Chris Selley: When it comes to police and public institutions in Canada — and especially at the nexus of the two — secrecy is assumed. Transparency is so rare as to be almost disquieting. And as usual, my cynicism was vindicated: The Mass Casualty Commission revealed on Thursday that the original package of Campbell’s handwritten notes it received was 132 pages long, not 136. You’ll never guess which four pages were missing.
It’s worth taking a look at those notes, which the commission has published online, and imagining the proverbial light bulb turning on over someone’s head: The way the pages break, it was remarkably easy simply to carve out those four pages and hope no one would notice — which it seems nobody did until the 136-page version later landed, inexplicably, in the commission’s mailbox.
On Friday, the commission quite rightly demanded an explanation from the Justice Department and the RCMP. But the explanation seems pretty obvious, no? Far more interesting is what led to the release of the other four pages. Did someone have a momentary unauthorized attack of conscience, and if so, can they blink twice to say they’re OK? Has some rogue patriot infiltrated the police-political nexus? Is it just garden-variety backstabbing, with Lucki’s being the back du jour?
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