Last February 12 began as a poor-weather day in Nova Scotia. The province was pretty well shut down because of an overnight snowstorm. Schools and public buildings were closed in Halifax and Truro. The temperature was hovering around the freezing mark. More snow was forecast. It was not the kind of day to be wandering around, one might think.
That day, a man the Halifax Examiner refers to as GW, a denturist with operations in Dartmouth and across the Angus L. Macdonald bridge in Halifax, was still 66 days away from the night of April 18 when he began a rampage that left 22 Nova Scotians dead and eventually him, too.
Now, four months after the massacre, looking back at the seemingly mundane things that took place on February 12 between GW and the police helps to fuel the growing conjecture about his suspected relationship with them.
“I was off that day when [GW] called,” said Frank magazine editor Andrew Douglas in an interview. “Cliff (Boutilier, an employee) took the call. Cliff said ‘yeah, yeah, we’re interested and took down the information, but he didn’t mention anything to me for 24 hours.”
Frank, the notorious Halifax satirical magazine, is the kind of publication in the pages of which most respectable people hope never to be found. To be “Franked” is not considered to be a good thing by most, yet GW insisted upon it.
The next day, February 13, GW called Frank again. He wanted to know what was happening with his story. GW promised photographs and the names of the Halifax policemen involved in the incident that GW wanted the world to know about.
He said a grey, unmarked police vehicle was illegally parked in the fenced lot beside his denture clinic on Portland Street. When two Halifax police officers, Detective Constable Duane Stanley and Constable Tracy Longpre, showed up, clutching coffees from the Tim Hortons down the street, GW confronted them about their illegally parked vehicle. He took down their names. He had strung a heavy chain across the driveway blocking the police officers from leaving. He even said he asked them for $20, which they refused to give him. He said the police called their office for bolt cutters and before long a small crowd had gathered and more police officers, including Staff-Sgt Tanya Chambers-Spriggs. All things were eventually resolved peacefully and GW allowed the police to take their car.
Numerous photos of the incident and all the details including the name of every Halifax officer at the scene were sent to Frank magazine by e-mail. It wasn’t GW’s e-mail, portapique@live.ca, however, but one belonging to his long-time companion.
“I didn’t realize until after the shootings that it might have been [the girlfriend] taking the pictures or that she was the one sending them to us,” Douglas said.
We don’t know who did what because the girlfriend has not said a word to anyone outside her immediately family and, maybe, police since April 19. We just don’t know anything about her, other than that she might have been the victim of domestic abuse, a story well propagated by both the police and activists against domestic violence.
When he called Boutilier the next day GW told him about something else that had happened to him, the cherry on the cake, as it were, proving the police were hounding him.
Around the time of the confrontation with Halifax police, the weather had cleared up to a degree. GW’s photos show it was mostly sunny, but the meteorologists said there was still a chance of more snow. Rural roads were snow covered with icy patches. It was a bit windy with gusts up to 50 kilometres, particularly around Truro.
In spite of the weather that Wednesday afternoon, GW hopped into one of his three white former police vehicles and took the one-hour long drive to his cottage on Portapique Beach Road, about 20 minutes past Truro. There he said he was stopped by an RCMP officer who gave him a speeding ticket.
On the surface, at least, it certainly appears that GW is truly unlucky or that the police had it in for him. Yet the question remains: what truly innocent person advertises their run-ins with the police? Who wants their name publicized and attached to a speeding ticket for all the world and insurance companies to see?
GW did. But why? Was there a method to his madness?
When GW told Frank Magazine and Cliff Boutilier his story on February 12 and 13*, the big question is: Why Frank? The magazine is deservedly infamous for skewering the powerful and dishing out the hidden secrets of just about anyone. In a perverse way, being Franked is a notorious badge of honour in that the “victim” is at least recognized as being someone worth writing about.
But if GW was hoping to get instant gratification from Frank, that didn’t happen. The magazine didn’t hit the web until February 17 in a rather long story, by Frank standards, with seven accompanying photos sent through GW’s girlfriend’s phone. The paper version of the magazine didn’t come out until Wednesday, March 4.
It all looks merely quirky and innocuous until one factors in the other side of the GW story – suspicions that he had a special relationship with the police – specifically the RCMP and perhaps even the Halifax Police. We don’t know if GW was a confidential informant, a police agent, or whether or not he had some other kind of special status. Policing sources have said they believe he had some kind of relationship, while the RCMP has said it could find no evidence of such a relationship. They didn’t say there was no relationship.
Halifax police have been all but mute about GW in spite of the fact that, as the Halifax Examiner reported months ago, that Chief Dan Kinsella curiously ordered his force not to kill GW but capture him on April 19. GW was shot by a RCMP canine officer just north of Halifax International Airport. The Halifax Police roadblock was set up just south of the airport.
If GW was working with the police, in all likelihood it would have been in an undercover capacity targeting outlaw bikers, in particular, the Hell’s Angels and their support and puppet clubs such as the Red Devils.
