The Truth About the Nova Scotia RCMP
...is a nationwide problem we need quit ignoring before basic trust in the institution is gone completely.
I told you when I first wrote about Jeremy Mackenzie’s imprisonment that I would see the facts through to the end.
If that makes you feel personally attacked, that’s a you problem. As I say to my 11-year-old, “Your thoughts and feelings are are your choice, not mine.”
The volume of people who have freaked over just considering the facts around Jeremy Mackenzie is overwhelming. As expected, the focus is on what I didn’t say. Being defined by what you didn’t do or say is an unwinnable battle rooted in the imagination of the one doing the defining. It’s also a strategy being used increasingly by public and political institutions, as well as individuals with personal vendettas.
I guess I didn’t shittalk Jeremy Mackenzie enough at the beginning of what I wrote last time. This meant some people couldnt consume those facts without having their worldview uncomfortably disrupted, which they seemed to believe was my problem. Oh well.
Not a soul has brought me a single fact, line, link or video about Mackenzie to contradict what I’ve written, but they’ve sure brought a lot of whining and bitching because I did.
I’ve been told that I’m lying to myself about my own intentions. Just think about that lol.
I’ve been accused of being emotionally blackmailed by, attracted to, flirting with or manipulated by Mackenzie, which is a whole new type of misogyny even I’ve never experienced.
Learn something new every day.
He Without Sin
The eagerness of some of you to cast aside democratic process and forgive sins on one side of the equation but not the other is troubling. So is the cowardice of so many people who’d rather ignore facts and roll with a narrative that hasn’t just hurt Jeremy Mackenzie but potentially us all.
I’ve been clear about why I’m writing about this. I know myself well enough to continue, but thank you so much for your efforts to try to stop me from doing so.
ProTip: you will lose, everytime.
Saskatchewan is the most corrupt, twisted and dysfunctional province in Canada. The clowns running this province haven’t stopped me from writing about that either, though they’ve tried.
When I heard that the rare, costly act of flying a high-profile federal inmate to Saskatchewan was greenlit by a Sask Party politician, I knew I needed to understand the absolute facts about what is going on.
Because democracy in Saskatchewan is broken. Corrupt, anti-democratic decision-making has destroyed health care and social programming, while blatantly disrespectful, repugnant acts of indecency committed right out in the open without remorse…
…highlight the extent of the authoritarianism that permeates Scott Moe’s government - he does whatever he wants.
If all that is happening right out in the open, do you actually believe those failures don’t exist already in places most of us will blessedly never see?
Say, for example, Saskatchewan’s justice and corrections systems?
Welcome To Saskagalon
Don’t laugh. It’s a far more likely scenario than Mackenzie’s bunch of merry meatheads getting it together to create their own country.
Meanwhile Saskatchewan and Alberta premiers, who have far more power than anyone on Youtube, are doing their worst to force our provinces as deep as possible into a steaming abyss of division, racism and alienation from the rest of Canada.
In my newsletter yesterday I laid out for you the amalgamation and mobilization of Scott Moe’s weaponized army ground force since he won leadership four years ago. He has spent millions and created hundreds more positions, all of which operate under his authority, with the power to arrest and imprison us.
If I have to share some facts that don’t reinforce your perspective on Jeremy Mackenzie, in order to examine whether our freedom in Saskatchewan is truly at risk of going the same way as our democracy, so be it.
To get there, we have to look at Mackenzie’s Nova Scotia charges, which is where his journey through the Canadian justice system began.
Have You Met the Nova Scotia RCMP?
Cause wow. Holy shit.
What an absolute joke that division is. Except it’s not funny because way too many people are dead, apparently due to what appears to be catastrophic levels of failure inside the Nova Scotia RCMP.
I admit I wasn’t following the hearings into the Nova Scotia RCMP’s response to the April 19, 2020 massacre in that province. I focus on Saskatchewan because there’s more than enough bullshit here to keep me busy. After this one I will never look at a national story again, because I don’t even want to know what I’d find and trust me, it’s not worth the hassle.
This weekend as I was reading what came out of those hearings (held just a few weeks ago), I found myself sickened.
“Many of the (Nova Scotia) RCMP's mistakes throughout their response came due to "tunnel vision," (the victims’ lawyer) said, where police chose a "most likely" scenario based on what witnesses were telling them… (The victims’ lawyer) urged the commission not to view these gaps through the lens of RCMP members who have suggested they were the result of lack of funding and resources during an "unprecedented" event. Instead, they were "basic mistakes that contributed to the unprecedented nature" of the tragedy… - CBC.ca, September 20, 2022
Yes, that was the victims’ lawyer stating outright that the mass casualty tragedy was unprecedentedly horrific because the Nova Scotia RCMP were a shitshow, not because the gunman was a genius.
