into.”
Topshee said he wanted to ask Colford questions about information she had relayed to officers on April 18, 2020, about a possible escape route the killer could use.
The commission has published transcripts in which Colford radioed to her colleagues that she had heard there was “kind of a road that someone could come out,” after she spoke to Kate MacDonald. The commission has said that the killer likely escaped through a rough road that wasn’t being monitored by the RCMP.
Nijhawan has said all of the officers had already been exposed “to a potentially very serious traumatic event,” when they responded on April 18-19, 2020, to the rampage by the perpetrator.
The killer drove a replica RCMP vehicle and wore a Mountie’s uniform as he carried out killings over 13 hours.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 3, 2022.
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