If so, we don’t know how and when he was recruited, but it is worth noting that the RCMP in 2018 was virtually advertising for operatives in the legitimate business community, people just like GW, because it was having trouble turning bikers. That well had pretty much run dry.
In July 2018, Global News reporter Natasha Pace reported that RCMP Sgt. Michael Sims was asking for help from the public. “It is tough for us to infiltrate, it is tough for us to get intelligence within these groups but we know there are people out there that can do that and that do that regularly, and we certainly need them to call us and work with us,” Sims told Global News.
The financial opportunities for such an arrangement were potentially spectacular. Biker informants in the past, such as Dany Kane and Sylvain Boulanger, were promised between $2 million and $3 million by the RCMP for successful prosecutions of outlaw biker targets.
GW brought much to the table. Although he had a long, seemingly hidden history of smuggling cigarettes and guns across the border from Maine into New Brunswick, he appeared to be a legitimate, upstanding citizen. He had ready access to the very things that bikers want and need for their illegal drug manufacturing and trafficking operations. Bikers need hydraulic presses and molds to make pills and pack drugs. GW could get them under the radar. They needed drugs to cut with their drugs. GW had access to drugs. They liked nitrous oxide for personal use. No problem for GW.
From GW’s point of view, there was all that money for what looked to be easy work. He was a money pig. He worshipped money. Much of his business, even as a denturist, was in cash, say customers like Dartmouth real estate broker Ed Powers, who had numerous dealings with him. His net worth was in multiples of millions, far more than he had declared as the $1.2 million value of his estate. Whatever downturn in the economy the COVID-19 lockdown might bring, he could easily withstand it. He had cash to burn, literally and figuratively.
By the fall of 2019 things were ratcheting up. Inside the RCMP, Assistant Commissioner Larry Tremblay, the commander of the New Brunswick RCMP, had managed to win an internal battle and took control of all anti-biker operations in the Maritimes. Sources say there was both bad blood inside the force and concern about what was going on, particularly with RCMP informants. The suspicion was that the force was behaving as if one of its key informant’s cover had been blown.
On February 12, the day of GW’s two known and public run-ins with the police, the RCMP was in the process of making arrests of more Hell’s Angels and their associates in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.
The first arrest of an unnamed biker was made on Feb. 17 in New Brunswick, the same day the Frank article was published about GW’s problems with the police. The arrests continued for the next seven weeks, a highlight being a raid on the Red Devil’s compound on Alma Crescent in the Halifax neighbourhood of Fairview. Not much is known about the details of that raid to date, which is unusual. If GW or anyone associated with him was suspected of being the rat, then under the Hell’s Angels code his life expectancy was automatically shortened significantly.
Among the items the police and Crown focused on were the presses they found. Were the bikers getting suspicious? Attempts to find out whether GW had contacted those bikers were rebuffed by the lawyer acting for the Hell’s Angels.
The conjecture in policing circles is that GW’s cover as an operative was blown and that his life was likely in danger.
If that were true, was he trying to buy back his life? On March 30, as reported in Maclean’s magazine, GW mysteriously picked up $475,000 in $100 bills at the Brink’s facility at 19 Illsley Avenue in Dartmouth. The money had been routed there through CIBC Intria, which normally stocks ATM machines and provides bulk currency for other transactions. The RCMP has said it was GW’s money, perhaps as part of an inheritance from an old friend, but the provenance of the money is unknown. Police sources say that if GW actually were a police informant or agent, the money could have been given to him by the police and, technically, at the end of the day it was in his name. The police have provided no clarity.
The final arrests in the Hell’s Angels case in New Brunswick were announced by the RCMP on April 10, eight days before GW’s rampage began.
But let’s return to February 12 and the second run-in with the police that GW advertised through Frank magazine.
As described earlier it was not the best of days. Public buildings were closed and the roads were icy in spots, especially in rural areas like Portapique Beach Road. The gravel road runs from Highway 2 down to the Bay of Fundy. It’s just wide enough for two cars. It is winding in spots and residences say that with the world-record tides rushing in and out twice a day there is plenty of mist and fog and during the winter, especially in February, the road can be treacherous.
Nevertheless, GW was given a speeding ticket that day on Portapique Beach Road by RCMP member Nicholas Andrew Dorrington, who issued it at 5:59 p.m. GW was charged with driving 1-15 kilometres over the speed limit. The fine was $237.50. If he wished to plead not guilty, a court date was set for April 17, 2020 at the Truro courthouse on Prince Street. Accompanying documents show that GW intended to plead not guilty to the charge. Here’s the information about the ticket as relayed to the court:
On its face, the Summary Offence Ticket (SOT) looks normal, but upon closer inspection there are a number of odd things about the ticket. The Examiner provided copies of the court document that details the ticket to a number of current and former police officers as well as other members of the law enforcement community for their analysis.
