Evidence of meeting #31 for Public Safety and National Security in the 44th Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was information.
A video is available from Parliament.
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
You'll have to ask her. She's in the next panel.
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I'm going to assume it's communications on the ground.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
A critical piece here is, when the question was asked, was the question asked “if” it would be disclosed, or did they ask “for” it to be disclosed?
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
To my recollection, like I said at the very beginning, it's “if” the weapons information would be included.
1 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
All right.
Now there were two briefings, one on April 24 and one on the 28th. Did Superintendent Campbell conduct the briefing using prepared notes?
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
Which briefing are you referring to?
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
Are you talking about the media briefings?
1 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I'm not sure about the 24th, because I'm not involved at that level. You'd have to probably talk to the comms people. I know the one for the 28th, because it was so extensive and they were covering so many parts of that. They were actually going through a chronology with maps and locations. They were working with our comms people and their own comms people in reference to his notes...to go through all of that.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
No. I don't get involved at that level.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Given that you were led to expect that the firearms information would be included in the briefing to the media on April 28, did you subsequently ask to see the notes that Superintendent Campbell was using during that period?
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I definitely saw the speaking notes, but I saw them early on in the day. Like I said, there were many versions that came after, and I didn't follow it. I just had too many other things to do. I left that for my comms people. There were lots of things that were changing, so I wasn't privy to the final version.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
Okay, but in the version that you did see, was there a reference to the firearms in that?
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
I don't believe so, no.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
No.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
If it wasn't a flag to you, how important was it, to your mind, that this information be released in those briefings, and why was it important to you?
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
It wasn't important whether or not it was released. Where I was concerned is that I asked the question, I was told that it would be released, and I transmitted that information to the minister's staff. Again, it was an example of inaccurate information, and there were a lot of issues we were having with the flow of communications.
Whether or not it was released was not a concern. Somebody asked me if it was going to be part of it. I asked them, they said yes, and it wasn't.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
I see. So it was really more the general scenario of misinformation and miscommunication which was the concern or the focus of at least part of your conversations with the team on April 28.
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
Absolutely. We were getting criticized by the media at every angle for the lack of timely information. There's nothing worse than watching your team get.... They're out there trying to do the best they can and getting hammered by the media for not providing the information.
We wanted to get ahead. We wanted to be more proactive than reactive. It was hurtful and it was hard to hear, and the narrative was becoming very negative. We were trying to do everything we could to help them.
1:05 p.m.
Liberal
Ken Hardie Liberal Fleetwood—Port Kells, BC
In your judgment, did the details of the weapons, provided by Superintendent Campbell on April 24 during that briefing, balance the interest of the public and the media for transparency without compromising the investigation?
1:05 p.m.
Commr Brenda Lucki
If he released them, then yes, because that was his call to make. That's part of his job is to make sure he balances.... If it was him who released it in a media release, then he wouldn't have been compromising the investigation.