Automatic reply: RE Lawyers, cops, polticians and journalists etc playig dumb about my calls and emails about Federal and provincial governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass shootings
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 Newsroom<newsroom@globeandmail.com> | Fri, Mar 4, 2022 at 7:18 PM |
| To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.com> | |
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---------- Original message ----------
From: Premier <PREMIER@novascotia.ca>
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2022 23:17:00 +0000
Subject: Thank you for your email
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
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---------- Original message ----------
From: "Higgs, Premier Blaine (PO/CPM)" <Blaine.Higgs@gnb.ca>
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2022 23:18:49 +0000
Subject: RE: RE Lawyers, cops, polticians and journalists etc playig
dumb about my calls and emails about Federal and provincial
governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass
shootings
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
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---------- Original message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Fri, 4 Mar 2022 19:16:50 -0400
Subject: RE Lawyers, cops, polticians and journalists etc playig dumb
about my calls and emails about Federal and provincial governments
plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass shootings
To: Roger.Burrill@
josh@chesterlaw.ca, RPineo@pattersonlaw.ca,
smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca, "Michelle.Boutin"
<Michelle.Boutin@rcmp-grc.gc.
<blaine.higgs@gnb.ca>, "hugh.flemming" <hugh.flemming@gnb.ca>,
"Roger.Brown" <Roger.Brown@fredericton.ca>, "Mark.Blakely"
<Mark.Blakely@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>, "Marco.Mendicino"
<Marco.Mendicino@parl.gc.ca>, "martin.gaudet"
<martin.gaudet@fredericton.ca>
<oldmaison@yahoo.com>, Emily.Hill@
Nick.Carleton@uregina.ca, tara@mdwlaw.ca, mscott@pattersonlaw.ca,
comlaw <comlaw@uottawa.ca>, eratushn@uottawa.ca
Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, "steve.murphy"
<steve.murphy@ctv.ca>, sheilagunnreid <sheilagunnreid@gmail.com>,
Newsroom <Newsroom@globeandmail.com>, PREMIER <PREMIER@gov.ns.ca>,
haley.ryan@cbc.ca
Deja Vu Anyone???
http://davidraymondamos3.
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Federal and provincial governments to hold public inquiry into Nova
Scotia mass shootings
>
> ---------- Original message ----------
> From: "Pineo, Robert" <RPineo@pattersonlaw.ca>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2020 15:25:26 +0000
> Subject: Re: RE Families of Shooting Victims Disappointed by
> “Independent Review” I just called Correct?
> To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
> < smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca>
> Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
>
> Why are you quoting my statement back to me?
>
> Get Outlook for iOS<https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>
> ______________________________
> From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
> Sent: Wednesday, July 29, 2020 9:53 AM
> To: smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca; rpineo@pattersonlaw.ca
> Cc: motomaniac333
> Subject: RE Families of Shooting Victims Disappointed by “Independent
> Review” I just called Correct?
>
> http://www.pattersonlaw.ca/
>
>
>
> ---------- Original message ----------
> From: "McCulloch, Sandra" <smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca>
> Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2020 12:53:30 +0000
> Subject: Automatic reply: RE Families of Shooting Victims Disappointed
> by “Independent Review” I just called Correct?
> To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
>
>
> Thank you for your email. I will be away from my office conducting
> discovery examinations on July 27th through 29th. I will respond to
> your e-mail as soon as possible. Please contact 902.897.2000 if your
> matter requires more urgent
> attention.https://
>
>
> ---------- Original message ----------
> From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
> Date: Wed, 29 Jul 2020 09:53:20 -0300
> Subject: RE Families of Shooting Victims Disappointed by “Independent
> Review” I just called Correct?
> To: smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca, rpineo@pattersonlaw.ca
> Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
>
> http://www.pattersonlaw.ca/
>
>
> Families of Shooting Victims Disappointed by “Independent Review”
>
> The “Independent Review” announced by Ministers Furey and Blair is
> wholly insufficient to meet the objectives of providing full and
> transparent answers to the families and the public, identifying
> deficiencies in responses, and providing meaningful lessons to be
> learned to avoid similar future tragedies.
>
> The choices of commissioners, and in particular Former Chief Justice
> Michael MacDonald, were thoughtful and appropriate for an inquiry.
> Former Chief Justice MacDonald is of the highest rank in judicial
> capabilities and is of unassailable integrity. That said, any
> decision- maker can only render decisions based on the information and
> evidence presented to them.
>
> The announced “independent review” model, to be conducted in a
> so-called “non- traumatic” and “restorative” way, will prejudice the
> panel by restricting the evidence and information being presented.
>
> In a public inquiry setting, such as was employed in the Marshall and
> Westray public inquiries, interested parties had the opportunity to
> question the witnesses. It is a very well- held maxim in our common
> law legal tradition, that cross-examination is the most effective
> truth-finding mechanism available. Without proper and thorough
> questioning, the panel will be left with incomplete and untested
> evidence upon which to base its decision. This is completely contrary
> to our Canadian notions of fair and transparent justice.
>
> Most disappointingly, Ministers Furey and Blair have hidden behind
> their contrived notion of a “trauma-free” process to exclude the full
> participation of the families under the guise of protecting them from
> further trauma. This is not how the families wish to be treated.
> Minister Furey has spoken with the families, so he must know that they
> want to participate, not to be “protected” by an incomplete process.
>
> The families want a full and transparent public inquiry. Why will
> Minister Furey not give them this? Why will he not give the citizens
> of Nova Scotia this? “We are all in this together” has been the slogan
> throughout 2020 - the families simply want us all, the public, to be
> in this together now to figure out a better tomorrow for families and
> the Province.