Catharine Mansley, a former Mountie who worked in Halifax County, said this: “I used to do 250 tickets a month,” Mansley said. “This one was issued for 1-15 over the limit on a rural road at night. First off, 15 over is usually let go. Anything over 15 and you’re playing Russian roulette. Charging someone for 1-15 is typically a reduction from a higher number, but there are no officer’s notes. We don’t know the basis for the charge. We are not told what the speed limit was and how fast he was going. Was the officer using LIDAR (a laser based Light Detection and Radar) or conventional Radar? And the location is kind of suspicious: no Mountie I’ve ever known would be set up on a rural road in the dark enforcing speed. It just doesn’t sound right to me.”
Mansley’s observations were echoed by others who asked not to be named. The general consensus was that the time of the ticket, the location and the lack of supporting information were suspicious. As one put it: “Six o’clock is usually shift change in a rural detachment. Nobody would be doing radar on a dirt road 30 minutes away from the detachment at that time. It just doesn’t happen.”
“If this was a real ticket and was knocked down from a higher speed, why would he be pleading not guilty and fighting it,” one officer said. “Presumably, the issuing officer has notes about what really happened. It doesn’t make sense.”
A former Crown Attorney for Nova Scotia (whom I’ll describe as male) not only examined the ticket but drove to Portapique Road and conducted his own examination of the site.
“It was a Wednesday. Sunset in Portapique on February 12, 2020 was 5:37 p.m. It was about zero degrees,” he said. “The ticket is not clear where the alleged offence occurred. The offence ticket states ‘at or near Portapique Beach, Bible Hill. Portapique Beach and Bible Hill are many kilometres apart. The wording makes no sense. The second point, I assume, refers to Portapique Road but that is not specified in the ticket. Does Portapique Beach refer to Portapique Beach Road or some other road in the Portapique Beach area?”
The former crown attorney said that in three places the ticket should have been signed. There are no signatures, just the name, Dorrington, Nicholas Andrew, and what he called “an informal ID” number 000257715. That number is neither a badge nor regimental number, which in the most police forces is typically required in issuing tickets.
“Also in the SOT in the administrative part is a place for a signature of the officer who purports have delivered the SOT to the defendant,” he noted. “Again there is no signature. Instead again is the number 000257715.”
The former crown attorney also took issue with the court records that are attached to the copy of the ticket obtained by the Examiner. He, too, cited the lack of disclosure.
“I’ve prosecuted more than 1,000 traffic offences over the years,” he said in an interview. “Before it even goes to court, I would have reviewed all the tickets before me and weeded out the ones that were problematic. This one was clearly problematic.”
Later, in writing, he added this: “My thoughts on this ticket are that it is an unusual time of day and in an unusual location. It is poorly written and leaves open a lot of questions.”
“I would have saved the court’s time and thrown this out without even bothering to hear it.”
All of which brings us to the officer who purportedly wrote the ticket: Nicholas Andrew Dorrington.
Trying to get any information out of the RCMP has always been an exercise in futility, but nowadays it has become almost comical. For example, recently I sent the RCMP spokesperson in Nova Scotia, Corporal Jennifer Clarke, an email requesting information about the number on the fake police car that GW was driving during the rampage. The number was 28B11.
Here’s what I wrote: “Jennifer: I have one question only. Is there a detachment in Nova Scotia or New Brunswick that uses the detachment number 28 on its patrol vehicles? If so, which ones might they be?”
She replied: “I assume you are inquiring in relation to the gunman’s vehicle. The car unit number used by the gunman on the mock RCMP vehicle is fictitious, 28B11, has never been displayed on any Nova Scotia RCMP vehicle. Thank you, Jen Clarke.”
I retorted: “That’s not my question. Where is 28 is my question, if such a detachment exists.”
Clarke replied: “That is the only response I can provide.”
The question of who wrote GW’s speeding ticket is important because of the context of the times and the situation. There is legitimate speculation that GW had some kind of special relationship with the police. He was allowed to build a replica police car with a criminal’s help and the RCMP said nothing about it. Numerous complaints were made about him for various things from domestic abuse to threatening behaviour, gun possession and a variety of criminal behaviours and the RCMP did nothing about it. There are curious multiple coincidences including the aforementioned anti-biker raids and arrests who were caught using the various pieces of equipment, such as hydraulic presses, that someone like GW could provide.
I have written in the past about how former and current police officers thought the ticket looked like a typical tactic used to surreptitiously connect with an undercover operator or agent for the purpose either of passing on a message or helping them to embellish or fortify their cover. In this case, they argue, GW may have needed help showing he and the police were at loggerheads and not working together. That might explain two curious run-ins, an hour’s drive apart, on a snowy windy afternoon in February.
A casual observer might think that the best way to deal with this is just find Dorrington and ask him the question about what happened. But that isn’t going to work. One needs to be prepared for all eventualities in matters such as these.
A search of the Internet found no reference to Dorrington as an active RCMP officer. But on the website RCMP Graves a name search pulled up this information for an apparently dead RCMP member named Nicholas Andrew Dorrington. His badge or regimental number was 61881. There is very little information about him other than he spent a little more than five months at Depot, the RCMP training centre in Regina, and was assigned to the “E” Division — British Columbia — on August 31, 2015. We don’t know when he was born or when and how he died. He seems to have a marked grave somewhere. The site says the information about Dorrington’s death came from The Quarterly, the official magazine of the RCMP Veterans’ Association. The Examiner can find no other obituary or death notice for Nicholas Andrew Dorrington.
