Ottawa has put a temporary halt to former police vehicle sales in Canada.
Following calls from Nova Scotia’s Premier and Liberal MPs, the federal government has placed a moratorium on sales to the public.
Demand for change re-ignited after an Antigonish man was arrested earlier this month for impersonating an officer.
RCMP say they received calls of someone trying to pull over drivers in what appeared to be an unmarked cruiser throughout Antigonish and the Halifax Regional Municipality.
Yesterday, Premier Stephen McNeil called for the sale of decommissioned police vehicles to be banned, stating this latest incident brings back chilling memories of the Portapique massacre in April.
“This is the second time that we’ve seen someone use a police car,” he said.
“If we’re being pulled over, I’m sure it’s going to go through our minds, ‘is this really a police officer?’”
A retired RCMP cruiser, retrofitted with decals, lights and a push bar, was also used during the shootings in April, which allowed the gunman to move around the province undetected for several hours.
That incident resulted in the deaths of 22 people and has gone down as one of the worst Canadian massacres in history.
In a statement, public Safety minister Bill Blair said federal government and RCMP will take this time to discuss the current policies and changes “That further ensures these vehicles are not improperly outfitted or otherwise misused.”
Nova Scotia’s PC leader Tim Houston said the moratorium is the right move, but a stop to sales should have been done immediately after the Portapique shootings.
He said the province needs to figure out how to better control where these vehicles go and how they are used.
“The bottom line is, we can’t have a situation where there is somebody driving around confusing a citizen and pulling people over,” said Houston.
“There is always going to be bad people that do bad thing, but not let’s make it easy. Let’s mitigate that risk as much as we can.”
As there was no fall sitting of Legislature, he said the province must do whatever they can to deal with this issue and must keep the focus on public safety.
All police vehicle auction listings have been removed from the GC Surplus website as of last night, however several listings remain on public sites like Kijiji or Facebook Marketplace.
Those private sales are still allowed.