>
> For further inquiries, please contact:
>
> Robert H. Pineo
> 902-405-8177
> rpineo@pattersonlaw.ca
>
>
> Sandra L. McCulloch
> 902-896-6114
> smcculloch@pattersonlaw.ca
>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 15:11:37 -0400
Subject: Fwd: RE My calls and emails about Federal and provincial
governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass
shootings
To: Dwayne.King@
Ronda.Bessner@
Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 14:32:30 -0300
Subject: RE My calls and emails about Federal and provincial
governments plan to hold public inquiry into Nova Scotia mass
shootings
To: "barbara.massey" <barbara.massey@rcmp-grc.gc.ca
<barb.whitenect@gnb.ca>, "Brenda.Lucki" <Brenda.Lucki@rcmp-grc.gc.ca>,
"hugh.flemming" <hugh.flemming@gnb.ca>, "Bill.Blair"
<Bill.Blair@parl.gc.ca>, jpink@pinklarkin.com, andrew
<andrew@frankmagazine.ca>, andrewjdouglas <andrewjdouglas@gmail.com>,
jesse <jesse@viafoura.com>, jesse <jesse@jessebrown.ca>,
"steve.murphy" <steve.murphy@ctv.ca>,
Joel.Kulmatycki@
Cc: motomaniac333 <motomaniac333@gmail.com>, prmibullrun@gmail.com,
tim <tim@halifaxexaminer.ca>, zane@halifaxexaminer.ca,
media@masscasualtycommission.
https://www.saltwire.com/cape-
N.S. Mass Casualty Commission to announce participants in Portapique probe
Chris Lambie · Posted: April 30, 2021, 4:43 p.m.
Investigators want to hear from anyone who can shed light on the
events of April 18-19, 2020, says the release. “If you or someone you
know wants to get in touch with the investigations team, please
contact Joel.Kulmatycki at 902-394-3501 or
Joel.Kulmatycki@
https://www.saltwire.com/cape-
'I have no idea who to trust anymore': card raises independence
questions about Nova Scotia's Mass Casualty Commission
Chris Lambie · Posted: May 5, 2021, 6:46 p.m.
https://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/
'We have got to have someplace to put our trust': High expectations
for the Mass Casualty Commission
Heidi Petracek 2016
Heidi Petracek
CTV News Atlantic Reporter
Published Friday, June 4, 2021 7:28PM ADT
https://www.canadaland.com/
CANADALAND
#372 The RCMP’s Portapique Narrative Is Falling Apart
Frank Magazine publisher Andrew Douglas and reporter Paul Palango
discuss their bombshell story, and what the RCMP may still be hiding
about Gabriel Wortman.
http://davidraymondamos3.
Wednesday, 29 July 2020
Federal and provincial governments to hold public inquiry into Nova
Scotia mass shootings
https://twitter.com/
David Raymond Amos @DavidRayAmos
Replying to @DavidRayAmos
Methinks lots of folks may enjoy what Peter Mac Issac and his cohorts
said while the RCMP and a lot of LIEbranos were stuttering and
doubletalking bigtime N'esy Pas?
https://davidraymondamos3.
#nbpoli #cdnpoli
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Citizens Rise Against Corruption in Trudeau Government
58,732 views
Streamed live on Jul 27, 2020
Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson
Citizens Rise Against Corruption in Trudeau Government - Peter Mac Issac
----------Origiinal message ----------
From: Peter Mac Isaac <prmibullrun@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jul 2020 21:42:20 -0300
Subject: Re: RE The "Strike back: Demand an inquiry Event." Methinks
it interesting that Martha Paynter is supported by the Pierre Elliott
Trudeau Foundation N'esy Pas?
To: David Amos <david.raymond.amos333@gmail.
A lot of info to chew on - every now and then we win one - Today we
won a partial victory when the provincial liberals threw the federal
liberals under the bus forcing their hand . Now the spin will be to
get a judge they can control.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Police Corruption? Nova Scotia Shooter - Behind The Scenes
86,369 views
Streamed live on Jul 28, 2020
Laura-Lynn Tyler Thompson
Nova Scotia Shooter Behind The Scenes with Paul Palango a former
senior editor at The Globe and Mail and author of three books on the
RCMP, the most recent being Dispersing the Fog, Inside the Secret
World of Ottawa and the RCMP. His work on the Nova Scotia massacre has
been published in MacLeans and the Halifax Examiner.
---------- Original message ----------
From: Timothy Bousquet <tim@halifaxexaminer.ca>
Date: Thu, 30 Jul 2020 05:41:36 -0300
Subject: Re: fea3
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Hello, I’m taking a much-needed vacation and will not be responding to
email until August 4. If this is urgent Halifax Examiner business,
please email zane@halifaxexaminer.ca.
Thanks,
Tim Bousquet
Editor
Halifax Examiner
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Newsroom <newsroom@globeandmail.com>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:43:14 +0000
Subject: Automatic reply: Re My calls today about Federal Court File #
T-1557-15 Need I say that CBC lawyers such as Sylvie Gadoury and
Judith Harvie will need lawyers to argue me in Federal Court?
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for contacting The Globe and Mail.
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Letters to the Editor can be sent to letters@globeandmail.com
This is the correct email address for requests for news coverage and
press releases.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Ministerial Correspondence Unit - Justice Canada <mcu@justice.gc.ca>
Date: Mon, 14 Jun 2021 15:42:21 +0000
Subject: Automatic Reply
To: David Amos <motomaniac333@gmail.com>
Thank you for writing to the Honourable David Lametti, Minister of
Justice and Attorney General of Canada.