“This is weird,” said a serving Mountie. “When you are sent to British Columbia, you stay in British Columbia. It’s impossible to get out until your later years, if ever. They need everyone and don’t let go of anyone. If this was the same guy, how did he get to Nova Scotia so fast? And is he really dead? As I said, it’s weird.”
Another source who has been extremely helpful in this case said that a person named Dorrington appeared to be working in the RCMP’s Internal Affairs Unit or ‘Watchdog Unit.’
Others were somewhat flummoxed by that suggestion because it seemed unlikely that such a unit or units would exit in a smaller detachment such as Bible Hill. A Watchdog Unit would certainly be an anti-corruption squad and it seems inconceivable that such a unit would be handing out speeding tickets on a dark, winter night in rural Nova Scotia.
Recently Stephen Maher of Maclean’s magazine and I dropped by the Bible Hill detachment late one afternoon, seeing if we could find Dorrington. I saw the Ford Taurus vehicle he was said to be driving the day the ticket was issued. Its number was 5B11. As we walked across the parking lot in search of a door into the fortress, I meant to take a photo of it. As our backs were turned, it was driven off the lot and disappeared. We asked a Mountie where we could find Dorrington and he told us to go to the front door and use the phone. But at the front door, the sign said the office was closed and was not accepting calls. We were going to give Dorrington a note with the RCMP Graves citation in it. Was the dead Dorrington with the same name his son, a relative or just another unfortunate coincidence? There was nowhere to deliver the letter, so we dropped that idea.
Some would say that the easy thing to do was call the RCMP and ask for Dorrington. As obvious as that might seem, it is vividly logical that if Dorrington did answer our call he would likely not answer any questions about the ticket and what he was doing that night.
Another person gave me what they said was his home phone number. I didn’t call it because I know from experience what happens next. In the past I’ve called police officers at home in controversial situations and later been accused of stalking and harassing police officers. I wasn’t going to let the RCMP have the upper hand there.
So, I did the diplomatic thing and contacted Jennifer Clarke at headquarters and asked her what I believed was a reasonable question in the circumstance.
“Jennifer: Can you confirm the status and the placements of Nicholas Andrew Dorrington on February 12 and now, please. I have two numbers attached to that name: 000257715 and a regimental number – 61881. Are they the same member?”
“I will not be confirming the locations of any members,” Clarke snapped back.
Halifax Examiner editor Tim Bousquet tells me Nicholas Andrew Dorrington and his spouse started a business in Rusagonis, NB in 2000, but appear to have moved to BC at some later point, before moving to the Truro area in later 2018 or early 2019. Nicholas Andrew Dorrington is very much alive.
So why won’t Dorrington say publicly what the Feb. 12 ticket was all about? How is it Dorrington was issuing a traffic ticket on an obscure gravel road in an off-the-beaten path part of the province just at shift change on a crappy, snowy day? And if it really was just a routine traffic ticket, why not tell us that? Even just telling us what he remembers about GW’s demeanour and attitude might be useful. But by saying nothing about the ticket, Dorrington and the RCMP are simply feeding speculation and engendering distrust.
And that’s where we stand. The federal and provincial governments have promised a public inquiry into the Nova Scotia massacres. There are countless questions about what the RCMP did and didn’t do before, during and after the incidents. In the interim three months it and the various governments involved seem to have done everything they can do to obstruct the progress of those trying to dig for answers.
The task is in an onerous one, indeed. The force is unwilling to answer the simplest of questions. Just imagine how well covered the difficult ones are.
* An earlier version of this story misstated GW’s interactions with Frank Magazine.
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Thank you!
Maybe he wasn’t stopped at all. He could use his copy of a fake ticket to “prove” he was in Portapique that night when he was elsewhere. The ticket could have been written anywhere and its vagueness suggests it may not have been written at the scene. The busts were rolling by then I believe and an alibi might have mattered.
Jeffrey: You’re right. It’s all possible. The strangest thing about all this is the most transparent thing is the lack of RCMP and government transparency.
Still pondering how much Wortman could have brought to the biker table. He was a denturist. Sources told Paul Palango: “He had access to hydraulic presses and mold making equipment that can be used in their drug manufacturing operations.” “He also could get drugs that they could use to cut with their own. And he could get nitrous oxide (laughing gas). I hear they like using that stuff at their parties.”
