Former N.S. justice minister says he left RCMP after force refused to adopt Alert Ready

The RCMP officer who became Nova Scotia's justice minister says he left the force in 2012 in large part because of his frustration over the force's "strong opposition" to a proposed public alerting system.

The public inquiry examining the mass shootings in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020, has released a series of written answers from Mark Furey in response to questions posed by the Mass Casualty Commission in August 2022.

The commission is examining the circumstances surrounding the killings, when a gunman dressed as an RCMP officer and driving a replica cruiser killed 22 people in several rural communities across Nova Scotia.

Among a series of questions about Furey's role and interactions with the RCMP as both an officer and then as justice minister, the commission asked about a briefing note he authored in January 2012 for Chief Supt. Brian Brennan, the criminal operations officer in Nova Scotia at the time.

"Managed properly, the availability and application of a [public alert system] in Nova Scotia could/would be considered an asset to front-line police service providers in response to emergency situations (i.e. forest fires, floods, meteorological events, etc.)," reads the final paragraph of the note.

Furey was the emergency management program officer for the RCMP and told the commission the provincial Emergency Management Office (EMO) had approached his office about a "concept or tool" that would make use of public broadcasting to relay information to the public.

Furey said his briefing note came after "numerous and difficult" discussions with the support services officer and criminal operations reviewer, two high-ranking officers who were "not supportive" of the Alert Ready concept.

"They expressed strong opposition," wrote Furey in his response to the commission. "The briefing note…reflects what my superiors advised they would approve from my office. There was very clear opposition to the concept of Alert Ready."

Furey went on to write that his frustration with these superior officers was a "key decision" in retiring from the force early in September 2012.

The RCMP's communications strategy during the 13-hour shooting rampage has been a point of contention for families of the victims, who have raised concerns about the force's choice to communicate information exclusively through Twitter and Facebook rather than via the provincial Alert Ready system.

They have also been vocal about how long it took RCMP to inform the public that the gunman was driving the replica cruiser and wearing a police uniform.

Provincial officials with EMO told the commission they had been in discussion with the RCMP about the use of Alert Ready since 2011 — but multiple officers have told the commission in testimony over the last six months that either they didn't know the system existed or that using it would have caused mass panic among the public.

Some RCMP members have even suggested that using it would have led to further loss of life.

But an expert in emergency communications has refuted that perspective, saying there's no evidence of the "mass panic" response in other jurisdictions where alert ready has been used.