Due to the volume of correspondence addressed to the Minister, please
note that there may be a delay in processing your email. Rest assured
that your message will be carefully reviewed.
We do not respond to correspondence that contains offensive language.
-------------------
Merci d'avoir écrit à l'honorable David Lametti, ministre de la
Justice et procureur général du Canada.
En raison du volume de correspondance adressée au ministre, veuillez
prendre note qu'il pourrait y avoir un retard dans le traitement de
votre courriel. Nous tenons à vous assurer que votre message sera lu
avec soin.
Nous ne répondons pas à la correspondance contenant un langage offensant.
http://davidraymondamos3.
Portapique inquiry hears why key RCMP officers need to testify in person
Lawyers for victims' families say public must hear for themselves what happened
The Mass Casualty Commission heard arguments Thursday from lawyers on both sides of the issue of RCMP live testimony as part of its work looking into what happened during the April 2020 massacre.
The National Police Federation, which represents regular and reservist RCMP members below the rank of inspector, has argued the 18 officers being asked to testify by lawyers for the victims' families could be re-traumatized by doing so.
But lawyers for the families have said there are many gaps in the evidence of what happened on April 18-19, 2020, that have to be filled, and testifying about violent crimes is part of an officer's job.
"We are extremely frustrated at the prospect of having to justify seeking facts in a fact-finding process," said Michael Scott of Patterson Law, whose firm represents more than a dozen families.
Michael Scott is a lawyer with Patterson Law, whose firm represents more than a dozen families of Portapique victims. (CBC)
He said lawyers have spoken with their own clients about testifying and almost every one of them is willing to appear before the commission.
"It will be hard, it will be difficult, but they'll do it. Because it's important," said Scott.
"We're not looking to attack officers or subject them to any further trauma — we're looking to have an inquiry."
The commission presented documents this week summarizing what it believes happened in Portapique. They state Gabriel Wortman attacked his longtime partner and proceeded to kill 13 neighbours after she escaped and hid in the woods.
The gunman killed nine more people while disguised as a Mountie the following morning and drove nearly 200 kilometres through rural Nova Scotia, most of it in a decommissioned police cruiser he'd adapted to look like a real one.
An RCMP officer talks with a local resident before escorting
them home at a roadblock in Portapique, N.S., on April 22, 2021.
(Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
Scott said it's especially important to hear from the initial team of three officers, led by Const. Stuart Beselt, who walked into Portapique after encountering a man who'd been shot by the gunman in his mock police car.
For example, Scott said he wants to know more about why Beselt did not directly head to the Blair family's home, where the original 911 call had come from and two people had been shot.
The inquiry heard that these front-line officers may be called on to participate in a witness circle later in the process to share what they experienced, but multiple family lawyers said that is simply not enough.
On its website, the commission describes a witness circle as "a discussion-based format that is used not to determine facts, but to provide important context to understand what happened." A facilitator does not ask direct questions and the witness circle is not a chance to test evidence.
Joshua Bryson, counsel for the family of victims Joy and Peter Bond, said such an exercise would not be the "best use of the commission's time."
Tara Miller, lawyer for relatives of Kristen Beaton and Aaron Tuck, said the inquiry can be creative in how it supports RCMP officers as they testify in a way that is trauma-informed, but still allows for sworn, live testimony.
"How does one have an inquiry with a mandate to inquire into what happened and make findings of fact on the responses of the RCMP officers without hearing from a single officer under oath about what happened?" Miller said.
Other lawyers pointed out they'd like to know why Cobequid Court in the south area of Portapique, where other victims were, was never examined by RCMP until more than 12 hours later.
Nasha Nijhawan, lawyer for the police union, said Thursday there are only a few specific circumstances where the inquiry can subpoena officers to testify. Those include a gap or conflict in evidence, or an area where necessary context is missing.
She said the gaps identified by family lawyers Thursday are already in the evidence from 911 calls, radio logs, and interviews with police and commission investigators.
But Ed Ratushny, professor emeritus in the faculty of law at the University of Ottawa, said the live testimony segments of public inquiries are fundamental to the process. However, he said they can be sometimes overlooked by "people who are trying to do the right thing."
While Ratushny said he sympathizes with the officers who responded to the events in Portapique, police often have to investigate traumatic incidents like sexual assaults and the murder of children, and then testify before a jury.
"In this particular situation, I believe that it is equally important that they do the same — not to a jury in a criminal case, but to the public in this horrible, terrible thing that has happened to this part of our country," said Ratushny, who has also worked with inquiries as legal counsel and is the author of The Conduct of Public Inquiries: Law, Policy, and Practice.
"This is all about what the police officers were doing that particular night; it's a very important aspect of this. And I believe the public should see them and hear them."
A memorial at a Nova Scotia church grew in the months after the mass killing that began in Portapique, N.S. (Robert Short/CBC)
Ratushny pointed to comments by Peter Cory, a former Supreme Court of Canada justice, regarding the Westray tragedy.
Governments and policing organizations like the RCMP prefer to have their business confidential, Ratushny said, which is often necessary. But, he said the whole point of a public inquiry is to restore faith in the institutions that have failed in some way.
Nijhawan had also proposed entering an expert report from a psychologist on what requiring live testimony might mean for RCMP officers.
However, commissioner Michael MacDonald said Thursday that the report would not be necessary for their decision.
