Inquiry hears user error played major role in radio issues during N.S. mass shooting

Issues with radio communications have become a theme in the inquiry into the mass shooting across Nova Scotia in April 2020, but recent evidence points to user error playing the biggest role.

A roundtable last week on the digital radio system in Nova Scotia used by police and other first responders went over the technical aspects of the system and what happened across April 18 and 19, 2020 when a gunman killed 22 people in the province.

"After the incident … it became apparent that some of the functions of the radio weren't, I would say, widely understood or weren't being exercised," Christian Gallant, divisional information management and technology officer with the Nova Scotia RCMP, told the Mass Casualty Commission leading the inquiry Thursday.

Gallant said his role involves overseeing the radio program and training around that technology for the RCMP.

Various front-line and commanding officers have told the inquiry they experienced issues while trying to speak into their portable radios to share important updates or get direction.

During the incident at the Onslow fire hall, two RCMP officers Const. Terry Brown and Const. Dave Melanson mistakenly opened fire on a civilian who they thought was the rampaging gunman.

Melanson testified last month that he and Brown decided to fire after he failed to get through on his portable radio and receive instructions from commanders. The inquiry found that he made eight failed attempts to contact commanders using the radio system.

A report on the incident that was released in March 2021 by Nova Scotia's police watchdog agency cleared the Mounties of wrongdoing and largely blamed jammed radio communications for what transpired.

The Serious Incident Response Team said the "sole reason'' the officers couldn't transmit before opening fire was because "there was no available talk path due to the heavy volume of radio traffic.''

However, Trevor MacLeod, Bell Mobility's director of public safety radio engineering and operations, said Thursday that the radio system was functioning as it should.

Although radio calls tripled compared to a regular weekend on the morning of April 19 on the tower closest to Portapique and other scenes, MacLeod noted the system was never beyond its capacity.

If any radio users got busy signals while trying to speak, MacLeod said their call would be placed in a queue, but within "seconds" they would have gotten a pinging sound notifying them they could now talk.

It's unclear if Brown and Melanson, or other officers, properly used the emergency request to talk button, or ERTT, during the incident.

Roundtable members explained that when the bright orange button is hit, the radio user can speak immediately — even if they had been getting busy signals before.