At a time when one might think that the Mass Casualty Commission has all but buried the notion that Gabriel Wortman was either an RCMP informant or, even worse, a paid agent, there are significant holes in the official story that suggest oth­erwise, according to informed sources.

One source, close to the operations of Brink’s Security, says they were aware of details of the March 30, 2020 transac­tion in which Wortman made an unusual and even unprecedented withdrawal of $475,000 in $100 bills from the Brink’s Security Depot at 19 Ilsley Avenue in the Burnside Industrial Park in Dartmouth. Security camera video shows Wortman entering the Brink’s lot, going into a “man room” in the building, signing a slip and leaving with a pouch containing the mon­ey.

“The authorization to release the mon­ey was signed by the New Brunswick RCMP,” insists the source. 

The money that Wortman received came from the CIBC bank, but was routed through CIBC Intria, a subsidiary com­pany that typically provides cash for ATM machines. That Wortman was able to have money delivered by CIBC Intria to Brinks for pickup was highly ir­regular and contravened all bank­ing regulations, says a banking insider aware of the CIBC’s set up and protocols.

“The first rule of banking is that you count out the money in front of the customer,” the banking source said.

“It’s all done in person and is filmed. You can’t let $475,000 walk out the door just like that. That’s everyone’s year end bo­nus. The money is counted and signed for. If this was Wortman’s personal money, the bank would never send it through Intria and then have the customer pick it up in a pouch without counting it. There’s too much room for error. That just wouldn’t happen. What this all tells me is that they bent the rules for him because it likely wasn’t his personal money. There was something else going on there.”

Both sources are reluctant to go on the record at this time for what should be ob­vious reasons, but one might reasonably conclude that the three Commissioners running what we’ve taken to calling the Spinquiry would be eager to dig deep into these allegations.

Such is not the case.

Let’s examine what the Commission did and didn’t do.

The $475,000 cash withdrawal by Wort­man has put the RCMP and its enablers on the defensive since it was first reported in June 2020 in MacLean’s magazine by me, Stephen Maher and Shannon Gormley.

In that and a follow-up story, we reported that informed police sources told us that the money pick up had all the hallmarks of an undercover oper­ation. Subsequently, as reported in my recent book and in these pages, we have reported addi­tional sourcing for similar trans­actions involving the RCMP in New Brunswick and in Western Canada.

In a June 4, 2020 public update RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell made a statement that the RCMP could find “no evi­dence” of a special relationship between Wortman and the force.

More recently, Campbell provid­ed a more forceful written state­ment to the MCC that was co-signed by Superintendent David Astephen, a for­mer Halifax Mountie who is now director of RCMP National Covert Operations.

“There was never any special relation­ship of any kind between Gabriel Wortman and the RCMP. This includes the fact that Wortman was never a confidential infor­mant nor a civilian police agent for the RCMP. Furthermore, a review of our de­partmental security records indicates that Wortman was never employed by, nor a volunteer with, the RCMP.

“The standard law-enforcement prac­tise is not to release information about whether someone was, or was not, a con­fidential informant. This ‘neither confirm, nor deny’ policy is in keeping with the Su­preme Court of Canada’s description of informer privilege as being of ‘fundamen­tal importance’ and ‘an ancient and hal­lowed protection which plays a vital role in law enforcement’… If law enforcement regularly confirmed that certain individuals were not confidential informants while re­fusing to do the same for others, we would in effect undermine our legal obligation to protect informer privilege where it does exist. Such a practise would not only put confidential informants at risk of serious harm, but also discourage the important role that citizens who provide information to law enforcement play in the overall pro­tection of public safety.”

As strong as the denial appears to be, it should come with a “buyer beware” warn­ing. Campbell is now helping run New Brunswick’s “J” Division, where there is a seemingly impenetrable lid on what has been going on there over the past few years.

Even more interesting is the fact that one of Astephen’s predecessors as direc­tor of National Covert Operations was Su­perintendent John Robin.

Remember him? The husband of then Halifax County RCMP boss Janis Gray, Robin inserted himself into the Nova Sco­tia Investigation in April 2021. His side­kick in that ruse was former Mountie Mike Butcher, the husband of then Assistant Commissioner Leona (Lee) Bergerman.

Robin pretended to be assigned to the Mass Casualty Commission. He even had a business card proclaiming his make-be­lieve office. That’s what covert operations does. It’s sneaky. Deceptive. And has a lot of tricks up its sleeve.

In spite of Campbell and Astephen’s declaration to the contrary, there is the very real possibility that the RCMP has merely doubled down on the big lie about Wortman. That would be the smart move for a desperate organization. After all, who would dare challenge them? Governments? The ocularly challenged mainstream and alternative media?