…All this prior information taken together and properly investigated could have revealed the gunman to be a person of concern… (Nova Scotia) RCMP did have the gunman on their radar, she said, but through a lack of access to various databases, the radar was "turned off again and again…” - CBC.ca, September 20, 2022
Jeremy Mackenzie has sure had the polar opposite experience with the RCMP’s “radar”, wouldn’t you say?
Mackenzie, with a fair amount of manhunt, military and operational experience himself, fired much of the same intense and deserved criticism heard in last month’s hearings about the Nova Scotia RCMP’s response to that April 2020 shooting.
Difference is, Mackenzie did it the next day (in a video I can’t find right now but will; check back, when I do I’ll link to it).
I have confirmed with sources close to the investigation that Mackenzie was on a Saskatchewan RCMP watch list within days of releasing that rant - which again was nothing that hasn’t been said publicly today.
Presumably a RCMP watch list is sort of like the FBI’s watch list. The difference being, of course, the FBI enjoys congressional oversight.
The RCMP enjoys… RCMP oversight.
A more cynical person than me might wonder if Nova Scotia RCMP and a constable already facing allegations of targeting a suspect with improper charges may have even seen the prospect of redemption in putting Jeremy Mackenzie away.
Now please, do tell me some more about why I shouldn’t be looking at the Nova Scotia RCMP because you hate Jeremy Mackenzie.
When you do, I’ll point you to the above photo of 22 dead Canadian including a pregnant woman, then tell you to sit the fuck down and shut up.
British Columbia RCMP Also Seem Fun
Before we fully get to Nova Scotia, we have to first touch down in British Columbia.
As I mentioned in the first piece I wrote, a British Columbia man named Brian Carlisle, HIV positive, was improperly and allegedly deliberately and maliciously investigated and charged by RCMP officers in Mission, BC.
In July 2017 the cops in question began looking into Carlisle’s sex life. It was common knowledge that Carlisle was HIV positive. It was at this early juncture in the investigation that RCMP was seemingly informed by experts, including Carlisle’s own doctor, that Carlisle was medically undetectable for HIV, meaning intransmissible.
While there were certainly moral considerations Carlisle chose to ignore, this means the RCMP knew the law was clear Carlisle that could not be charged for not disclosing his HIV status.
The British Columbia RCMP chose to proceed.
In August 2017 Carlisle was charged with three counts of aggravated sexual assault after a “lengthy investigation” by RCMP.
"Normally the RCMP would not disclose the medical status of a person charged with a criminal offence. However, in this case, after careful consideration, the public interest clearly outweighs the invasion of Mr. Carlisle's privacy.” - BC RCMP media release
There is not a chance that the RCMP officers behind this investigation were not aware of the profound damage that public statement would inflict on so many innocent people.
The RCMP knew that because the damage was the entire point. They admitted right in their statement that what they were doing was an unprecedented, invasive act committed against another Canadian.
The RCMP doing something like that publicly to anyone they have power over (which is all of us), knowing that it might not be true is truly heinous and diabolical. It was a public, wrongful, efficient and potentially malicious character assassination executed with one of the force’s most efficient weapons: a RCMP news release.
A few weeks later Carlisle was arrested again and charged with nine more counts of the same offence after RCMP said new victims had come forward in response to their appeal. With those new charges, Carlisle was held on remand and spent two months in solitary confinement, aka protective custody for sex offenders.
Eight months later, in April 2018, all charges against Carlisle were stayed.
“…because Carlisle's own doctor and HIV expert Dr. Brian Conway, who was consulted by Crown, agreed that Carlisle's viral load was "undetectable" and he could not transmit the virus through sexual contact.”
Ignoring that HIV expert during an investigation, whether due to stupidity or malice, is why the BC RCMP laid charges against Carlisle.
Consulting with the exact same expert led the BC Crown prosecutor to conclude there was no way forward to convict Carlisle.
Seems like an ass-backward way to go about investigating a file with a potential 125 year jail sentence for the Canadian involved, no? Shoddy, even?
Before they hit him with bogus sex charges in 2017, Carlisle had been no stranger to courting controversy or clashing with the RCMP.