Denturists use hydraulic presses. Can a denture press be used to manufacture pills or do you need a pill press? Seems to me you’d need a pill press?? Denturists take impressions of oral tissues and mouth to create a mold of the mouth which will eventually for the basis of a denture. In watching video of how this is done, don’t see how their equipment could be used to make pills. Seems to me you would need pill molds. Don’t know about NS, but in BC the Pill Press and Related Equipment Control Act restricts the ownership, use, possession, and selling of equipment that has the potential to be used to make illicit drugs. Controlled equipment needs to be registered. If the source meant Wortman could get drugs that bikers could use to cut with their own because he was a denturist, that’s not credible. I talked to Registrar at Denturist Licensing Board of NS. Denturists are not authorized to write prescriptions for drugs, administer drugs, anaesthetic or sedation of any kind, including laughing gas.
Wortman did much “importing” from the United States over the years. That was the suggestion from sources. And he had a professional veneer which could be very helpful in the role. Keep up your investigation. You are doing good work. Maybe you will solve this thing some day and I will buy you a fine bottle of wine for your efforts.
Thanks Paul. I prefer red. ????
Based on what I’ve read, seems Wortman was a drug dealer. A witness told Halifax police that Wortman supplies drugs in Portapique and Economy NS. Perhaps he was supplying drugs in other areas as well, including at his two denture clinics In Halifax. I’m sure many of his denture clients would have wanted to acquire some of what he was “importing.” The same witness told police he had a bag of 10,000 OxyContin and 15,000 dilaudid. What’s the $$$ street value of that? $400,000 ? Wortman supplying drugs might have made the bikers cranky, given that police have said Hells Angels want to eventually control the drug trade in all Maritime provinces. About 20 years ago, Globe and Mail reported that in small towns in Quebec, Hells Angels seized control of the local drug trade by kidnapping independent traffickers and pummelling them with baseball bats.
You may be on the right track but even if you are, why the covering up by the government and authorities? I’m told I am on the right, perhaps parallel, track.
Perhaps a collision. I‘m always leery about sources, anonymous or otherwise. Sources told you that Wortman’s withdrawal of $475,000 from Brink‘s matches the method RCMP uses to send money to CIs and agents. Paul Derry, who had been a CI and an agent over a period of more than 30 years, said he would have refused to go into a Brink’s to collect either payment or flash money used for a drug buy. You’d be open to too many security breaches; security clearance is going to be minimal in comparison to what you’d need for an undercover operation. There were always extensive protocols in place for any money transfer and they always involved multiple RCMP officers, one of whom would give the cash to him directly.
Note all you had to do was go on radio talk show, ask for help re Brink’s withdrawal, next day someone contacted you, told you that actually it was $475,000 and s/he had a tape. You published video tape online. That should make everyone think twice about picking money up at Brink’s!!
Paul Palango wrote: “ A search of the Internet found no reference to Dorrington as an active RCMP officer. But on the website RCMP Graves a name search pulled up this information for an apparently dead RCMP member named Nicholas Andrew Dorrington.” It was not apparent to me that RCMP member named Nicholas Andrew Dorrington is dead, since there was no indication on that RCMP Graves form to suggest that he is dead, or alive for that matter. It took only a few minutes of my time to solve this riddle. Last night I emailed Joe Healy, owner of RCMP Graves website, and asked if Nicholas Andrew Dorrington Reg# 61881 listed in the database is deceased. This morning Joe replied as follows: “ I explain in my website that every RCMP is listed since 1873…the dead and the living. No one is listed deceased until I receive an obituary and a photo of their grave or urn. If his date of death is blank on the page, you can presume he is alive.”
Paul, if you need some help sleuthing, I’m looking for something to do. I’d apply for the job advertised by Sgt. Michael Sims in 2018 Global News article. I.e., informants to infiltrate OMGs to get intelligence within these groups. But I‘m afraid that RCMP or HRPD would blow my cover. Some of them definitely are not the sharpest knives in the drawer, that includes Lucki.
Never be an informant. RCMP would be the last folks you would want to trust with your life, which is essentially what you are laying on the line when you sign up.
Agree fcummings. Even with a “wellness check.” If you weren’t well before, chances are you’ll be dead after.
Having a problem getting my head around all this. So in 2018 Nova Scotia RCMP publicly advertised via media for informants because they’re having a hard time getting info about OMGs. There’s much speculation that GW was an RCMP confidential informant. Some, including journalists, want RCMP to fess up and tell us whether or not GW was a CI. If he was and the RCMP told us he was, wouldn’t that make it difficult for RCMP to recruit informants? I wouldn’t apply for the job, would you? If RCMP reveals identity of a CI, that would obviously put the CI’s life at risk, as well as that of family members of CI, even if the CI is dead. Doesn’t the RCMP have a legal responsibility to protect identity of a CI, unless the CI waives informer privilege?
Public Prosecution Service of Canada policy is that ”informer privilege is a non-discretionary rule which binds the police, Crown and members of the judiciary. Crown counsel cannot waive the privilege without the consent of the informer. Once it is established that the privilege exists, the court is bound to apply the rule.” Informer privilege “applies to both documentary evidence and oral testimony; and in both criminal and civil proceedings. It is not limited to the courtroom. it also protects against revelation of the informer’s identity in public. The privilege protects not only the informer’s name but also any information that might tend to reveal the identity of the informer. Because the identification of informers can be revealed by seemingly innocuous pieces of information, scrupulous care must be taken in protecting from disclosure any information that may disclose their identity. This includes information that tends to narrow the pool of people who have the same characteristics or identifiers as the informer. Thus, Crown counsel must object to questions which narrow the field of possible informers in a way that may disclose indirectly the informer’s identity.” The only exception to informer privilege is “innocence at stake.”
