The RCMP‘s new commanding officer in Nova Scotia believes the public wants a renewed relationship with his police force despite its widely criticized response to the 2020 mass shooting.
Assistant Commissioner Dennis Daley said in an interview Wednesday that while it’s possible a public inquiry may call for the province to look at alternative policing models, he is confident Nova Scotians “still want the RCMP as their provincial police.”
“There’s challenges every senior leader faces when they come into a new job,” he said, when asked how badly trust has been shaken. “My job is to be more forward-looking.”
The 56-year-old officer said it will be his job in the coming years to rebuild relationships with the public, municipal governments and other police forces.
The public inquiry into the mass shooting has heard of many shortcomings in the RCMP response, including a failure to issue emergency alerts, staff shortages limiting the number of officers available when killing began in Portapique, N.S., and a lack of basic gear to help officers keep track of one another in the dark.
Twenty-two people, including a pregnant woman, were killed by a 51-year-old gunman on April 18-19, 2020, as he drove a replica police car across central Nova Scotia before being killed by RCMP officers at a gas station.
Daley said he can’t comment on all of the details of what occurred before his arrival but said there are improvements occurring.
He pointed to the introduction of protocols allowing the RCMP to send out their own emergency alerts, noting the system has been used a number of times in the past year.
The commander said smartphone apps are being introduced to help officers track one another in the dark, and there is a new critical incident centre in the Halifax divisional headquarters — and better protocols for handling emergencies.
Still, the mass shooting revealed deep divisions between the RCMP and municipal police forces, as the Mounties didn’t reach out initially to ask for assistance and the Truro police chief was left unaware a mass killer was transiting his town.
Daley said he anticipates recommendations from the inquiry calling for police leaders to work more closely together in future.
The officer joined the RCMP in 1988, and his last job was assistant commissioner of contract and Indigenous policing at Ottawa headquarters — giving him close ties to the existing system of RCMP policing of rural communities.
Some academics who have followed the public inquiry have suggested the shootings should lead to a major overhaul. Kent Roach, a law professor and author of a book on Canadian policing, has written that “the only legitimate remedy” if the RCMP can’t consult more effectively with its partners is for it to stop serving as the police force for municipalities and provinces.
However, Daley said if the Mounties were to end their role in provincial and municipal policing in Nova Scotia, it would be the result of reviews and political decisions, rather than recommendations by the inquiry.
In the meantime, he said he wants to make the Nova Scotia division more transparent.
During the mass shooting, initial communications on the night of April 18 only indicated a “firearms complaint,” rather than a mass shooter carrying out a rampage, and the next day it took over two hours to act on a senior officer’s order to send out a photo of the replica vehicle.
Wade Parker, a councillor in Colchester County — the region where the killings started — said in a recent interview the RCMP’s changes to date are “absolutely not” sufficient to restore trust in the Mounties among residents. “In my area, the average person is skeptical,” he said.
He said much will hinge on whether the RCMP starts to add more officers to its rural police force, ensuring enough Mounties are put in place to protect his citizens, and if small detachments are set up in villages rather than in a centralized location.
Daley said ensuring full staffing complements in the various RCMP police districts remains hard due to challenges in recruiting new officers. He said currently about four per cent of available positions in Nova Scotia are unfilled.
The new commander said he believes the Mounties will nonetheless find ways to improve their performance, replenish staff and remain in the province.
“I would humbly disagree this has dealt a fatal blow to RCMP here in Nova Scotia …. We’ll take the recommendations (of the public inquiry), we’ll learn from the recommendations and we’ll make some changes,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 14, 2022.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A linebacker at Division II West Virginia State was fatally shot during what the university said Thursday is being investigated by police as a home invasion.
The body of Jyilek Zyiare Harrington, 21, of Charlotte, North Carolina, was found inside an apartment Wednesday night in Charleston, police Lt. Tony Hazelett said in a statement.
Hazelett said several gunshots were fired during a disturbance in a hallway and inside the apartment. The statement said Harrington had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene. Police said they had no information on a possible suspect.
West Virginia State said counselors were available to students and faculty on campus.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Jyilek’s family as they mourn the loss of this incredible young man,” West Virginia State President Ericke S. Cage said in a letter to students and faculty.
Harrington, a senior, had eight total tackles, including a sack, in a 27-24 win at Barton College last week.