In January 2003 the Supreme Court forced the RCMP to return marijuana plants and equipment that were taken from Carlisle in June 2001 (I bet they loved that). Carlisle ran a marijuana “church” called the Holy Smoke Healing Centre for two years before it was shut down by RCMP in 2004.
In 2005 the RCMP raided Carlisle’s property for marijuana plants again, so he sued them, again.
The list goes on.
“Carlisle feels as though the impetus for his character assassination was his burgeoning marijuana business in a 2003 Canada – his HIV status was merely the catalyst needed to bring him down. Whether or not there is truth in that belief, he is presently unable to return to the industry in any meaningful way.” -hivadvocates.org
In 2019 Brian Carlisle filed a lawsuit in BC Supreme Court against the RCMP, a number of named officers and the BC attorney general, suing them for negligence and defamation. The claim alleges the RCMP defamed Carlisle and accuses the investigation of being malicious.
That lawsuit remains in front of BC courts today.
In January 2021 one of the officers named in Carlisle’s lawsuit, David Peck, was transferred to Nova Scotia.
The Nova Scotia Search Warrant
As far as I’m aware there are no publication bans around Mackenzie’s Nova Scotia charges. With the exception of any references I make to internal sources, all of this is a matter of public record.
In fact it’s amazing, in my mind, how much of all of this has just been literally right there. The sheer volume of detail that has been published about Mackenzie’s charges is incredible.
So all we’re going to do is revisit what’s already been published.
We’re doing so because we can assume that if not for the Nova Scotia charges, the case for Saskatchewan’s attorney general Bronwyn Eyre to shackle and fly an inmate across the country on lesser charges than the first-degree murderer her colleagues just invited as a VIP into our Legislature and an inmate who’s killed one less person than Saskatchewan’s abomination of a premier…would have been weak.
Mackenzie’s first four Nova Scotia charges were laid on January 26, 2022, the same day RCMP searched Mackenzie’s family’s home. David Peck led the subsequent investigation that resulted him laying nine more weapons-related charges against Mackenzie three months later.
The evidence for those was obtained through this search warrant, later published in its entirety, unredacted by the Halifax Examiner. As you see at the link, the affidavit for the warrant is based entirely on the observations of Cst David Peck, to which he swore after investigating a drunken video of Mackenzie that appeared online on January 10 2022.
Saltwire published an extensive piece on this video, as well as Mackenzie’s Nova Scotia search warrant and seizures on February 15, 2022. That was also the day after the Coutts border arrests and the day before the same reporter and outlet published this piece connecting Mackenzie directly to Coutts by heavily quoting Elizabeth Simons, the definitely not-fictional* deputy director of the Canadian Anti-Hate Network.
*pending confirmation from literally anyone.
Here’s Saltwire on Mackenzie’s Nova Scotia warrant:
“On January 10, 2022, the RCMP became aware of a video posted on social media which showed two males in possession of firearms,” Peck said in the information to obtain a warrant filed in Port Hawkesbury provincial court.
“The person capturing the video, identified as Jeremy MacKenzie, was in possession of what was believed to be an unpinned high-capacity magazine, a prohibited device. The magazine was inserted into a firearm which MacKenzie was handling in a careless manner. MacKenzie’s actions in the video, and by his own admission to police on January 13, 2022, suggested that MacKenzie was intoxicated at the time the video was captured.” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
The Video
The video in question is available online. In it, Mackenzie wasn’t just intoxicated, he was dangerously, disturbingly blackout drunk. He is so wasted that he can’t talk, stand or walk.
As Mackenzie and one other Dude (whose name has been published but I don’t feel comfortable using it) both held handguns up for the camera, Mackenzie takes a shot of whisky. It’s barely down his neck before he vomits violently on the floor.
Now let’s jump to an article published in the Halifax Examiner on August 22, 2022. It was published the day after this Press Progress piece was published on Pierre Poilievre shaking Jeremy Mackenzie’s hand the day before.
“According to an affidavit signed by RCMP Constable David Peck… The other two people in the video were (Dude) and (Dude’s Wife), a couple who own and operate Iron Mountain (cabins). - Halifax Examiner, August 22, 2022
Saltwire shared a bit more information from Peck’s warrant on that relationship.
“(Dude) and MacKenzie appeared to be friends, or at least close associates…The video appeared to have been shot inside a restaurant, Peck said.” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
According to the Saltwire story, Peck contradicted his own observations later in the exact same affidavit.
“(Dude) had never met MacKenzie prior to Jan. 9, 2022, but did follow MacKenzie on social media…MacKenzie was not welcome back at the cabins due to MacKenzie’s behavior and the video becoming public…” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
Huh. So not friends, not close associates and not a restaurant.