No I am not an RCMP apologist. From where I sit, fars I can see RCMP is a danger to itself and public at large. RCMP should get outta town, waaay outta town.
Mr. Palango, these are the things that popped into my mind as I read your article;
– If GW was an informant, he was most likely one for many years. If all said rings true, it would make sense he was very comfortable with how the relationship between informant/police works. It seems it was an in-depth, personal relationship. Collecting all those replica cars, motor bikes, firearms, properties paid in cash, etc did not happen overnight. Furthermore if the assault from 2001 was fixed that pre-dates him to 2001.
– The timing of the NS/NB drug busts, the incident with HRPD, the speeding ticket, the call to Frank magazine, the withdrawal of cash at Brinks and ultimately the mass shooting is most suspicious. That, followed by having to fight for an inquiry and the Premier stepping down? Then throw in the police historically ignoring GW’s other serious criminal indiscretions. …is this ALL coincidence??? If it were just a few things I would think maybe…but there’s just too much here. Then take into account the RCMP was literally publicly looking for informants…that in itself is odd. It shows how desperate they were for information…the lengths they would go to have a good source. They stooped low, and they let the public down BIG TIME in doing so.
– HRPD and the RCMP are in on this together. There’s a link and that would be presumed as GW lived in, and had properties in both jurisdictions. Besides, RCMP and HRPD are amalgamated.
The February incident with HRPD over their parked police vehicle (an unmarked one at that, to make it look more suspicious) paired with the command from HRPD to take GW alive seems very odd (isn’t that like saying “no matter how many loaded firearms GW points at you, do not shoot him?”). That was the first thing that came to mind when I heard that right after the shooting. Like, how much do you value your officers’ lives? This must be the collateral damage of doing business in the drug-busting field? Nice.
Furthermore I highly doubt that any person is going to throw such a fit they would confiscate a police vehicle just because it’s parked in their driveway? It’s just not plausible that police would so easily allow anyone to take ownership of a government vehicle. And how brazen is GW to do so in the first place? Yes, he was comfortable with how this acting gig worked. It was all for show. As an onlooker it would have appeared that a unmarked police car was surveilling GW, he catches them in the act and would have no part in it! He was not going to stand for this! He hates police and wants nothing to do with them even though he has family members that worked in the RCMP…GW is certainly no Mark Furey! He publicly acts out and then wants it in Frank magazine for ALL to see! He must be an injustice seeker!
He is also a professional with a business that depends on the public. Maybe his secondary job pays more?
Drug-busting is one of the most highly respected, highly revered, prestigious positions one can have on the force if one is successful at it. Investigating domestic violence and sexual assaults is very low on the totem pole in comparison, despite what they may tell you. (Trust me on that. I had my arm sliced open with a knife by an ex and they were too busy “doing up a drug warrant” to assist me. I had to scream at the top of my lungs to get them to do anything to help me. They allowed this guy with a violent past to stalk me, continually harass me, break into my home, etc, and they did NOTHING. They didn’t as much as warn him to stop, even though I reported that he was breaching his court-ordered conditions. This nut should have been charged for every single breach (over 36 charges in total). This is why women get murdered in domestic relationships, because RCMP don’t care. Again, I will point you to Ms. Susan Butlin who was murdered three years ago in this province due to lack of RCMP concern….it’s absolutely DISGRACEFUL how RCMP dealt with her case. Yes, it may seem I am getting off track, but my point is, tax payers expect a higher level of service in this province. The RCMP willingly took on policing the public of Nova Scotia. They swore to protect and serve, yet where is the “protect and serve” part of this agreement???? It didn’t happen in Portapique and it isn’t happening elsewhere. So don’t turn your firearms in just yet, you may need that to defend yourselves in future.
Back to drug busting…If your drug team is successful, you are successful as a manger. You have made a name for yourself in the force. There is no end to the “benefits” a manager can and will take advantage of when he is in this position.That begs the question, how low would they go ethically to get there? I already know the answer, and I hope now the public sees the RCMP for what it truly is. The truth is, it all depends on how large the ego and how self-serving one is.
Now maybe they know why so many good police officers get sick and die.
Another question to ponder…Is it any surprise that RCMP managers get away with so much? Lies, breaking their own rules, protecting one another, targeting employees and piling shit on so thick there’s no getting from under it.
What we have seen here in Portapique, the secrecy, the collateral damage, the lack of ethics, lack of duty to the public and their own employees…this is exactly the BS that ruins good police officers. You either run with the wolves and become one of them to survive, or you become ill and die (whether it’s literally or not).