The inquiry does not sit on Fridays. The commission will reconvene Monday when lawyers will continue arguments on why certain RCMP officers should be allowed to testify.
Police union says inquiry should not call on front-line RCMP officers involved in Portapique
Union lawyer says expert report will show Mounties could be re-traumatized when testifying
Nasha Nijhawan, a lawyer with the National Police Federation, told the Mass Casualty Commission there's a real risk the 18 officers being asked to testify by lawyers for the victims' families could be re-traumatized by testifying.
"Of course it would be best if everybody could explain in their own first-person voice what they experienced, but at what cost?" Nijhawan said Wednesday.
A lawyer for the commission said last week that senior RCMP officers will be called as witnesses, but Emily Hill did not confirm specific names. The inquiry has not released a witness list for the weeks ahead.
Lee Bergerman, who was the commanding officer of the Nova Scotia RCMP in April 2020, has since retired and the commission previously said that would not impact her ability to testify.
Debate over expert's qualifications
The federation represents regular and reservist RCMP members below the rank of inspector.
Nijhawan said the union planned to enter two pieces of evidence to support its argument.
On Thursday morning the commission heard about the qualifications of Nick Carlton, a professor at the University of Regina and a registered doctoral clinical psychologist in Saskatchewan. He is also the scientific director of the Canadian Institute for Public Safety Research and Treatment.
The union hoped to introduce one of his reports as evidence. Lawyers for the families would have the opportunity to ask him questions about his work and research.
Nasha Nijhawan is a lawyer representing the National Police Federation. (CBC)
Nijhawan said Carlton's report provides necessary information about the potential impact of the original events on the RCMP officers, how they may be dealing with the fallout of that trauma, and what requiring live testimony might mean for them.
But after hearing the submissions, Chief Commission Michael MacDonald said Carlton's research was not needed to determine whether individual officers should be called.
The Mass Casualty Commission presented documents this week summarizing what it believes happened in Portapique. They state Gabriel Wortman attacked his longtime partner and proceeded to kill 13 neighbours after she escaped and hid in the woods.
The gunman killed nine more people while disguised as a Mountie the following morning and drove nearly 200 kilometres through rural Nova Scotia, most of it in a decommissioned police cruiser he'd adapted to look like a real one.
Officers interviewed by RCMP, commission
The inquiry already has access to a great deal of evidence from the officers who responded, Nijhawan said, including 911 calls, radio logs, and interviews with police and commission investigators.
The union is very aware its members want to serve the inquiry as much as they can, Nijhawan said.
"In fact, they wish so much to be helpful that they may be willing to extend themselves beyond what is appropriate for their own wellness," she said.
"It would be our submission that you should not ask them to do too much."
The union is also looking to table results from an internal union survey of the members who have been engaged in the commission interview process over the past several months.
Nijhawan said this report will show the "actual impact" of Portapique on the RCMP members who responded, and make clear the "potential re-traumatization" of officers by going through the inquiry's process.
On Thursday, lawyers representing families began giving submissions on why individual officers should be called, specifically Const. Stuart Beselt and Const. Vicki Colford.
Beselt was the first officer on scene and spoke to a gunshot victim shortly after he pulled into Portapique. Colford spoke to the man's wife about a back exit from the community.
The commission said they had no plans to call Beselt and Colford as witnesses to clarify any gaps in evidence in the portion of the inquiry devoted to determining what happened, but had planned to include them later in a witness circle about policing.
Tara Miller, who represents relatives of victims Aaron Tuck and Kristen Beaton, said sworn evidence and being able to test it is the "core foundation of our legal system," and that includes hearing from first responders under oath.
"How does one have an inquiry with a mandate to inquire into what happened and make findings of fact on the responses of the RCMP officers, without hearing from a single officer?" she said.
Joshua Bryson, counsel for the family of victims Joy and Peter Bond, had a similar take on Wednesday. He said police have a very difficult job, but part of that job requires testifying about violent crimes in court.
"In our view, it acts as a bar for this commission to fulfil its mandate, which is to understand what happened," Bryson said.
Banning officers would see public lose faith: lawyer
Rob Pineo of Patterson Law, whose firm represents most of the other families, said the ability to call RCMP officers should be taken on an individual basis.
The commission can consider their medical records and evidence before deciding on the best way to support them in testifying, Pineo said, arguing that an overall ban is not in the public interest.
"I'm not sure that there would be a lot of faith in the ultimate findings and recommendations of this commission if a blanket expert report was used to block critical evidence," Pineo said.
On Wednesday, lawyers representing the victims' families also argued that Lisa Banfield, the gunman's spouse, must be a witness in the inquiry. The commission has based its preliminary findings on lengthy interviews Banfield gave to the RCMP.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
With files from Elizabeth McMillan
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/portapique-rcmp-response-radio-logs-1.6368886
Frantic radio logs reveal confusion, fear as Mounties responded to N.S. shootings
WARNING: This story contains distressing details
When the first RCMP officer arrived in Portapique, N.S, he encountered a man bleeding from a head wound who said he had been shot by his neighbour, "Gabe," who was driving what looked like a police car. At that moment, the shooter was less than 200 metres away.
Const. Stuart Beselt and the two other officers who were first to arrive on scene late on April 18, 2020, knew their suspect had shot at numerous people and feared he could be lurking in the darkness of heavily wooded lots. They decided to approach on foot.
The details of the chaotic scene that the three Mounties encountered at the beginning of a 13-hour rampage during which Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people, including a pregnant woman, are included in a document put together by the Mass Casualty Commission examining the tragedy.
