Newly unsealed search warrant documents related to the Nova Scotia mass shooting are shedding light on how the gunman created the replica RCMP vehicle he used.
On April 18 and 19 of this year, Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people — including neighbours, strangers and an RCMP officer — and burned homes belonging to three couples he killed. Two men who were shot survived. The gunman travelled about 195 kilometres over a period of 13 hours before RCMP killed him at a gas station in Enfield, N.S.
During most of the rampage that started in the tiny community of Portapique, N.S., the 51-year-old denturist drove a decommissioned police vehicle that he had bought through a federal government auction site on June 27, 2019 for $10,990, according to RCMP Sgt. Angela Hawryluk, who wrote the search warrant applications.
Though it would’ve been plain white and stripped of its accessories when the gunman purchased it, the documents released Monday show that for months, he worked to make it look identical to an actual RCMP cruiser.
He installed a push bar on the front bumper on Aug. 24, 2019, and emailed someone to say the car was a bigger job than he expected and it was his first time doing the work. The recipient’s name was redacted.
Even prior to purchasing that exact car, Wortman appeared to be making plans for a replica.
“Are you fellows able to do a complete decal set for an RCMP Ford Taurus sedan?” he wrote in a June 10, 2019 email to an American company, according to the search warrant documents.
The company responded the following day that it was passing on the job and getting away from custom orders.
He ended up getting the decals far closer to home, at a sign shop in Truro, N.S. RCMP have said one of the shop’s employees, Peter Griffon, printed the decals for Wortman without his boss’s knowledge.
After the mass shooting, RCMP released security camera footage of the car the shooter drove that was captured on the morning of April 19. Most police vehicles in Nova Scotia do not have a push bar on their front bumpers. (RCMP)
RCMP went on to obtain a search warrant to examine Griffon’s phone records and found he corresponded with Wortman a number of times via email and had photos of a police cruiser saved.
Griffon first sent Wortman multiple photos of an RCMP cruiser with decals on it at the end of July 2019. The photos were taken in a garage but it’s unclear from the court documents if they were of an actual cruiser. Just before Christmas, he sent a photo of lights on top of a cruiser.
A month before the massacre, Wortman wrote to Griffon saying “beers on Fridays” were suspended due to COVID-19. In a March 16 email, he assured Griffon, who was facing a layoff, that there would be plenty of odd jobs around his properties.
The morning of April 18, Wortman wrote Griffon saying he was going on a drive to celebrate his anniversary but they planned to work together the following day. Griffon was splitting wood for him in Portapique.
Shooter claimed cruiser was for parade
Summaries of interviews police conducted with people who knew the gunman show that Griffon wasn’t the only person aware that he was working on a replica car.
Aaron Tuck, his wife, Jolene Oliver, and their 17-year-old daughter, Emily, lived in Portapique and were among the victims on April 18.
Tuck’s best friend, whose name is redacted in the court documents, said he saw a white police cruiser and a package of decals in Wortman’s garage at some point in 2019.
During the 2019 visit, Wortman asked Tuck and his friend for help moving a chair and told them “he was fixing up the car to use in parades,” according to the court documents. He also explained to them he was buying accessories for the vehicle online.
The faces of the 22 victims of the Nova Scotia mass shooting. (CBC)
While they were at his garage in Portapique, Tuck’s friend said Wortman showed off a police uniform as well as something that went with a holster and belt. The exact word is redacted.
Tuck’s friend said he’d heard Wortman liked to work on motorcycles in the garage that he’d outfitted with a big bay door and a bar. But he said he’d also heard that “Gabriel would terrorize people” while drinking, according to the court documents. He’d also tried to buy the Tuck’s property for far less than they hoped to sell it.
The shooter made reference to not being optimistic about the virus in emails released Monday.
The RCMP summary said Wortman wrote to someone that once money runs out people will become desperate and need guns. “Thank god we are well armed,” he wrote. The name of the person he was emailing is redacted.
Several people who have spoken to RCMP mentioned Wortman’s familiarity with guns.
In the newly unsealed documents, a man originally from New Brunswick told police that he and Wortman had gone to gun shows together and spent time together shooting in Maine. Another person told RCMP that Wortman was known to fire his gun into the ocean.
4 former cruisers
The car Wortman used during the shootings was one of four former cruisers he had purchased in recent years.
Through his company, Berkshire Broman Corp., he also bought a 2013 Ford Taurus from an auction on the federal procurement site for $2,998 in July 2019. He took possession of that car — which was also previously owned by the RCMP — on Oct. 2, 2019. It was parked in Dartmouth during the shootings.
Police found two more former police cruisers burned at his Portapique properties. He purchased one of those cruisers in March 2019.
The RCMP investigation continues nearly seven months after the mass shootings. Investigators have said determining how the gunman obtained the illegal weapons he used, the uniform he wore and whether he had help are key parts of the investigation.
So far, no one is facing charges.
RCMP believe the gunman wore parts of an authentic RCMP uniform during a deadly shooting rampage around rural areas of Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19. (Nova Scotia RCMP)
Vehicle accessories bought online
The documents released Monday pertain to a request the RCMP made to search the gunman’s Amazon account.