Ever heard the term “they eat their own”? Sure you have. The good ones signed up because they cared about people, NOT because they cared about their own HUGE, unsatiable ego. The very downfall of the RCMP. The gig is up.
Mr. Cat. Good argument. Solid facts. Well thought out. Maybe you should be lobbying the boss here about a spot on the roster.
Well done! Thanks for this great information. It certainly reflects the way things are, and of course, it’s all true.
The “protect and serve” does actually apply, if you think about the way they look at each other. Hence, the other phrase most often used, “circle the wagons.” This applies if you are a manager looking out for another manager, or manager looking out for an employee that manager is buddies with, then you are treated differently. And this is easy to deal with in the organization, particularly once one understands how the internal investigation process works. Firstly, unlike in public criminal proceedings, you (an employee) are considered guilty until you yourself prove otherwise. Here’s how that works; 1) Who investigates complaints against RCMP members? 2) Who decides whether RCMP members with complaints against them, are guilty? 3) Who handles the complaint if you are found guilty, and not happy with that verdict? All three questions have the same answer, ‘The RCMP.’ Where are the unions in all of this? Well, the recently formed RCMP union are so buried in helping members deal with complaints, it takes forever for them to help you. Buried in paperwork, a favorite government term.
However, there is another way to have a complaint dealt with. Use the old saying, there is power in numbers. When no less than six RCMP officers with rank, complained directly to the Commissioner herself, she listened. This was the case of RCMP members against a Nova Scotia RCMP Chief Superintendent just in the past two years. The result of this was that particular Chief Superintendent was told her name was being withdrawn from the running for the ‘top cop’ job in Nova Scotia. Well, lots of people apply for jobs they don’t get, so that wasn’t really punishment now was it. Right, but she was punished. She was offered a prestigious position as an RCMP international liaison officer representing Canada to the US, in New York City. There, punished. The RCMP way. Move them.
The RCMP need to at least drop the contract policing side, and allow the provinces to form their own provincial police forces. Police agencies who do contract police work have no place in the federal government anyhow. Currently they can easily hide behind the feds topic of the day, ie; behind ‘WE’ or some other surely to happen daily event. Run the police force as a business, rather than the para military government agency that it currently is. Not only hire HR personnel, but allow them to use their skills to properly manage. Sure, they have HR people now, but they are all led by cops with no HR expertise. We need to get rid of the ongoing ability of managers moving across the room, lifting the corner of the rug and saying nothing more than “sweep under here.” By the numbers of complaints and law suits against the RCMP, they have proven over and over again that they are not worthy of the power bestowed on them by the government of this country. To do less would be a total disrespect towards the citizens.
When you enter the lobby of the Nova Scotia RCMP headquarters building, you are greeted with a television screen. Wait a few seconds and the screen will turn to recruitment pages. We are hiring! Tell a friend! Apply yourself if you are not already a ‘member. It is most unfortunate the next screen was never set up to be ‘Honest hardworking Canadians need not apply, we will ruin you.’ I often feel bad for those seemingly stuck there, trying constantly to make themselves believe they are doing the best job they can, part way in to a pension, while trying to turn a blind eye to the goings on at the management level. It truly must be hard to work for an organization that has such a well deserved poor reputation.
Right on all counts. The RCMP is a lot like the Catholic Church: when a member gets in trouble, send them to another diocese. There are lots of them and, as my grandfather used to say: “Whooze a gonna know?”
I like you fcummings. Well said. That’s exactly what it’s like. Had to laugh at your “sweep under here” comment. I wish I had a penny for every time they did that. “Nothing to see here, sir. Move along”.
Lots of territory covered here. And every bit of it is relevant! Susan Butlin would be alive today if the RCMP acted on all the information she provided them to save herself from the killer next door. How many lives would still be here if ugly little GW got shut down for his 10 years more or less death threats, assault on a teen, and domestic violence? Good question, right? I agree, if you own a gun make sure it’s legal and learn how to use it.
They chose their words very carefully when they responded about the idea of him having been an informant. They always do. Had they just come out and said something like “GW was in no way shape or form associated with the RCMP, either current or past.” That would have allowed folks to rest a bit easier. But they ain’t saying that.
Maybe this number 000257715 is a message, or a key.
You would think that there is a simple explanation for that number but, if it were a code the public is not supposed to know about, well….
The obvious obfuscation by governments and the RCMP and Halifax Police is providing a weird kind of transparency, isn’t it?
Perhaps it was a code. According to the rules on signing tickets electronically, “it must contain a unique code, name or number assigned to a person that Identifies that person as the originator of the data entered or attested to by that person.”
Summary Offence Tickets Regulations
https://novascotia.ca/just/regulations/regs/sptickets.htm
Joel, it’s actually called a “HRMIS” number. It identifies an RCMP member in all of their employee databases. I can’t speak for this number itself, but they do begin with zeroes, and they do have a total of 9 letters. This number could well be legit.
“the best p.r. strategy would be to fess up, tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may.”
“Honesty and openness would seem to be the best policy here, but even for the most obvious information the RCMP is throwing up a smokescreen.”