At one point, the officers thought they were on the verge of catching their suspect and prepared to shoot, only to realize hours later that the flashlight they saw disappearing into darkness was a frightened man horrified by finding his brother's body. He, too, thought he was being pursued by the gunman.
Audio of radio transmissions played during a public hearing Tuesday reflect out-of-breath officers frantically trying to communicate they were hearing gunfire or explosions, impaired by the darkness that was only broken by flames from multiple fires.
All three officers — the only ones to enter the subdivision for 90 minutes — had already changed into their hard body armour and had their carbines ready. They decided to leave their police cruisers about 170 metres from the entrance where Portapique Beach Road connects to Highway 2, a quiet two-lane rural road along the Minas Basin.
Const. Aaron Patton, who was sprinting down Portapique Beach Road to meet Beselt and Const. Adam Merchant, the first two officers on scene, radioed at 10:40 p.m.:
"Lots of gunshots in here. Three gunshots… two more gunshots," said Patton
Beselt confirmed they were "hearing numerous gunshots" and warned:
"Patton, be very careful to avoid bringing your car down here to avoid ambush."
'Officers die in their cars'
Beselt, with 24 years experience, was the acting team leader that evening, according to the Mass Casualty Commission, which has conducted its own interviews with the officers and reviewed statements they made to RCMP days after the shootings.
Beselt told the commission that he had no doubts it was an active shooter situation. He said a crucial lesson learned after a gunman killed three RCMP officers and injured two others in Moncton in 2014 was that cruisers could be "billboards" that could draw fire.
"Police officers die in their cars," he said, adding that the only way to get any advantage was to move "stealthily" on foot.
"I think it kept me alive, to be honest with you," Beselt said.
An
aerial map of Portapique from May 2020 with street names added by the
Mass Casualty Commission. Officers went down Portapique Beach Road on
foot while other Mounties created a checkpoint at the intersection with
Highway 2. (Mass Casualty Commission)
Roger Burrill, the senior lawyer presenting the commission's report Tuesday afternoon, said not driving "was a clear tactical decision" informed by officers' training.
"Clearly it would've been a slower process but as Const. Beselt says, in order to respond to the complaint, you have to be alive in order to do that," said Burrill.
"I would submit this was a very intense situation."
Multiple fires
After the three officers connected on Portapique Beach Road, they passed the gunman's burning cottage and noticed a white Taurus — not yet on fire — in the driveway. But Beselt said on the radio they weren't stopping because they heard gunshots in another direction.
The commission says at that point, the trio headed through the woods toward the gunfire, which turned out to be the gunman's garage, also in flames. Beselt reported that "things are blowing up or they're shooting. I'm not sure."
Burrill said the constable's tone gave a "sense of the urgency and the lack of information the officers have… you hear the tension. You hear the uncertainty."
Bullet holes in Greg and Jamie Blair's home were still visible in the fall of 2020. (Steve Lawrence/CBC)
Not far from the burning garage the officers soon discovered the bodies later identified as Corrie Ellison, who'd gone out to get a closer look at the fire, and Lisa McCully, who was killed on her front lawn.
Meanwhile, the RCMP's Operational Communications Centre was sending them updates from four kids that were hiding together in McCully's home.
The closest the three officers came to firing occurred when they saw a flashlight approaching and assumed it was the gunman. They got into position and warned colleagues they were ready to shoot but the light disappeared before anyone fired, according to the radio logs.
"We saw somebody with a flashlight that went dark. We have no idea where he went. We're going to go back to the red house, we're going to set up there to make sure those children are safe, unless we hear more gunfire, we're sitting still," Beselt reported back.
They later realized the person with the flashlight was Clinton Ellison, who was terrified after seeing his brother's body and thought the gunman was chasing him.
Question about 'emergency broadcast'
But the calls didn't stop. About 45 minutes after arriving in Portapique, Beselt, Patton and Merchant thought they heard more gunfire and were sent to help a woman who called 911 because she thought her house was about to catch fire.
Beselt asked on the radio about the possibility of warning people still in their homes.
"Is there some sort of emergency broadcast we can make that make people go into their basement and not go outside?" he asked at 11:16 p.m.
Staff Sgt. Brian Rehill, the risk manager who was in charge of directing officers, replied that the RCMP Operational Communication Centre was trying to contact residents using a 911 map.
This
tweet, posted at 11:32 p.m. AT was the only public communication Nova
Scotia RCMP issued about the mass shooting on April 18, 2020. The next
update wouldn't be until the following morning. (CBC)
At 11:32 p.m., the Nova Scotia RCMP sent out their first and only public communication on April 18, 2020 about the situation via Twitter. The written post stated that officers were responding to a firearms complaint in Portapique, asking people to lock doors and stay inside.
It's not clear from the commission documents released to date if Beselt's comment had any bearing on the decision to send the tweet
Many concerns about ambush
The three Mounties that first entered the community were not the only ones on guard for an ambush. At the intersection of Portapique Beach Road and Highway 2, Const. Vicki Colford and Cpl. Natasha Jamieson, the fourth and sixth officers on scene, were trying to provide each other with cover — Colford with a shotgun and Jamieson with her service pistol — as they waited at the entrance and checked cars leaving the community.
Colford, who RCMP interviewed on April 23, 2020, said she was on edge hearing sounds from the nearby woods and felt like they were an easy target.
RCMP
officers were stationed at the intersection of Highway 2 and Portapique
Beach Road on April 18, 2020 and in the days that followed. (Jonathan Villeneuve/Radio-Canada)
At one point, Cpl. Dion Sutton, a police dog handler, arrived and retreated to the woods to provide the pair with cover. Unlike the female officers, he had night vision goggles, something Colford said would have been helpful.