Under Part 31.1, section 3.3 of the RCMP’s covert operational manual this is stated: “The identity of a source must be protected at all times except when the administration of justice requires otherwise, i.e. a member cannot mislead a court in any proceeding in order to protect a source.”

Protecting the identity of covert sources — even after their death — is standard policing procedure.

The police can lie to anyone but a judge in a courtroom setting. The Inquiry is not a court. J. Michael MacDonald, the chief commissioner, is a former judge, not a sitting judge. The stakes for the RCMP and governments are enormous, if Wortman were found to have been working for the RCMP. There is good reason for the powers that be to mislead the public. That being the case, one would expect that they would show their every card to prove their position, but that is not what they have done.

Opinions masquerading as facts are dished out. There are gaping omissions. What should be there, just isn’t there.

In July, the Mass Casualty Commission dumped hundreds of pages of Wortman’s financial records and emails between him and the CIBC. It all looked to be thorough, indisputable and daunting. In those documents, Wortman was shown to be liquidating guaranteed investment certificates (GICs) because of his fear of a banking collapse due to the Covid-19 pandemic. In the emails Wortman pleaded to have the monies sent to Brink’s. It was an unprecedented event and, as we pointed out in this magazine recently, hasn’t been repeated since.

“It was the first time, and I’ve worked there for three years, that we ever had an arrangement like that,” Brinks employee Tiyana Gillis said in a statement to the MCC.

“Yeah, it was, it was odd.”

It’s important to note that Wortman purchased the GICs in 2016 and 2017. The Commission and the RCMP, however, could not determine the origin of the funds that Wortman had used. Wortman’s own financial records showed a rather paltry income for his businesses, his personal accounts and those of Lisa Banfield, who made around $15,000 one year but drove a flashy Mercedes Benz.

In combing through Wortman’s records, forensic accountants working for the RCMP said they could not find the sources of Wortman’s money. That’s extremely curious for two reasons.

One: A quality banking source points out that notes on such matters are made and stored forever. And in many cases regular retail customers can access those notes.

Two: In Lisa Banfield, who fielded almost every phone call for Wortman and who shared a bank account with him, the RCMP and the MCC had a potential co-operating witness.

Did they ask her where the money came from?

There appears to be nothing in the public record about her describing the couple’s cash flow and its origins and no way to account for the $705,000 in cash that the RCMP found hidden outside Wortman’s burned-out cottage.

Nevertheless, MCC investigator Dwayne King offered this opinion in his report to the MCC:

“As a result of the writers reviewing all of the evidence currently available to the Commission, it is the opinion of the writer that:

l The $705,000 in cash in not the direct proceeds of street level drug trafficking;

l The $475,000 in cash picked up by the perpetrator from Brinks is not payment relating to a confidential informant;

l There is not sufficient information available to form an opinion on the original source of funds from the $475,000 in cash withdrawn by the perpetrator. There is also insufficient information available to form an opinion on the source of the $230,000 in currency that made up a portion of the $705,000 in currency that was seized.”

It should be noted that Toronto Police Department sources describe King as be­ing part of then former Police Chief Bill Blair’s inner circle on the force before he moved on to politics. Blair was the federal Public Safety minister at the time of the massacres and was instrumental in set­ting up the Mass Casualty Commission and its wonky mandate.

Next comes the comment from the Brink’s-linked source about the New Brunswick RCMP authorizing the release of the monies.

One of the source documents we could not find in Wortman’s financial records re­leased by the Mass Casualty Commission was the release he was filmed signing be­fore being handed the $475,000.

In statements released by the MCC, Brink’s manager Marcel Briand does not address the issue of who authorized the transaction. He was not called as a live witness.

The link to the RCMP in New Brunswick is an important one and entirely unex­plored by the MCC.

Police sources both within and outside the RCMP point to two long-term relation­ships with police officers that they found suspicious. 

One was with Halifax Constable Barry Warnell, the longest serving police officer on the force. Until around 2007, Warnell was considered to be an undercover spe­cialist who dabbled in real estate on the side. In a statement to the MCC, he said his relationship with Wortman was based on their mutual business interests. The MCC did not dig into the details.

RCMP Constable Greg Wiley also stated that he visited Wortman 16 times at his Portapique cottage between the years 2008 and 2017. Wiley had no notes of the visits and did not appear to file reports on the visits, which police sources say was odd. Wiley did, however, vaguely state that Wortman was passing on information about criminal activities in the area. 

