The RCMP Are Still Lying

On Bill Blair And Interference

I am not the world’s biggest proponent of the idea that All Cops Are Bastards, as the prominent anti-police slogan ACAB suggests (or, moreso, insists), but holy fucking shit the last few weeks have been making it hard to not get there. I won’t even get into Texas, but the idea that cops put their lives above the lives of children in that school haunts me. But what also haunts me is this Inquiry into the Nova Scotia tragedy from 2020, which I talk about little and think about obsessively. But now, it’s a “political” story, because an RCMP Officer claims that Bill Blair needed the RCMP to release the exact make and models of the guns used to justify their gun control legislation.

Let’s dispose of the idea that the Liberals needed this information released because of their gun control bill – the make and model wasn’t released until the National Post released it in the fall, months after Trudeau gave the Order In Council banning the guns. If they needed the make and models in the public, why the fuck did it only come out months later in the (notably not friendly) Post and not the (much friendlier) Star? Oh, wait, they didn’t need that info out there for the gun control OIC, either for legal purposes or for domestic politics reasons, so that’s dogshit.

Step two – let’s look at this from the facts that we know for sure right now. The RCMP Commissioner gave a direct order – give the number of dead at your press conference. The Halifax RCMP decided to ignore that order and give a vague “at least 10” number that did nothing to give information or mollify families, so the RCMP Commissioner gave the numbers to two media outlets. A few days later, the Commissioner goes to Halifax to meet with the Officer who disobeyed the direct order, a meeting that (according to Campbell, the Halifax officer) led some to go to tears because of the nature of Commissioner Lucki’s “reprimand” of the Halifax office’s conduct. This is the meeting that Commissioner Lucki apologized for Tuesday night.

Here's where we have to read the tea leaves – what was said in the meeting between Lucki and Campbell is unknown, except that Campbell said that he made the decision to disobey her direct order on operation grounds, and that Lucki was so harsh some people cried. On the latter part, boo hoo. Who fucking cares if your boss was mean to you after a monumental fuckup. Cry more. On the former part, also fuck off, because I didn’t think that police officers got to disobey direct orders because they feel like it. Under no reasonable org chart does the fucking Commissioner not trump whatever the fuck his job title was, and he disobeyed a direct order. Yeah, you get yelled at for that.

Is this story – that Bill Blair interfered in another police and justice matter, after the PMO’s conduct towards the now-former Member for Vancouver-Granville – a problem for them, conditional on it being true? Sure – if they did it, I want Bill Blair’s resignation. I mean, I want it anyways for the G20 in 2010, but whatever. Do I think the idea they did it in this case plausible? Sure, because SNC happened, they have form and the arrogance to think they could do it and not get caught. Sure, 1000%. But do I think it happened? No, not for a second.

Think about the exact nature of the allegation – that there is a firm promise, allegedly, from Lucki to Blair and the PMO. That would involve a direct conversation, an instruction or commitment, which has been denied by both parties. This isn’t a situation where a wink wink nudge nudge could meet the nature of the allegation – the allegation is that there was a firm promise. That is 1000% incompatible with Blair and Lucki’s denunciations. Could they both be lying? Sure, but we know what a Bill Blair lie looks like – equivocation and bullshit, not firm commitment. Did Justin Trudeau give a firm commitment with Jody? Sure, but never in the House.

Let’s talk about the Nova Scotia RCMP, though, whose incentives to lie are off the roof. This is the force that didn’t issue an emergency alert, whose failure to do so cost lives, and who have lied at all times to defend the indefensible. This is the force whose greatest hits include “we can’t give a widower his wife’s possessions until they check if the victim had a relationship with the killer”, “your father was found barefoot outside because sometimes gunshot victims have their shoes blown off”, and my personal favourite “one victim support worker for the non-police victims together, two bereavement workers for the family of the dead cop”.

This is a force that felt empowered enough to disobey direct orders from the fucking Commissioner, this is a force that maintains a tweet was an acceptable form of public communication, and that has tried to pretend that there was nothing else they could have done to avoid this. This is a force living in the grips of delusion, in an institution that has protected liars and crooks for its entire existence. This is a culture that looks at blame shifting and not truth. And this is the crucial witness?

None of this makes any sense from the Liberals – if they wanted this information out so badly, why wouldn’t they give it to the Star and build some momentum around banning these specific guns? Why was there no press conference where Trudeau said “these guns committed these crimes, and that’s why we’re banning them”? Why were they so nonchalant about it just sitting in a drawer for months until the Post got around to writing whatever story they needed that info for?

It's clear that the Liberals would in theory find that kind of interference as something they could continence in a moral sense, but the idea of doing it here just makes no sense. When you’re trying to figure out if something is true, and everyone’s statements aren’t at all reconcilable, then my default is to go to who has both the means and motive to lie. Sure, the Liberals have an aversion to telling the truth, but what do they gain from the version of events they explicitly denied? Hell, why wouldn’t Blair just give the standard Liberal fare – “my recollection of events differs greatly from that”, some bullshit like that? The Liberals are very good liars at giving them ways out, but you’re telling me now that Bill Blair would give such a staunch denial if he wasn’t sure it was crap?

More to the point, why are we taking the word of the local RCMP for fucking anything when they are this terrible, this horrible, this incompetent, and this comfortable with lies, half truths, and withholding information from the public? Not to be cynical – actually, to be cynical, because in this case I’m right – indicting big names into this story instead of, I don’t know, having the media focus on HOW YOU THINK IT’S JUST FINE TO DISOBEY DIRECT ORDERS, ASSHOLE would be useful. I’m just saying, if that was the goal, you did it perfectly.

Finding someone who I trust less than Bill Blair is a very hard game to play, but somehow, the local RCMP have managed it. They’re lying to save their asses and nothing they say should be given the time of day given how many lies they’ve told. Fuck this scandal, and fuck them.