Last week, the commission of inquiry came under intense scrutiny when the RCMP's union argued the 18 officers would be "re-traumatized" if they are forced to relive April 18-19, 2020, when a man disguised as a Mountie fatally shot 22 people during a 13-hour rampage.
Police officers routinely give evidence under oath at trials and public inquiries, even when the subject matter is profoundly disturbing and graphic. But the federal-provincial inquiry in Halifax, which started hearings last month, has adopted a novel, “trauma-informed” approach.
Christopher Schneider, a sociology professor at Brandon University in Manitoba, said he doesn’t buy the union's argument that previously provided unsworn statements should be good enough for the inquiry.
"We could surmise that maybe there's something that the RCMP don't want the public to know,” he said. “Maybe they're trying to conceal something. We don't know.”
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