“Jyilek truly embodied what it means to be a student-athlete and was a leader not only on campus but in the community,” West Virginia State Vice President of Intercollegiate Athletics Nate Burton said. “Jyilek was a young man that, during Christmas, would create a GoFundMe to help less fortunate families.”
Burton said donations to a fund established by the athletic department in Harrington’s memory will be distributed to an organization in Charlotte to continue his charity work.
West Virginia State’s home opener against Carson-Newman, originally scheduled for Thursday night, has been rescheduled to Friday, and a private vigil involving both teams was set for Thursday night. Harrington previously attended Carson-Newman, where he made seven tackles in six games last season. He began his college career at Division II Erskine College.
“Carson-Newman joins West Virginia State in mourning the untimely passing of former student-athlete Jyilek Harrington,” Carson-Newman Vice President of Athletics Matt Pope said in a statement. “The Harrington family and the Yellow Jackets’ campus community is in our prayers. News like this is sad to hear anytime, but today it feels worse with two teams who knew him coming together to play.”
DETROIT (AP) — Joe Schmidt, the Hall of Fame linebacker who helped the Detroit Lions win NFL championships in 1953 and 1957 and later coached the team, has died. He was 92.
The Lions said family informed the team Schmidt died Wednesday. A cause of death was not provided.
One of pro football’s first great middle linebackers, Schmidt played his entire NFL career with the Lions from 1953-65. An eight-time All-Pro, he was enshrined into the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 1973 and the college football version in 2000.
“Joe likes to say that at one point in his career, he was 6-3, but he had tackled so many fullbacks that it drove his neck into his shoulders and now he is 6-foot,” said the late Lions owner William Clay Ford, Schmidt’s presenter at his Hall of Fame induction in 1973. “At any rate, he was listed at 6-feet and as I say was marginal for that position. There are, however, qualities that certainly scouts or anybody who is drafting a ballplayer cannot measure.”
Born in Pittsburgh, Schmidt played college football in his hometown at Pitt, beginning his stint there as a fullback and guard before coach Len Casanova switched him to linebacker.
“Pitt provided me with the opportunity to do what I’ve wanted to do, and further myself through my athletic abilities,” Schmidt said. “Everything I have stemmed from that opportunity.”
Schmidt dealt with injuries throughout his college career and was drafted by the Lions in the seventh round in 1953. As defenses evolved in that era, Schmidt’s speed, savvy and tackling ability made him a valuable part of some of the franchise’s greatest teams.
Schmidt was elected to the Pro Bowl 10 straight years from 1955-64, and after his arrival, the Lions won the last two of their three NFL titles in the 1950s.
In a 1957 playoff game at San Francisco, the Lions trailed 27-7 in the third quarter before rallying to win 31-27. That was the NFL’s largest comeback in postseason history until Buffalo rallied from a 32-point deficit to beat Houston in 1993.
“We just decided to go after them, blitz them almost every down,” Schmidt recalled. “We had nothing to lose. When you’re up against it, you let both barrels fly.”
Schmidt became an assistant coach after wrapping up his career as a player. He was Detroit’s head coach from 1967-72, going 43-35-7.
Schmidt was part of the NFL’s All-Time Team revealed in 2019 to celebrate the league’s centennial season. Of course, he’d gone into the Hall of Fame 46 years earlier.
Not bad for an undersized seventh-round draft pick.
“It was a dream of mine to play football,” Schmidt told the Detroit Free Press in 2017. “I had so many people tell me that I was too small. That I couldn’t play. I had so many negative people say negative things about me … that it makes you feel good inside. I said, ‘OK, I’ll prove it to you.’”
VICTORIA – British Columbia’s Environment Assessment Office has fined Coastal GasLink Pipeline Ltd. $590,000 for “deficiencies” in the construction of its pipeline crossing the province.
The office says in a statement that 10 administrative penalties have been levied against the company for non-compliance with requirements of its environmental assessment certificate.
It says the fines come after problems with erosion and sediment control measures were identified by enforcement officers along the pipeline route across northern B.C. in April and May 2023.
The office says that the latest financial penalties reflect its escalation of enforcement due to repeated non-compliance of its requirements.
Four previous penalties have been issued for failing to control erosion and sediment valued at almost $800,000, while a fifth fine of $6,000 was handed out for providing false or misleading information.
The office says it prioritized its inspections along the 670-kilometre route by air and ground as a result of the continued concerns, leading to 59 warnings and 13 stop-work orders along the pipeline that has now been completed.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