“I knew the value of having a few people in the community that you go to, and ironi­cally, this is the irony of it, I was going to a guy, him of all guys and asking, um, ‘Is there anything that we sh-should know about or anyone — anyone that should be on our radar?’ And isn’t it ironic how things have turned out?” said Wiley.

To a policeman’s ear that sounds like Wortman was a budding informant.

“It’s very suspicious,” said a former se­nior Mountie.

“There are repeated visits and no re­cords of what happened. That’s not the way it should go if everything is on the up-and-up.”

In 2017, Wiley stopped seeing Wortman. The date is interesting.

That year, New Brunswick RCMP boss, Assistant Commissioner Larry Trem­blay, moved to take over all anti-outlaw biker operations in the Maritimes.

The question then becomes: Was it merely a co-incidence that Const. Wiley stopped dropping in on Wortman in 2017 or was there something deeper going on?

If Wortman was indeed an agent, he would have been working for not only the New Brunswick RCMP but possibly other law enforcement agencies, including Hali­fax police and the Canadian Border Se­curity Agency, multiple sources specu­late.

If his cover was blown, as some police sources believe it was, then Wortman was a man either on the run or headed into wit­ness protection.

The opinion by Dwayne King dismiss­ing Wortman’s involvement in criminal activities dovetails perfectly with the posi­tion taken by the MCC. It has shown no interest in the past almost six months of hearings delving into Wortman’s criminal past or possible connections to the RCMP or other police forces.

Finally, there is the source who is familiar with both CIBC and CIBC Intria operations.

In its document dump, the MCC did not release any supporting documents from Intria showing either the authorization for the release of the monies and other direc­tions that it might have received.

“I don’t care what the Commission is saying,” said the CIBC-Intria source, “The story doesn’t work for me. Banks are fas­tidious about the rules. This transaction flew under the radar of FinTrac (Finan­cial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada). Why would the bank do this for Gabriel Wortman and no one else? It doesn’t make sense. If Wortman could do it and get around FinTrac, every criminal would be doing this.”

A tricky story like this one is the inevi­table result of the approach taken by the MCC in its proscribed, blinkered, cautious and politically correct mandate. 

It conducts its proceedings in a “trauma-informed” fashion which means it doesn’t want to upset anyone – except for those, including Mounties, who refuse to toe the line and stick to the preferred narrative. 

They can be savaged.

It’s not trying to find fault or assign blame, and then skips over inconvenient details and refuses to pin the tail on the donkey.

It bombs us with thousands of pages of predigested “interviews” and “statements” but lawyers are restricted from conducting proper cross examinations.

What we’re left with is the RCMP’s proven ineptitude, deceptions and lies, all wrapped in a stifling blanket of secrecy, which naturally fuels suspicion and skepti­cism.

The Mass Casualty Commission’s go-to response is that there is only one truth —their truth — and a fact is not a fact in its view unless it comes from the three Com­missioners, the federal government and its bevy of lawyers, the RCMP or approved and vetted witnesses.

It has weaponized the concept of con­spiracy theorism.

The Commissioner agreed with Lisa Banfield’s pricy lawyer, James Lockyer, that her being cross examined by anyone but Commission legal counsel would lead to a feeding frenzy of conspiracy theories. Imagine that. Banfield spent 19 years with an eventually murderous criminal but she’s too fragile to be challenged about what she did and didn’t know about him and his activities. That’s a novel definition of transparency, if ever there was one.

Those very same lawyers for the fami­lies were told that they can’t roam outside the established boundaries of the Mass Casualty Commission’s “foundational doc­uments” because that, too, would invite conspiracy theories. No questions about touchy things like Wortman’s criminal his­tory or questionable reports by the Seri­ous Incident Response Team, the police lap, er, watchdog.

In spite of all their efforts and vigilance to control the narrative, a lingering and pervasive odor continues to rise from the Mass Casualty Commission. 

There is a legal term whose meaning could be adapted to describe what has been going on.

Res Ipsa Loquitor — the thing speaks for itself.

paulpalango@protonmail.com 

-- 

Andrew Douglas
Frank Magazine
phone: (902) 420-1668
fax: (902) 423-0281
cell: (902) 221-0386
andrew@frankmagazine.ca
www.frankmagazine.ca

Frank Magazine August 3, 2022

On Campbell and Leather, and the Mexican standoff brewing in the background at the MCC

By Paul Palango

RCMP Superintendent Darren Campbell apologized to the surviving families of the victims and spilled a tear or two in the process in his recent testimony before the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry. 

