A senior RCMP member promises they’ll do better to get vital information out to the public during times of crisis.
Former communications director Lia Scanlan testified at the Portapqiue inquiry on Wednesday.
She was questioned on why there was a three-hour delay in issuing a Tweet warning the public the gunman was driving a mock RCMP cruiser.
Scanlan cites problems amongst the communication team regarding who had to give final approval before pushing the send button.
She says it’s the Mounties’ “standard operating procedures” that need to change in order to streamline the process of delivering information to the public.
“Just know that if I could go back and have those minutes disappear, I would do anything,” Scanlan said. “I just need people to know that and we’ll do better.”
The RCMP has been criticized for waiting too long to notify the public about the killer during the mass shootings in April 2020.
Scanlan has defended the force’s use of Twitter and Facebook to let people know the details.
But she explained during Wednesday’s proceedings she’s had time to reflect on the comments she made during an interview last fall with Mass Casualty Commission investigators.
She became tearful, vowing the force will do better.
“I just want to apologize for my delivery in my transcripts,” Scanlan says. “It’s the first time I went back to these days. It’s clearly impacted all aspects of my life and I just want people to know that not a day goes by that I don’t wake up and think about the victims and their families and their kids. Know that the delivery or how I came across in my interviews was just raw emotion and I didn’t understand where this was going to end up. I wouldn’t change the facts. I definitely would have been more considerate in my delivery.”
Scanlan had stated she thought it was good an emergency alert had not been issued as it could have resulted in the deaths of more police officers.
The gunman took the lives of 22 Nova Scotians during the 13-hour rampage.
