I’ve lived most of my life in rural Canada, and police resources have been stripped bare in rural Canada over the years. This incident could have happened anywhere in rural Canada. I feel just awful for the affected families and responding police, fire and EMS personnel. They were faced with the worst nightmare imaginable and did their best to respond. Aggravating the whole thing as Transplant points out is that the killer knew how to exploit all the loopholes. He struck on a Saturday night in rural Canada during COVID, impersonating an RCMP Officer. That is the worst scenario I can envision.
I don’t think there should be anything but support and gratitude for the frontline personal who responded to this nightmare. That said, it seems apparent that there were breakdowns in the incident command and communications structures. It would be better for everyone if the RCMP would take ownership of those problems. Just admit that using Twitter rather than the provincial alert system was a mistake. Denying it only makes things worse for the RCMP and the families involved. But, two things people seem to find hardest to do are admit making a mistake and apologizing.
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