OPP investigating leaked Portapique mass shooting 911 call recordings

Nova Scotia’s justice minister and the government of Nova Scotia called in the Ontario Provincial Police to investigate the leak of 911 call recordings from the Portapique, N.S. mass shooting, which were published by Frank magazine. 

Nova Scotia RCMP asked the OPP to open a criminal investigation into the leak shortly after Frank published the recordings. The OPP confirmed in July 2022 that they were investigating, and asked anyone with information about who might have leaked the calls to contact the police. 

On June 2, 2021, Frank Magazine published recordings of 911 calls made by three people during the April 2020 mass shooting in Portapique, N.S, where 22 people were killed by a man driving a replica police car and wearing an RCMP uniform. 

Frank obtained the recordings from a source, whom the magazine has not identified. 

Frank editor Andrew Douglas said the magazine chose to publish the calls because they shed light on what the RCMP knew about the shooter and when. 

In each of the calls, callers told police the shooter was driving a police car, and one mentioned the shooter’s name and profession, Frank reported. It wasn’t until 12 hours after the first call that the RCMP informed the public in a tweet that the killer was driving a police car.

The Mass Casualty Commission, the public inquiry looking into the shooting and the police response, asked Frank to take down the calls and transcripts, reported the Toronto Star. Douglas told the Star he had refused the request. 

The magazine also received letters from lawyers representing families of the victims, demanding that the content be taken down, Douglas told CTV. 

Frank moved the call audio behind its paywall on June 3, 2021. Douglas said the magazine chose to do so “to make at least some of the family members (of the victims) feel a little better about it.”