Category: RCMP

Nova Scotia Mass Shooter’s Spouse Worried He Was Looking for Her When Killings Began

HALIFAX—The spouse of the gunman who killed 22 people in Nova Scotia told police that she has had guilty feelings and wonders whether others died because she ran away from her partner when his rampage began last April. Lisa Banfield told police that she questions whether Gabriel Wortman went to locations she might have run…


Grief Persists for Spouses of First Responders, Soldiers Killed in Line of Duty

OTTAWA—Angela Gevaudan recalls the first year after her RCMP−officer husband was killed on duty as a whirlwind of responsibility and emotion that offered her little time to process her grief and loss. Const. Fabrice Gevaudan was one of three Mounties shot and killed during a gunman’s rampage in Moncton, N.B., in June 2014. In the…


RCMP Body Cameras to Cost $131 Million Over Five Years: Budget Officer

OTTAWA—As Mounties move forward to outfit officers with body-worn cameras, the parliamentary budget officer estimates it will cost $131 million over five years. A costing note Thursday said the RCMP is expected to purchase 12,500 camera subscriptions for use across the country at 700 detachments. There were calls for officers to wear the technology during…


RCMP Officer in B.C. Suspended During Criminal Investigation and Internal Probe

SURREY, B.C.—An officer with the RCMP detachment in Surrey, B.C., has been suspended amid a criminal investigation that’s expected to lead to formal charges. RCMP spokeswoman Dawn Roberts says the Mountie was arrested last week and released, noting an internal code-of-conduct investigation is also underway. She says the officer was still within a two-year probationary…


N.B. Crown Rules Out Charges in RCMP Shooting of Indigenous Man Rodney Levi

FREDERICTON—New Brunswick’s Public Prosecutions Service has concluded no charges will be filed against police officers involved in the fatal shooting of Rodney Levi last year. Levi, who was from the Metepenagiag First Nation, was shot dead by the RCMP on the evening of June 12 after police had responded to a complaint about a disturbance…


Suspected RCMP Secrecy Breach Fallout Upgraded to ‘Severe’: Newly Released Documents

OTTAWA—New documents show Canada’s cyberspy agency was so alarmed by the potential fallout from an alleged secrecy breach by a senior RCMP employee that it revised a damage assessment to “severe” from “high” in the days after his arrest. Cameron Jay Ortis was taken into custody in September 2019 for allegedly revealing secrets to an…


Infiltration, Money Laundering: The Worrisome Allegations From the Ortis Case

With new developments coming to light in the case of former senior RCMP intelligence official Cameron Ortis, an expert on money laundering says efforts to infiltrate various organizations in both the public and private sectors is a common practice among professional money laundering operators. “They’re always looking for ways to infiltrate government services, such as…


Canada’s Spy-Catching System Caused Delay, Angst in Delisle Case: Former FBI Official

OTTAWA—The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation’s former head of counter−intelligence says it fell to him to tell the RCMP about a spy in the Canadian navy, even though the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was already well aware of Jeffrey Delisle’s sale of sensitive secrets to the Russians. In a newly published book, Frank Figliuzzi casts…


Snowshoer Dies After Overnight Search on Vancouver Area Mountain: RCMP

SQUAMISH, B.C.—A snowshoer who set out alone on a rugged mountain trail on Vancouver’s north shore Thursday has died. Squamish RCMP say the 21-year-old woman from Ontario was removed from a steep gully Friday morning after an overnight search. She was found on the east side of the Howe Sound Crest Trail about five kilometres…


Nova Scotia Premier Says RCMP Must Change How They Alert Public

HALIFAX—The premier of Nova Scotia says the RCMP must change how they alert the public to dangerous incidents following the high-profile arrest of a gunman who remained at large for 19 hours. Stephen McNeil made the comment Thursday as questions arose about why it took more than three hours on Wednesday for the Mounties to…