HALIFAX — Canada’s top Mountie is apologizing for the RCMP’s decision to send officers to train in an area of Nova Scotia where residents are preparing to mark the sixth anniversary of the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history.

RCMP Commissioner Mike Duheme sent a letter Thursday to Nova Scotia MP Alana Hirtle saying the exercises caused “harm and trauma” to people living in the Debert area of central Nova Scotia.


The community was one of several locations where a lone gunman fatally shot people during a 13-hour rampage that claimed 22 lives on April 18-19, 2020.

A public inquiry heard that a Halifax-area denture-maker disguised as a Mountie managed to elude police by driving a replica RCMP cruiser.

Gabriel Wortman fatally shot 13 people on the first night in Portapique, N.S., and the next day he killed another nine people, including two women in Debert.

In a statement Hirtle posted online, the Liberal MP said the RCMP’s decision to schedule a large-scale tactical exercises in Debert in the days before the anniversary was “insensitive, tone-deaf and unacceptable.”

“I’ve heard directly from community members about the pain and anxiety that has been caused,” Hirtle’s statement said, adding that the RCMP had decided to end the exercises early to avoid overlapping with the anniversary on Sunday.


This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 17, 2026.

The Canadian Press