Neither Jamieson or Colford were trained to use a carbine rifle, another recommendation that came in the wake of the Moncton shootings. Jamieson later said in an interview with the commission that was no fault of the RCMP as she'd had to postpone training due to a surgery. Colford has since retired.
Hoped gunman was dead
Many of the officers who arrived on scene Saturday evening were relieved of their duties early Sunday morning.
After the four children in McCully's house were driven to safety, the first three officers on scene stayed in the house and were eventually picked up by the Emergency Response Team in its tactical vehicle.
When Patton spoke to RCMP a few days later, he said he debriefed at the makeshift command post at the Great Village Fire Hall and drove home with Beselt. They talked about how the gunman was likely dead in the woods.
It was only when he woke up and called a colleague that he realized how wrong that assumption was. The shooter killed nine more people on Sunday morning, most of them strangers.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Rural realities, Moncton shooting played into early police response in Portapique: expert
Criminologist says the few officers had to do what they thought best in chaotic scene
A policing expert says the stark reality of understaffed police forces in rural communities, combined with the "frenetic and unprecedented" first hours of the Portapique killings, were major contributing factors in the reactions of the first officers on the ground.
Michael Arntfield, a professor and criminologist at Western University, weighed in on police movements and response for the night of April 18 and the early hours of April 19, as outlined in a document released by the Mass Casualty Commission on Monday.
The document examines the April 2020 rampage by a man disguised as a Mountie that left 22 people dead, injured others and traumatized many more people in rural Nova Scotia.
The document includes statements and descriptions of conversations between various witnesses and 911 dispatchers and police. It also contains excerpts from 911 transcripts of calls from four children who reported gunshots, saw the shooter driving outside and heard footsteps in the house during a harrowing two hours when they hid and relayed information to dispatchers about the man who killed their parents.
Criminologist
Michael Arntfield says the handful of officers on the ground in the
first hours of the Portapique killings had to make their own decisions
in many situations, including what was best for children hiding in a
home. (CBC)
Arntfield said while there likely will be plenty of "quarterbacking" from the public around how four children were left in a house for two hours, a decision had to be made on the fly.
"I think this really underscores just how frenetic and unprecedented this situation was," Arntfield said Monday.
Tyler Blair, the older brother of two of the children, has questioned why it took so long to get the kids to safety. Arntfield agreed that questions will rightfully arise about what other safeguards should have been put in place.
The three RCMP officers who entered the subdivision on foot did check on them three times — urging them to stay in the basement and only open the door to someone with the safeword "pineapple."
While this "loose" surveillance of the children was not perfect, Arntfield said it might have been all that was possible with only three officers in the area.
"Are you going to walk the children with an active shooter through the woods to a car?" Arntfield said.
"I mean, it's not an ideal situation, but they're comparatively safe where they are."
The document describes how RCMP Const. Chris Grund arrived later and struggled waiting for the go-ahead to help the children. His decision to eventually walk in, rather than taking a cruiser, was partially motivated by his recollection of how RCMP vehicles had been targets in the 2014 Moncton shootings.
Arntfield said it's clear that all RCMP officers on the ground that night would have been very familiar with the Moncton shootings in which three officers were killed and two wounded in ambush situations.
That would have factored into their tactical decisions to stay concealed and not drive a vehicle where they could be picked off. Arntfield said there may not be an operational plan to do so, but these are decisions made at the discretion of each officer.
More officers requested
Over those two hours, the officers also kept getting called away as more fires and explosions were reported and they were asked to clear other scenes.
Grund asked the risk manager working at the RCMP operational communications centre twice if another team should go in to help out, given that several officers arrived and were stationed at the entrance to the small community. But Sgt. Andy O'Brien said he was worried about sending in a second team if there was a possibility they'd be caught in crossfire.
Arntfield said the personnel challenges of the early hours — having only three officers on the scene — highlight the difference between policing in cities and rural parts of the country, to which "your average citizen is completely oblivious."
No matter the province or territory, Arntfield said there is just no police infrastructure comparable to major cities. In rural areas, they have to essentially "poach" officers from one county or unit to another, just to maintain adequacy standards.
Commission not here to 'point fingers'
In a press conference with reporters Monday afternoon, the commission team members said they're aware emerging details will bring up more questions for the public and victims' families about what happened.
"The commission's role is not to lay blame or to point fingers, but to look at what are the facts and what can we learn from them, and what recommendations can we make to keep people safer in the future," said senior commission counsel Emily Hill.
This is only the "very beginning" of that process, Hill said, so the work this week is about building a common foundation of facts. Then, other conversations can be had about why and how decisions were made, and what can be learned.
Risk managers act as 'ad hoc' incident commanders: expert
The inquiry heard more about the role of risk manager through a presentation Tuesday by technical witness Darryl Macdonald.
Macdonald works with the Operational Communications Centre commander in P.E.I., and is familiar with the centre in Truro where dispatchers handled calls for Portapique and co-ordinated with the RCMP, fire and Emergency Health Services.
Risk managers are police officers at the staff-sergeant level working in the Truro centre but in a separate room from dispatchers, Macdonald said. They provide help to officers on the road and are trained to be an "ad hoc incident commander" for any significant incident that's underway until one can be sent to the scene.
If there's a resource that's needed, such as a dog handler or backup from another unit, the risk manager co-ordinates with the dispatcher to authorize that, he said.