Seriously now, it’s time to sit back, look at history and understand this is the RCMP we are talking about here. “Tell the truth.” Seriously! “Honesty and openness” in the same sentence as “RCMP,” I just can’t imagine that to ever be the case. Oh wait, it wasn’t written by them – ok, now I understand.
There is perhaps another reason for this ticket being issued with multiple mistakes. Which goes together with the reason GW appeared to be going the “not guilty” route. It is riddled with mistakes. So plead not guilty, show up in court and point out the mistakes to the judge. Case dismissed – no problem. So write the ticket, make it look good that he got stopped and written up, then later it’s dismissed. That gets blamed on the officer (well not really because they only catch shit for administrative things, never for actual police work done wrong), and it all goes away. A show of enforcement. Wonder who was in Portapique that day to possibly witness that traffic stop, and the hand over of the speeding ticket? It had to have been putting on a show for someone.
Frank: Witnesses? Maybe there are no witnesses. It has been suggested to me that Wortman never really went to Portapique and that the ticket was generated to give him a convenient story. The only way we’ll know what really happened, perhaps, is to have Officer Dorrington prove he was actually there.
I was thinking ‘witnesses’ would be some of the not so nice people he hung out with, for them to see him getting it from the cops. But, you have a good point in the theory he wasn’t there at all. That’s more plausible actually.
We just don’t know, do we? By any standard for a guy like the shooter that sequence of events is noteworthy. The RCMP calls any speculation based upon what is known about him “a fairy tale” but things like that don’t happen to ordinary citizens ever, especially the broadcasting of it all to the world. It’s worthy of both investigation and comment.
…I couldn’t agree more!!!
Paul, fascinating article. Has the RCMP used names of deceased members in the past when communicating with assets anywhere else?
They didn’t use the name of a deceased member in this case. The article eventually gets the simple fact that Dorrington is alive and in Truro.
But how can we be sure that this person is alive or even real? Nobody has ever actually talked to him according to the reporting above. Also, why would he be listed as dead on the RCMP Graves website? I read it again and that’s the takeaway.
Colin: It’s all weird. Maybe he just booked a grave ahead of time, which suggests he’s a dyed-in-the-wool Mountie. Maybe it’s a relative. Maybe it’s some tactic the RCMP to mask the identity of undercover officers. You would think the RCMP would have nothing to hide over a routine traffic ticket, but as I stated in the article, the force can’t or won’t answer the simplest questions. The public needs to know. Fast.
I’m not sure how reliable the RCMP Graves database is. Just did a few searches of former Members I know that are alive, but show up with entries in the database similar to Dorrington’s. Give it a try, I’m sure there are other active members that show up too.
Duncan: As I said, I’m not sure what it all means, either. It should be easy for the RCMP to explain.
This article raises many good points that the RCMP need to explain. The part about Dorrington being dead is Reddit level conspiracy bullshit and takes away from the valid points. I honestly expect more from the Examiner.
Duncan: If we didn’t raise the RCMP Graves thing, which is out there, then we would be accused of not being thorough. We couldn’t just leave it sitting there for the conspiracy theory people to throw back at us. It was raised and dismissed. That’s the professional way to deal with it in these times. Nevertheless, you have to admit, it is either a curious co-incidence or something for which the RCMP should proffer an explanation.
Duncan, the thing about the name of the officer, don’t count it out just yet….stranger things have happened here and I praise Mr. Palango and the Halifax Examiner for bringing all we know so far to light. I also praise them for uncovering truths and asking the hard questions…that’s just good investigative journalism! If it wasn’t for them, none of this would have been uncovered and people wouldn’t have been so insistent on a public inquiry. I think they have done an excellent job.
I’m a bit confused here.
If Tim confirms Dorrington is alive and lives in Truro why are there paragraphs suggesting he’s dead or works for the Watchdog Unit or no one can find him?
You would think it would be easy to find him and talk to him but he’s like an invisible man. All we’re doing is laying out the information and confusion that exists. You’d think the RCMP would have simple answers, but those don’t exist in this case. Honesty and openness would seem to be the best policy here, but even for the most obvious information the RCMP is throwing up a smokescreen. Geez, can it be that bad?
Paul : The paper work on this speeding ticket is almost as troubling as that around the charge of criminal assault upon a child laid against GW in Dec 2001 and then mysteriously knocked down to a $50 fine.
Tim & the Examiner have put that 2001-2002 paperwork on their public website and the changes in pens and handwriting raises troubling questions as exactly who knocked down the charge.
This is very important because this original criminal assault charge represented the best single chance to stop GW early on : any sort of criminal conviction would have moved even the feckless denturists board to remove his professional license and destroyed his cover as a successful medical professional & businessman.
Readers can still view this paperwork and draw their own conclusions : https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Wortman-Assault-conviction.pdf
One would think, Mike, if the only issues here were minor technical ones, the best p.r. strategy would be to fess up, tell the truth and let the chips fall where they may. That’s not happening here, so you have to wonder what’s really going on.