'I don't think it was very sincere': Families of N.S. shooting victims say Lucki's apology wasn't good enough

Victims’ families react to Lucki apology Many families of the victims of the Nova Scotia mass shooting say the RCMP commissioner’s apology was not good enough.

Some family members of the victims killed in the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting say RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki’s apology was not good enough.

“I don't think it was very sincere at all,” said Ryan Farrington, whose mother Dawn Madsen and stepfather Frank Gulenchyn were killed in the rampage. “It was just an 'I'm sorry' to keep us quiet.”

On Tuesday, Lucki testified before the Mass Casualty Commission and apologized for her force's failure to meet public expectations during the killings, saying she hopes trust will return in time.

“I want to apologize for the RCMP, but in such a way that we weren't what you expected us to be and I don't think we were what you wanted us to be or what you needed us to be," said the commissioner near the end of her second day of testimony.

The public inquiry is investigating the April 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting by Gabriel Wortman, a 51-year-old denturist that claimed 22 lives.

The apology came after Lucki was grilled by lawyers for victims' families over the RCMP's failure to implement changes in the aftermath of the killings and after previous reviews and inquiries tied to other tragedies.

"I wish that we could have been more and we could have been different and we could have predicted and we could have had more hindsight. But I still think that it was extremely heinous. I've never seen anything like this. I have 37 years of experience," Lucki said.

Scott McLeod, whose brother Sean was killed, says he can accept an apology, but more work is needed.

“It’s great to hear, but what’s going to be big to me is going to be the actions that are taken after this is all said and done,” said McLeod. “Because the actions are going to speak louder than any words are ever going to do for this.”

Josh Bryson, a lawyer for the family of two victims, said that in the Nova Scotia shooting, police took more than 18 hours before they entered the home of Peter and Joy Bond, who were among the 13 people killed in Portapique, N.S., on the first night of the shooting.

Lucki said Bryson raised "many good points," and she speculated the RCMP sometimes fails to communicate lessons learned from past cases to rank-and-file members.

"Did we properly communicate that (policy) to the people and to RCMP members? Maybe we didn't. Maybe we have a responsibility to be better at communicating our policies," she said.

Dep. Chief Darrell Currie of the Onslow Belmont Fire Brigade -- the fire hall that was set up as a comfort centre for people evacuated from Portapique -- called Lucki’s words “not a sincere apology at all.”

“She apologized for the RCMP. But I don’t believe she apologized directly to, you know, families and victims and those affected,” said Currie.

McLeod says, based on what he heard Wednesday, the commissioner should be able to make some changes on her own, and is hoping that will happen.

With files from the Canadian Press.