With files from Kayla Hounsell
‘It’s not a police officer’: Portapique inquiry’s timeline shows how bloody night unfolded
The government inquiry into the worst mass killing in Canadian history has revealed its timeline of gunman Gabriel Wortman’s first spate of murders — and shows several witnesses informing police of the killer’s fake RCMP car.
Warning: this story contains graphic material.
HALIFAX—It began with an anniversary, and then an assault.
And then, in a stretch of about 45 minutes on the night of April 18, 2020, 13 lives were lost — the start of the worst mass killing in Canadian history.
By the time it ended, 13 hours later, another nine lives would be taken in northern Nova Scotia before police gunned down the killer in a gas station nearly 100 kilometres away.
Police knew that night the killer was using a replica police car — one of the first victims warned officers before being killed in front of her children — yet it took 10 hours to warn the public.
On Monday, the third day of the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) inquiry into the mass killing, commission counsel Roger Burrill laid out the results of the MCC investigation into the events that night in Portapique.
What follows is a timeline of those events, as near as can be reconstructed from witness testimony, 911 transcripts, forensic reports, police records and other evidence.
The picture that emerges is of a ruthless gunman, killing without hesitation, taking those 13 lives and then disappearing into the dark just as police begin to arrive. That last fact raises one of the most significant questions hanging over the inquiry.
By 10:30 p.m. on April 18, at least six police — three 911 operators and three RCMP officers — had been given, by at least four different people, the perpetrator’s name and the fact that he was driving a replica RCMP car. It wasn’t until 8 a.m. the next day that the Mounties shared that information with the public — and when they did, it was on the force’s Twitter feed, rather than the provincial emergency alert system.
Why?
That’s the question Nick Beaton would most like to have answered. He’s the widower of Kristen Beaton, and the father of the unborn child she was carrying when Gabriel Wortman shot and killed her in her car on April 19.
Beaton has repeatedly said that, had he known the gunman was driving a replica RCMP car, he would never have let his wife leave the house that Sunday.
That information might also have saved the life of Heather O’Brien; she and Beaton were both shot dead in their cars on Plains Road in Debert. It might also have saved Lillian Hyslop, who was gunned down on the side of Highway 4 in Wentworth during her daily walk.
Jamie Blair told a 911 operator about the car shortly before she was killed on April 18. Minutes later, her son told another 911 operator that the killer was in a police car. Andrew MacDonald, who was wounded by Wortman, told a 911 operator and at least two RCMP officers on the scene about the cop car. MacDonald’s wife gave the same detail to an RCMP sergeant over the phone.
Yet it was not until Lisa Banfield, the killer’s common-law wife, told police the same thing at some point after 6:30 the next morning that the wheels started to turn.
Before 10 p.m.
Wortman and Banfield are celebrating their 19th anniversary with drinks in the evening at his warehouse at 136 Orchard Beach Dr. in Portapique. The exact timing of the subsequent events is uncertain, but before 10 p.m., Wortman assaults Banfield, sets his home at 200 Portapique Beach Rd. on fire, then does the same to the warehouse.
Banfield, whom Wortman locked in the back of the replica RCMP car in the warehouse, manages to escape and runs into the woods surrounding the warehouse, where she will hide until the morning.
About 10:00 to 10:05 p.m.
Wortman goes to the house of the Blair family, across the street from and slightly north of his warehouse. There he shoots Greg Blair on his front deck.
Jamie Blair calls 911 at 10:01 and says that Greg has been shot, that the gunman was her neighbour Gabriel and that he’s driving a police car.
“My neighbour … I think he just shot my husband … he’s lying on the deck … there’s a police car in the f---ing driveway.
“There’s an RCMP … it’s decked and labelled RCMP … (inaudible) … but it’s not a police officer,” she says.
Still on the phone with 911, she hides her two children in her bedroom, out of sight between the bed and the wall, and barricades the door with her body.
The gunman enters the house, shoots the family’s cat and dog, then shoots Jamie Blair multiple times through the bedroom door. When she falls to the floor, he opens the door and shoots her again, fatally. He apparently does not see the children in their hiding place.
He leaves the house, but not before attempting to set it on fire — turning the gas on and pulling logs out of the fire onto the floor.
The children flee, running over to Lisa McCully’s house next door, where McCully’s children let them in. The children call 911 and will stay on the phone with the operator for the next two hours.
About 10:05 to 10:20 p.m.
The sequence of events is again uncertain here.
In this period the gunman kills Jolene Oliver, Aaron Tuck and Emily Tuck in one house, Peter and Joy Bond in another house 60 metres away, and Lisa McCully outside her home next to the Blairs’.
In the most plausible scenario, according to the MCC investigation, the gunman drives about 900 metres to Cobequid Court, at the southern foot of Orchard Beach Drive, and there kills the Tuck family and the Bond family, though in what order is unclear.
Peter Bond is shot in the doorway of his house; Joy Bond’s body was found in the living room. Their television was on.
Aaron Tuck’s body was also found in the doorway of his house. The bodies of Jolene Oliver and Emily Tuck were found just down the hallway. Their television was on, too.
It’s possible that the gunman killed McCully outside her house — across the road from the gunman’s now-blazing warehouse — before he drove down to Cobequid Court. However, based on data obtained from her cellphone, it’s more plausible that he encounters McCully between 10:13 p.m. and 10:15 p.m. after returning from the Cobequid Court killings and shoots her on the road in front of her house.
Inside the house, her children and the Blairs’ children are on the phone with 911, telling the operator that the gunman is their neighbour Gabriel and that he’s driving a replica police car.
The 911 operator asks the Blairs’ son to confirm that.
