‘Serious commitment’ toward N.S. mass shooting recommendations, says committee

HALIFAX — The head of the committee monitoring how governments and the RCMP are responding to the inquiry into the 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia is reporting some progress on key issues, including gender-based violence.

Myra Freeman, chairwoman of the independent progress monitoring committee, started a Friday news conference by calling attention to the fact that three women in Nova Scotia had been killed by their intimate partners since mid-October.

“Incidents of gender-based violence and intimate partner violence have left our province heartbroken and asking why and how can this keep happening,” she said. “More death. More loss. More families shattered by the epidemic (of violence against women.)”

Domestic violence was a key theme for the public inquiry that investigated the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history, which claimed 22 lives on April 18-19, 2020.

The inquiry, formally known as the Mass Casualty Commission, heard that the killer had a long history domestic abuse. And its final report, released in March 2023, was careful to note that Gabriel Wortman’s rampage through northern and central Nova Scotia started with a brutal assault on his common-law wife. “Gender-based violence is ubiquitous and under-reported in Canada,” the inquiry’s final report said.

“For far too long, we have misperceived mass violence as our greatest threat without considering its relationship to other more pervasive forms of violence. We do so at the expense of public safety and community well-being.”

On Friday, Freeman said the three recent deaths reminded the committee of the importance of its work.

“It underscores why it’s so important that we monitor progress and provide the public with updates,” she said.

Freeman said the committee found that the Nova Scotia and federal governments were making progress on implementing more gender-based violence prevention programs and support services. She also cited progress on implementing a national plan to end gender-based violence.

“The (committee) feels that, overall, steps have been taken to begin the important work of addressing the changes called for in the related recommendations (from the inquiry), but more work needs to be done,” the report says.

The committee said it is also pleased with the Nova Scotia government’s support for transition houses, women’s centres, outreach in rural communities and programming for healthy masculinity.

On another front, the committee’s report highlighted “solidly initiated” changes to the rules regarding access to firearms.

The inquiry heard that the killer owned five firearms — even though he didn’t have a firearms licence — and had smuggled three of those firearms into Canada from the United States.

Citing the work of Public Safety Canada, the progress committee’s report pointed to new licence requirements for firearms owners, increased penalties for firearms smuggling, new “red flag” laws and the prohibition of assault-style firearms as of May 2020.

The committee also said changes to strengthen Nova Scotia’s independent police oversight agency, known as the Serious Incident Response Team, were “largely complete.”

“I am very satisfied by the progress that has been achieved,” Freeman said. “We continue to see serious commitment to address the recommendations and to make change.”

Despite this progress, Freeman confirmed the annual report does not include any assessment of the RCMP’s actions.

“They’ve not been formally assessed,” she said. “But let me assure you that the work they are doing is comprehensive. We are having regular updates at the committee meetings.”

Freeman went on to praise the Mounties for their decision to establish an online “progress hub” that tracks their response to the federal-provincial inquiry.

“Their goal is to be transparent,” Freeman said. “They are strongly committed to ensuring that change is made.”

During the inquiry in Nova Scotia, the commission heard that the killer’s 13-hour rampage started in Portapique, N.S., on the night of April 18, 2020. Disguised as a Mountie and driving a car that looked exactly like an RCMP cruiser, he fatally shot 13 people on the first night, and the next day he killed another nine people, including a pregnant woman and an RCMP officer.

The inquiry’s seven-volume report went so far as to suggest Ottawa should rethink the RCMP’s central role in Canadian policing, and offered withering criticism of the Mounties’ response to the shootings. Its final report found the RCMP missed warning signs about the killer, including reports of domestic violence, his possession of illegal firearms, and his repeated run-ins with the law.

Among other things, it also found the Mounties were poorly organized and failed to promptly send alerts to the public until it was too late for some victims.

The three commissioners who led the investigation were told the RCMP had a history of ignoring reports that call for change. That’s why the commissioners called for creation of the progress committee.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 29, 2024.

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press