Just joined this site and some really good discussion here. Just wanted to add my two cents in regards to the criticism against the RCMP and DV investigations.
Background: I am LEO in Ontario, 10+ years policing experience, have dealt with thousands of DV complaints, done dozens of not hundreds of containment type calls.
Regarding the initial containment situation in the first evening of this tragedy, unless you've ever done containment, it is very difficult and can be unorganized in the best of times. Add to this the fact that these rural, short-staffed RCMP officers had probably not done this before and were sorely lacking in resources. Compound that with the fact that the offender had a marked cruiser with lights etc and would be free to move about in/out of the containment zone. We don't know if he had a scanner or not, but that could have been extremely useful as officers typically state exactly where they are posted during containment so the dispatcher can arrange them all for the best coverage. All in all, it would have been extremely easy for him to slip out while the RCMP was waiting for more officers or resources before tightening the containment in daylight possibly, and triaging victims etc.
As soon as they realized the suspect was not accounted for, they should have released an alert. I also work for a very top heavy organization and know all to well that every decision has to be filtered through many layers of duty officer, supervisor, operations centre, etc before anything can get done, so I highly suspect this to be a management issue and this has no fault with the officers on the ground.
Lastly, with respect to DV investigations, it is very hard for police to act if nothing CRIMINAL has been done. I've been to some houses many times and told partners many times about safety planning, suggestions, taken them to friends houses, etc. Unfortunately, I can never actually do anything meaningful until something terrible happens, ie assault or worse. The laws have improved in Canada from the past, in that the partner does not have to "press charges" and the police must lay a charge if they have grounds, but those grounds have to be for something criminal. Most of these abusers know how to thread that needle and stop just short of breaking the law, and typically these relationships follow the cycle of violence (honeymoon period, abuse, forgiveness, etc)
Hopefully more information is released about this so the affected people have closure, but speculating and depending on rumours and hearsay will get us know where.
