Alberta Justice Minister Calls for RCMP Commissioner Lucki’s Firing

Province has 'lost confidence' in Lucki, says Tyler Shandro

RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki appears as a witness at the Standing Committee on Public Safety and National Security on Parliament Hill in Ottawa on July 25, 2022. (The Canadian Press/Sean Kilpatrick)

Alberta Justice Minister Tyler Shandro issued a statement today demanding the federal government fire RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki.

“Alberta has lost confidence in RCMP Commissioner Brenda Lucki and is calling on Canada’s minister of public safety, Marco Mendicino, to immediately rescind her appointment,” Shandro said.

Shandro listed areas he deemed Lucki as having failed in, such as dealing with “the RCMP’s history of systemic racism in a forthright and public manner,” “risking the integrity” of the investigation into the Nova Scotia mass shooting, and not informing the federal government “of all law enforcement options available prior to the decision to invoke the Emergencies Act.”

He also criticized Lucki’s contribution to two major public inquiries held during her tenure, including the Public Order Emergency Commission, which is currently holding hearings on the Trudeau government’s invocation of the use of emergency measures to shut down the Freedom Convoy protest in Ottawa earlier this year.

“In two major public inquiries, commissioner Lucki was given an opportunity to take accountability and prove to Canadians that RCMP leadership could make changes to ensure that errors of judgment would not happen again. Instead, commissioner Lucki, in sworn testimony, has dodged accountability and excused her actions,” Shandro said in the statement.

Lucki testified on Nov. 15 that RCMP officers had the legal means to clear protesters without the use of the Emergencies Act, but said she did not communicate that information to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau before the act was invoked.

During her testimony, Lucki also said she couldn’t recall key meetings during the protests. She testified she didn’t understand the role the Emergencies Act could play, and had issues remembering comments from meetings and text exchanges in which she participated.

Last month, the federal Conservative Party called for Lucki’s resignation, after audio from a conference call was released between Lucki and RCMP officials in Nova Scotia that discussed, in part, the release of information related to the mass shooting that killed 22 people in the province in April 2020.

In the call, published on Oct. 20 by the Mass Casualty Commission, Lucki said she needed information about weapons used in the killings made public because she had “promised” the prime minister’s office and then-public safety minister Bill Blair that the information would be released as it was tied to forthcoming gun policy from the Liberal government.

“So far, Minister Mendicino has stood idly by while commissioner Lucki has failed to meet even the most meagre of standards for the past two years. This is an abrogation of the minister’s core responsibility to Canadians and must be rectified before the RCMP’s reputation as Canada’s federal police service is further damaged,” said Shandro.

Mendicino: I have Confidence in Lucki

Mendicino’s office did not respond to a request for comment in time for publication but told reporters at a Nov. 23 scrum that Lucki’s job, which controls and manages the RCMP, is safe.

“I have confidence, and the government has confidence in Commissioner Lucki, and obviously as her term, her first term comes up, there will be a process around that,” he told reporters. Lucki’s five-year term is scheduled to end in March 2023.

After her recent testimony at the inquiry into the invocation of the Emergencies Act, Lucki said she is confident that she will continue in her role.

“I’m absolutely staying on as Commissioner of the RCMP,” she told reporters.