He was followed for two days by Chief Superintendent Chris Leather, who conceded that he “missed the mark” on that terrible weekend of April 18 and 19, 2020 when demented denturist Gabriel Wortman killed 22 Nova Scotians in two rampages over a 13.5-hour-long period.

Wow! Contrition, finally, from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

The important question: was it sincere, or was it all just part of the master RCMP playbook when it comes to dealing with uncomfortable controversies like this one?

Deny. Deflect. Lie. And, if none of that works, Cry.

What we’ve taken to calling the Spinquiry meandered for more than five months and 74 or so sessions to get to Campbell and Leather. By the time they did, it should be noted, it was the last week of July. Most people were likely kicking back and relaxing, tuned out to the impossible narrative presented by the “trauma-informed” commission.

Let’s look at what was likely going on by adding some valuable and needed context and history, notions to which our friends in the mainstream and alternative media seem to be acutely allergic when they report the news.

To fully appreciate what was going on, we must begin with the barrage of information that spewed out of the MCC pipeline in the days before Campbell and Leather were called upon.

Much of the previous two weeks was consumed with panel hearings and testimony about “gender-based and intimate-partner violence.” This was all orchestrated as a buildup to the unchallenged “testimony” of Wortman’s common-law wife, Lisa Banfield. As you may recall, lawyers for the family were not allowed to cross-examine her out of fear that digging for truth would only lead to more “conspiracy theories.” Yep, you heard that right.

Two things happened on Friday July 23, effectively the working day before Campbell was called the following Monday to give his evidence. 

First, there was the damning testimony of two professors, Kristy Martire from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and Tess Neal from the University of Arizona. They concluded that the RCMP’s much touted “psychological autopsy” was nothing but bunk, mere public-relations window dressing that was devoured whole by the mainstream media back in the late spring of 2020 when it was first announced.

Lawyer and MCC critic Adam Rodgers questioned why Martire and Neal were hired for the job over local talent “perhaps done so for a fraction of the cost.”

Rogers also made some other interesting observations: “These experts were not contracted to provide the MCC with their own, or an alternate, forensic psychological assessment of the killer. There does not appear to be any plan to have one performed either. At least the MCC has not stated that one is forthcoming. So, we do not have access to the RCMP report, and will not receive an independent report analyzing the psyche of the killer. This seems like a shortcoming for an inquiry that, among other things, is trying to figure out why a person committed a mass shooting.

“Martire and Neal were highly critical of the RCMP assessment. They did not even know what to call it, noting that it also had elements of a retrospective behavioural profile and a retrospective risk assessment, both of which (in their view) are different than a psychological autopsy. The author of the report, Dr. Matt Logan, was noted not even to be a certified psychologist in Canada, despite referring to himself as a “criminal psychologist, a term which the experts testified does not exist in the field,” Rogers said.

The second thing that the MCC slipped by most of the public was a statement from a Mountie who had been hidden from public sight for more than two years. He is Superintendent Archie Thompson. He was the senior officer in command of Northeast Nova, where most of the murders occurred.

Thompson said he chose to stay home that night and not actively become part of the RCMP response at a command post.

“I wouldn’t want to do that and inject myself into the investigation… The rank, the colour of the uniform tends to have an impact when I show up,” Thompson said.

Now retired, Thompson was not called to testify or be cross examined about his version of events. 

Superintendent Campbell came to testify under a bit of a cloud, having complained that Commissioner Brenda Lucki had tried to politically interfere in the Nova Scotia investigation on behalf of the prime minister and other politicos. 

The RCMP has never laid a serious charge in any of it and has all but disappeared key witnesses such as ex-con Peter Griffon, Wortman’s biker-connected handyman and replica police car decorator.

Before he even testified, Campbell was given a sideways promotion and sent off to New Brunswick.

He returned to Nova Scotia and spent two days talking and answering some questions from lawyers at the MCC hearings. In the minds of some, he appeared to have acquitted himself well. Some people were moved by how Campbell had comported himself, right down to his tears of apparent contrition. Isn’t it amazing how a few well-timed tears can cause so many people to suspend their disbelief?

A former senior RCMP member sent me this message: “As a retired Superintendent…. I’d like to say some complimentary words on the Supt’s appearance and testimony before the commission. Is there somewhere I can post them?”

I told the former Mountie that there was more going on here than the media had let on.

“The thing you have to remember is that lawyers for the families were not allowed by the Commission to ask a variety of questions. The fact of the matter is that for 27 months the RCMP has stated that its response was near perfect and that it would do the same thing in a similar situation. Now, the force’s leaders are saying otherwise,” I wrote. 

