22 months after mass shooting, N.S. law banning possession of police gear not in effect

It’s been 22 months since a gunman dressed as an RCMP officer in a mock police cruiser shot and killed 22 people and an unborn child in Canada’s worst mass shooting.

However, a Nova Scotia law touted as an extra measure to keep police gear out of the hands of criminals remains without teeth.

The then-Liberal minister of justice tabled the Police Identity Management Act in the provincial legislature in March 2021.

It’s already a crime to impersonate a police officer, but the Police Identity Management Act was intended to make selling, or even possessing, police gear prohibited for most people under provincial law.

At the time, government said it hoped to put the law into effect within the year.

The bill received Royal Assent in April 2021, but hasn’t been enacted by government.

As one of the lawyers representing some of the families whose loved ones died in the tragedy, Sandra McCulloch says both she and her clients are concerned.

“We would be pleased to see this enacted as soon as possible,” she says. “Appreciating that it takes time to make legislation happen, but I think it’s important to bear in mind that we’ve been talking about … What we can do to rectify things, improve things, so that tragedies like what happened in April 2020 can be avoided and not happen again?

“It seems like putting measures in place … it would seem that’s a very quick thing to be acted upon."

The premier at the time was Iain Rankin, who was unavailable for an interview Wednesday.

Instead, Rankin sent a statement which reads, in part:

“Legislation, like the Police Identity Management Act, creates a framework from which regulations are drafted and completed by the relevant department or agency, and an implementation plan is developed,” says Rankin.

“It was our government's determination to proclaim the … Act by the fall 2021. It's now up to the current elected government to finish the process.”

“This is one of those that says it’s to be proclaimed by the Governor in Council at a later date,” says Dalhousie University Professor Emeritus of Law, Wayne MacKay. “Until the act is in effect completely, it has no force.”

Both the Nova Scotia RCMP and Halifax Regional Police confirmed to CTV News the law cannot be enforced or any charges laid until the Police Identity Management Act is proclaimed.

CTV News requested an interview with Progressive Conservative Minister of Justice Brad Johns, but instead received a statement.

“We are currently engaging with our police partners and other stakeholders around various aspects of the legislation,” the statement reads. “Including developing potential regulations, penalties and communications to support its future implementation. A date for proclamation has not been determined as yet.”

Premier Tim Houston did comment on the matter during a media availability over Zoom Wednesday afternoon, stating work still needed to be done before the act could be put into action.

“A lot of times there’s more moving parts,” says Houston. “And actually, what we’ve walked into from the prior government, is that not much of that was done up front.”

But Houston says it’s important legislation.

“We can’t have any situations where any citizen is confused as to whether they are dealing with a legitimate law enforcement officer or not. We can’t have that.”