That’s a good sign on Peck’s instincts, which he subjectively peppers throughout his affidavit.
“The pistol appeared to have a black high-capacity magazine inserted into it. MacKenzie seemed to be emphasizing the high-capacity magazine by clearly displaying it in the video.” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022.
This means is that the gun Mackenzie was holding had a magazine on it that could hold extra rounds. You can, or could legally buy any size magazine you want, but in Canada you are only allowed to have ten rounds in it at a time, meaning you have to literally put a pin in it.
Don’t take my word for it, take it from Cst David Peck.
“If the high-capacity magazine was limited or pinned to ten rounds, it would not be a prohibited device,” Peck said. “MacKenzie said that he did not know whether the high-capacity magazine seen in the video was pinned or not.” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
So Mackenzie denied knowledge of the mag.
At the time, Mackenzie had two restricted semi-automatic pistols registered to him — a Glock 17 and a Smith & Wesson M&P. (Dude) had seven restricted firearms registered to him, but not a Glock 17. The weapon Mackenzie was waiving (sp) around in the video was a Glock 17.
But Mackenzie’s Glock was registered to his home in Pictou (he lives with his parents on High Street), and he had no authorization to transport the weapon away from his residence.” - Halifax Examiner, August 22, 2022
You can see where the RCMP is going with that: Mackenzie has a registered Glock. The gun in the video may be a Glock, but there no identifying branding or marks visible at all. There certainly aren’t any noted in the warrant.
If it was a Glock and it was Mackenzie’s, however, it would have been a criminal offence because his Glock can’t leave his residence and he clearly wasn’t at home.
Fair enough.
Oddly, in August 2022 the Halifax Examiner excluded some details that were included in Saltwire’s earlier February article. For example
“MacKenzie denied having any knowledge of the firearm he had been holding. MacKenzie told police his Glock and Smith & Wesson M&P were locked up at his parents’ home. He wouldn’t confirm the gun he’s holding in the video is his own… MacKenzie denied transporting any firearms to (Dude’s) location,” Peck said. ” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
As you’ll see in the warrant, in his January interview with RCMP, three days after the video surfaced, Mackenzie denied the allegations.
In fact:
(Dude) told police he “was a firearms instructor and would not do anything to jeopardize his firearms license….
(Dude) told police he owned the firearms seen in the video.” - Saltwire, February 15, 2022
I’m Sorry, What?
Dude is a firearms instructor, but brings out whisky and guns and sits grinning and posing like a goof beside an incredibly intoxicated guest holding one of his firearms.
Dude also admitted to Cst. David Peck that the gun Jeremy was holding in the video was his own.
Remember, the entire basis of the search warrant is Peck’s theory that the Glock in the video is Mackenzie’s and he transported it illegally.
Peck’s reason for dismissing Dude’s confession?
“I believe (Dude) lied to police about owning the firearms because (Dude) does not have a Glock 17 registered to him,” Peck said. -Saltwire, February 15, 2022
What the fuck?
Peck dismissed Dude’s confession because what, there’s no such thing as illegal gun possession in Canada?
Without really explaining why or how, Peck decided that Dude (who Peck said refused to provide a recorded statement) lied to RCMP about owning the gun and therefore the gun must be Mackenzie’s and Mackenzie is lying too.
Police seized Jeremy’s Glock and magazines in their search. He says they were pinned. I guess we’ll find out more at trial.
By the way, I asked Mackenzie why the hell any individual needs to own as many guns as he does (or did, given the RCMP cleaned him out).
His reply was he was looking at doing security contracting overseas, for which he needs his own equipment.
Admittedly, I didn’t think about that.
It is, I’ve been told since by other veterans, a valid and even common vocation for ex-military individuals.
Anyway, it might be this line from Peck’s warrant that blows my mind the most:
“MacKenzie had post-traumatic stress disorder from serving in Afghanistan with the Canadian military,” Peck said. Saltwire, February 15, 2022
The Examiner took it a step further.
“To recap: there is in Nova Scotia a man facing multiple illegal weapons charges who harasses women. And he’s an Afghanistan vet with PTSD.” Halifax Examiner, August 22, 2022
Let’s Pause Here For a Bell Let’s Talk Hot Minute
I understand that law enforcement use mental health and military experience to profile suspects after heinous crimes have been committed, but when TF did it become okay to stigmatize military vets with PTSD as about to commit mass murder?
Are you fucking kidding me?