“Thanks, Paul,” he replied. “On 2nd thought, I’ll leave it alone.”

That’s the part that we are not allowed to see. While it might appear to be a normal process going on at the inquiry (spinquiry, shurely!-ed.), it is anything but. The lawyers for the families have strict limitations about what they can pursue.

When it came to questioning Campbell, two sources tell me that the lawyers were restricted from asking questions about charges that were laid against Lisa Banfield, which were subsequently dropped. 

The lawyers were also prohibited by the MCC from asking Campbell about anything involving Banfield having spent the night in the woods around Portapique or her subsequent emergence at 6:30 am. No questions were allowed about her alleged abuse at the hands of Wortman.

They couldn’t ask questions about the role played by other RCMP officers, one of them being then Inspector Dustine Rodier, who was promoted to Superintendent recently. Rodier was in charge of the 911 Centre and other communications and was previously the commanding officer at the Hampton, N.B. detachment.

The family’s lawyers also could not broach the subject of investigations by the Serious Incident Response Team into the shoot-up of the Onslow Belmont firehall or the killing of Wortman at the Irving Big Stop on the morning of April 19th. Security video from that incident appears to refute the testimony of two RCMP officers before the MCC, but the Commission ruled that line of inquiry was out of bounds.

As one lawyer put it: “Unless we had an actual documentary evidence on which to base a question, we couldn’t ask. Otherwise, it was promoting ‘conspiracy theories.’ “

That in a nutshell explains the ultimate purpose of the MCC’s innovative use of what it calls “foundational documents.”

Every witness called to testify has been essentially vetted through previous interviews which are captured in the foundational documents. Over the past six months, these documents have either been dribbled out or released in a torrent, all but overwhelming anyone trying to absorb the information contained within them.

Meanwhile, things get left out here and there, like the supporting documents for much of the financial information about Wortman that was recently released. 

Where are they and why weren’t they available before Campbell and Leather were questioned?

Sometimes the witnesses in the foundational documents have been called to appear in the public forum, many other times not. The only rhyme or reason about who gets called seems to be whether their version of events serves the larger intended narrative that is desired by the powers to be.

The last witness to be called before the MCC’s summer break was Chief Supt. Leather.

As previously reported in Frank Magazine, Leather is not a natural Mountie. He started his career in York Region outside of Toronto and was one of the rare Mounties to join the force as an officer. He came to Nova Scotia in September 2019 as the Criminal Operations Officer (CROPs). His previous assignment in federal policing – Project Busbar – an international drug smuggling investigation in Ontario had ended in a fiasco. As is so often the case in the RCMP, he was nevertheless promoted and moved to a distant posting – Nova Scotia – in a page ripped out of the Catholic Church personnel manual.

Looking surprisingly gaunt and nervous, one couldn’t help but get the impression that Leather is a man who knows he is under the gun. The chosen scapegoat.

From the time we first met him during the RCMP press conference alongside Assistant Commissioner Lee Bergerman, Leather did not make a great first impression. He seemed unsure of himself, nervous, almost sick to his stomach.

In the few statements he made after the massacres, he was clearly following the RCMP mantra – deny, deflect etc.

Leather was on the record as defending the RCMP response. He said that he would not change a thing about it. He would rely on Twitter. He wouldn’t put out a public alert.

Now, he appears to have undergone a bit of a change of heart.

Like Campbell, Leather has supported the political interference story involving Commissioner Lucki which, considering his current posting in federal policing in Ottawa – shoulder to shoulder with Lucki – was either extremely unwise or part of a larger charade. 

Leather protested during the hearing that he was compelled to be “honest,” but it’s too early to tell what actually is going on. From day one Leather genuinely appears to have been in the dark about what was really going on with Wortman before and during the rampages. Maybe he actually was.

There is an important clue, however, that there is more intrigue than first meets the eye.

Leather appeared a few days earlier in Ottawa to testify before the House Committee on Public Safety and Security, which is eager to probe the Lucki political interference story.

He brought along with him his personal lawyer.

Why does Chris Leather need his own lawyer when it’s quite clear that the federal Crown is prepared to spend tens of millions of dollars to defend all the Mounties?

Does Leather see himself as the designated scapegoat?

A source in Ottawa, close to the committee, said that Leather’s lawyer has indicated that he is holding an “insurance policy” for his client.

This has turned into a Quentin Tarantino-esque Mexican standoff, right here in Nova Scotia. Just about everyone is armed with a lawyer and aiming their metaphorical guns at everyone else.

You’d think that, before long, something’s gotta give.

paulpalango@protonmail.com