Ontario’s police watchdog reopens crime probe into RCMP shots mistakenly fired during Nova Scotia mass shooting

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Ontario’s independent police watchdog says it is investigating two Nova Scotia RCMP officers who mistakenly fired at their fellow emergency responders more than three years ago during the search for the killer behind Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.

The probe by the province’s Special Investigations Unit is a re-evaluation of a previous Nova Scotia review body’s investigation that had cleared the officers of criminal conduct in 2021.

But then, the officers’ actions came under renewed focus as part of a public inquiry that completed its findings earlier this year. That, in turn, led the Nova Scotia watchdog to revisit its 2021 findings by calling in the Ontario SIU to take a second look.

The union representing the two officers is expressing anger over the continuing scrutiny.

“This reopening of a completed, conclusive civilian oversight investigation is questionable and, we believe, politically motivated,” Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation (NPF), which represents nearly 20,000 RCMP officers across the country, said in a statement Friday.

The head of the largest police union in Canada, Mr. Sauvé's statement says the two officers are beyond reproach. “Constable Terry Brown and Constable Dave Melanson are two examples of the heroism demonstrated by the members of the RCMP on April 18 and 19, 2020.”

Over those two days, a gunman killed 22 people – including a police officer – as he drove through rural Nova Scotia dressed as a Mountie and driving a replica RCMP cruiser. The shooting began at 10 p.m. and did not end until the following day around noon, when a team of Mounties chanced upon him at a gas station, opened fire and killed him.

But a public inquiry completed earlier this year into the killings and the police response highlighted how much the Nova Scotia RCMP had struggled to track the man masquerading as a Mountie. The Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) final report released in March also devotes a section to how police mistakenly shooting at the wrong people could have caused even more harm.

At around 10 a.m. on April 19, constables Brown and Melanson spotted an RCMP cruiser and a civilian emergency responder outside a rural firehouse where volunteer firefighters and civilians were gathering. They fired shots, but none of the bullets hit anyone, before the two officers heeded calls to cease shooting.

The RCMP decision to discharge their weapons raised questions about the potential careless use of firearms – a criminal offence, if proved in court. Yet in 2021, the Nova Scotia Serious Incident Response Team (SIRT) completed an investigation and ruled that there were no grounds to charge the two officers, because they “had a lawful excuse when they discharged their firearms. Accordingly, no criminal offence was committed.”

However, the MCC took a more critical view, with its report highlighting how the bullets might well have hit people at the firehall. The passages in the report also bring to light how the shots had a lasting impact on “the community’s sense of safety, and how its people relate to law enforcement, particularly the RCMP.”

Police “did not take sufficient steps to hear community concerns, nor recognize that those who were placed at risk during the shooting required support,” the MCC report says.

These findings from the spring led Nova Scotia’s SIRT to conclude that it should reopen its prior investigation. But the review body instead asked its Ontario counterpart to weigh in to prevent any appearance of a conflict of interest if SIRT were to review its own probe.

On Friday, Ontario’s SIU announced in a statement that after an initial investigation of the SIRT and MCC materials, it now plans a full independent review.

“The SIU is simply assessing the possible impact of the new information on the original SIRT decision regarding the Onslow Fire Hall shooting,” said spokeswoman Kristy Denette in an e-mail to The Globe and Mail.

She said the Ontario organization will not be reinterviewing Mounties or sending any investigators to Nova Scotia. “At this time, the SIU has all the materials needed.”

The police union for Mounties says this is misguided. In its Friday statement, the NPF questioned whether testimony and documents aired during a public inquiry can even be allowed to lawfully factor into a renewed criminal investigation.

The review bodies emphasize that they are arm’s-length organizations with legal mandates to look at the use of force by police. “Ultimately, the SIRT is independent of police and government,” said Erin Nauss, the organization’s interim director.