Despite everything we’ve had drilled into our heads about not stigmatizing mental health challenges, we’re still weaponizing and painfully stereotyping them against Canadian military veterans with no criminal records, who have not had any due process, in <checks watch> 2022… when the RCMP says so?
Got it.
Reminds me of how we used to stigmatize individuals with HIV.
I’m not going to get into the additional nine charges Peck laid three months after that January search and seizure of Mackenzie’s property, because Mackenzie has a lawyer and he can do that.
I Still Don’t Get It Though
Confused about what I was seeing, hearing and reading, which I did even before I read about the recent public inquiry into Nova Scotia RCMP’s shocking incompetency, I emailed out some questions.
I asked the Nova Scotia attorney general for comment on confidence in their ability to prosecute, particularly in light of the allegations currently levelled again the officer whose name is all over the Mackenzie charges.
Here was their response:
When I send an email to an institution like the RCMP, I write it the way I write here. These matters are complex and I don’t believe I should send a five word question to a guy just trying to do his job and then composing a 5000 response carving him and it up publicly.
I also try to be as transparent as possible about why I’m asking the questions, because the RCMP are notoriously awful about releasing information and I think it’s important they’re clear on the context.
Here’s a copy/paste of the questions I asked the Nova Scotia RCMP in an email last week about their confidence in the integrity of their investigation into Mackenzie.
“….why Cst David Peck is conducting any investigations at all, when he is facing extremely public legal action, alongside the RCMP, on public and, frankly, slam dunk allegations of maliciously, deliberately, fraudulently investigating another Canadian? One who just also happens to have a known history of rabble-rousing, public dissent, and non-violent confrontation with authority, including the RCMP?
How does this promote or preserve trust in the public in the RCMP’s integrity?
Does the NS RCMP claim to know more or better than the courts, criminal or civil?
Or is the Nova Scotia RCMP’s position that the outcome of that lawsuit is irrelevant to both Jeremy Mackenzie’s high-profile Nova Scotia charges, which hinge almost entirely on Peck’s investigative work, as well as to the Canadian taxpayer who’s going to have to pay for the damages…”
Here is a copy/paste of their response, which took about three days for them to get back to me:
Okie doke.
I find that response interesting, in light of how many lawsuits the RCMP are currently facing, including an ongoing class action lawsuit filed by victims and family of the Nova Scotia massacre.
The reference to the misconduct process is amazing, because we all know nothing has built public confidence like the RCMP investigating itself.
I mean, the RCMP is suing itself for wrongdoing.
I sent the RCMP’s response back to the Nova Scotia AG’s office for follow-up comment. Unsurprisingly, I didn’t receive one.
So there it is my friends: the facts on Mackenzie’s Nova Scotia charges, extracted from freely available public information, media reports and by asking a couple of my own questions of publicly-funded institutions.
I’m currently in the midst of doing the same for the Saskatchewan charges.
I have sent questions to Bronwyn Eyre’s office asking if she is aware of a number of issues I’ve uncovered related to the Saskatchewan charges. I’ve got an email ready to go to F Division to ask them the same.
I’m also filing criminal harassment charges against the RCMP’s seemingly sole witness to the Saskatchewan charges. That witness went absolutely bonkers, threatening me (I published an excerpt previously) the moment I published my first piece about Mackenzie, which had absolutely nothing to do with the case he is involved in, which was investigated out of the RCMP’s Saskatoon detachment.
When I went in to ask the absolute dickhead of a Sergeant at the Saskatoon detachment what he planned on doing about his boy, his response was a steely,
“He’s not our boy.”
Fuck you he’s not, Sgt. He is now.
That witness is being empowered by those who know better, including the RCMP and others who have also inexplicably gone on the record about being involved with this witness. #attention
In fact, one of this witness’s “handlers”, who just might have credibility at stake here too, actually asked me if I was “doing this” because I hate Scott Moe and want to put Mackenzie on him.
As adorable as that theory is, it’s also called “foreshadowing”.
Remember - these are the people who get you on what you don’t say when they can’t get you on what you did, so watch for that narrative to emerge.
For the record, I don’t need to pin anything on Scott Moe, who already does a beautiful job of giving me more than enough material to work with.
Finally no, darling peanut gallery, this piece does not constitute “meddling” or attempting to interfere in the court process. There are clear issues on the public record and we all have every right to ask them - that’s why I got answers.
All I’ve laid out for you above are facts.
If these facts make you mad at me? Save it. IDGAF.
Enjoy your Sunday,