In her sworn affidavit, Sgt. Hawryluk said the warrant pertains to murder, attempt to commit murder, weapons trafficking, unauthorized importation of firearms, conspiracy to commit murder and conspiracy to import firearms.
Through search warrants, the RCMP also obtained information from PayPal Canada showing that between March 2019 and November 2019, Wortman spent at least $3,477 USD buying items, many of which appeared to relate to police car retrofits.
Some of the items he paid for during that time period included a police push bumper, two central consoles, rear window armour bars, a “prisoner transport partition” and an LED light bar. Most of these purchases date from late March 2019 to early April 2019 and were meant for police vehicles.
Other items Wortman purchased using a credit card included a gun rack and patches or decals featuring police themes such as the “thin blue line” and the Canadian flag.
TORONTO – Canada Goose Holdings Inc. says it has signed a deal that will result in the creation of its first eyewear collection.
The deal announced on Thursday by the Toronto-based luxury apparel company comes in the form of an exclusive, long-term global licensing agreement with Marchon Eyewear Inc.
The terms and value of the agreement were not disclosed, but Marchon produces eyewear for brands including Lacoste, Nike, Calvin Klein, Ferragamo, Longchamp and Zeiss.
Marchon plans to roll out both sunglasses and optical wear under the Canada Goose name next spring, starting in North America.
Canada Goose says the eyewear will be sold through optical retailers, department stores, Canada Goose shops and its website.
Canada Goose CEO Dani Reiss told The Canadian Press in August that he envisioned his company eventually expanding into eyewear and luggage.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Almost seven years since news broke of an alleged conspiracy to fix the price of packaged bread across Canada, the saga isn’t over: the Competition Bureau continues to investigate the companies that may have been involved, and two class-action lawsuits continue to work their way through the courts.
Here’s a timeline of key events in the bread price-fixing case.
Oct. 31, 2017: The Competition Bureau says it’s investigating allegations of bread price-fixing and that it was granted search warrants in the case. Several grocers confirm they are co-operating in the probe.
Dec. 19, 2017: Loblaw and George Weston say they participated in an “industry-wide price-fixing arrangement” to raise the price of packaged bread. The companies say they have been co-operating in the Competition Bureau’s investigation since March 2015, when they self-reported to the bureau upon discovering anti-competitive behaviour, and are receiving immunity from prosecution. They announce they are offering $25 gift cards to customers amid the ongoing investigation into alleged bread price-fixing.
Jan. 31, 2018: In court documents, the Competition Bureau says at least $1.50 was added to the price of a loaf of bread between about 2001 and 2016.
Dec. 20, 2019: A class-action lawsuit in a Quebec court against multiple grocers and food companies is certified against a number of companies allegedly involved in bread price-fixing, including Loblaw, George Weston, Metro, Sobeys, Walmart Canada, Canada Bread and Giant Tiger (which have all denied involvement, except for Loblaw and George Weston, which later settled with the plaintiffs).
Dec. 31, 2021: A class-action lawsuit in an Ontario court covering all Canadian residents except those in Quebec who bought packaged bread from a company named in the suit is certified against roughly the same group of companies.
June 21, 2023: Bakery giant Canada Bread Co. is fined $50 million after pleading guilty to four counts of price-fixing under the Competition Act as part of the Competition Bureau’s ongoing investigation.
Oct. 25 2023: Canada Bread files a statement of defence in the Ontario class action denying participating in the alleged conspiracy and saying any anti-competitive behaviour it participated in was at the direction and to the benefit of its then-majority owner Maple Leaf Foods, which is not a defendant in the case (neither is its current owner Grupo Bimbo). Maple Leaf calls Canada Bread’s accusations “baseless.”
Dec. 20, 2023: Metro files new documents in the Ontario class action accusing Loblaw and its parent company George Weston of conspiring to implicate it in the alleged scheme, denying involvement. Sobeys has made a similar claim. The two companies deny the allegations.
July 25, 2024: Loblaw and George Weston say they agreed to pay a combined $500 million to settle both the Ontario and Quebec class-action lawsuits. Loblaw’s share of the settlement includes a $96-million credit for the gift cards it gave out years earlier.
Sept. 12, 2024: Canada Bread files new documents in Ontario court as part of the class action, claiming Maple Leaf used it as a “shield” to avoid liability in the alleged scheme. Maple Leaf was a majority shareholder of Canada Bread until 2014, and the company claims it’s liable for any price-fixing activity. Maple Leaf refutes the claims.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
Companies in this story: (TSX:L, TSX:MFI, TSX:MRU, TSX:EMP.A, TSX:WN)
TORONTO – TD Bank Group, which is mired in a money laundering scandal in the U.S., says chief executive Bharat Masrani will retire next year.
Masrani, who will retire officially on April 10, 2025, says the bank’s, “anti-money laundering challenges,” took place on his watch and he takes full responsibility.
The bank named Raymond Chun, TD’s group head, Canadian personal banking, as his successor.
As part of a transition plan, Chun will become chief operating officer on Nov. 1 before taking over the top job when Masrani steps down at the bank’s annual meeting next year.
TD also announced that Riaz Ahmed, group head, wholesale banking and president and CEO of TD Securities, will retire at the end of January 2025.
TD has taken billions in charges related to ongoing U.S. investigations into the failure of its anti-money laundering program.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.