“Yes, it was,” he says. “Just like the, um, the — like a police car.”
Later the operator asks, “Did it have lights stuff on it, or?”
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2022/02/28/its-not-a-police-officer-portapique-inquirys-timeline-shows-how-bloody-night-unfolded/portapique_aerial.jpg)
“Yeah and it — and it has the cop symbol on it, like, and he owns a cop car … He owns like seven Ford, like, white Ford cars. They’re all identical,” says the boy.
They tell 911 that McCully left the house and that she hasn’t come back.
About 10:20 to 10:28 p.m.
The gunman heads further north on Orchard Beach Drive, parks his car in the U-shaped driveway of Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn. It seems likely, based on available information, that he shoots them and then sets the house on fire. It burns to the ground.
Meanwhile, Andrew and Kate MacDonald are driving south on the same road, with Andrew in the driver’s seat. From their home further north on Portapique Beach Road, they have seen the glow of the warehouse fire, and are going to investigate.
As they pass the Gulenchyns’ house, they see the replica RCMP car in the driveway. Reaching the gunman’s blazing warehouse, Andrew calls 911 at 10:25 p.m. to report it.
As he talks to 911, Andrew turns the car around and heads north. As they again pass the Gulenchyns’ house, they can see flames inside. Andrew reports the second fire to 911 and tells the operator that there’s a police car in the Gulenchyns’ driveway.
The gunman, back in the replica car, spots the MacDonalds’ car and begins to drive toward them.
“He’s coming around,” says MacDonald to the 911 operator. “I don’t know if he’s going to talk to me or what.”
The police car pulls up alongside the MacDonalds, its front passenger door about two feet from Andrew’s driver-side door. He points a gun equipped with a laser sight through the window, and at 10:27 p.m. fires two shots; one hits Andrew in the shoulder, the other grazes his head.
“It’s our neighbour, Gabe. He just shot me in the arm!” he says to the operator.
MacDonald stomps on the gas and his car races north, with the gunman’s car in pursuit. Further up, where Orchard Beach intersects with Portapique Beach Road, MacDonald bears right, heading for Highway 2.
The gunman gives up pursuit, instead turning left on Portapique Beach Road.
“It’s not a cop. It’s not the cops,” Kate MacDonald tells the 911 operator. “It was somebody else.”
Before they reach the highway, the MacDonalds come across two Mountie constables who have just arrived on the scene, Stuart Beselt and Aaron Patton. Andrew knows Beselt personally, and stops to tell them what’s happened.
He tells both officers that he was shot by his neighbour Gabe, and that he is driving a replica police car.
Kate, meanwhile, has been transferred by 911 to the RCMP risk manager, Staff Sgt. Brian Rehill. She confirms the detail about the replica car and the shooter’s name.
About 10:28 to 10:39 p.m.
While the evidence is somewhat circumstantial, it appears plausible that the killer turns his replica RCMP car south down Portapique Beach Road, past his own burning house, to that of Joanne Thomas and John Zahl, which neighbours another piece of property Wortman owns.
At some point prior to 10:39 p.m. he shoots both of them and sets their house on fire.
The MCC investigations hypothesize that the gunman then drives on a trail through the woods between Portapique Beach Road and Orchard Beach Drive — they run parallel to each other at this point — emerging at the back of the property of his still-flaming warehouse.
Across the street, in the McCully house, the Blair and McCully children, still on the phone with 911, tell the operator at 10:39 p.m. there is a car emerging from the driveway of the warehouse.
They say they can hear talking and then … gunshots.
About 10:39 to 10:40 p.m.
/https://www.thestar.com/content/dam/thestar/news/canada/2022/02/28/its-not-a-police-officer-portapique-inquirys-timeline-shows-how-bloody-night-unfolded/portapique_aerial_2.jpg)
Corrie Ellison has walked up the road from his father’s place, which he and his brother Clinton are visiting, to investigate the warehouse fire.
He encounters the gunman, who fires at him, first from the replica police car, then again at close range after exiting the car. In all he shoots Ellison five times. (A forensic investigation hypothesizes that Ellison might have been leaning into a vehicle when first shot.)
About 10:40 to 10:51 p.m.
With police arriving on the scene, the gunman leaves.
While the details are uncertain, investigators hypothesize that he turns south again down Orchard Beach Drive, toward Cobequid Court. There he turns left, heading east to where Cobequid Court intersects with a private dirt road which runs alongside a berry field.
Some time around 10:45 p.m., the Zimmerman family, whose house on Portapique Crescent overlooks that road, see headlights moving quickly, heading up what locals call “blueberry field road.”
Patricia Zimmerman tells police of “a set of lights, moving like a bat out of hell, zipping down a road that nobody ever really uses.”
The road gets near the highway, but terminates at Brown Loop, an unpaved 670-metre road that connects to Highway 2 at two points.
At this point, the only police checkpoint is at Portapique Beach Road further to the west.
The gunman likely uses Brown Loop to access the highway and drive east.
At 10:51 p.m. a surveillance camera at Wilsons Gas Stops in Great Village, nine kilometres away, seems to show an RCMP car travelling east on Highway 2, away from Portapique, with no lightbar or tail lights activated.
The gunman would spend the night in a parking lot in an industrial park in Debert.
On Tuesday — still summarizing the events of April 18 in Portapique — the MCC is scheduled to present the results of its investigation into the movements of first responders that evening.
N.S. premier, federal minister criticize mass shooting inquiry on first day
Premier Tim Houston says families feel 'left in the dark,' questions if public can have confidence in process
In a news release issued before hearings began on Tuesday morning, Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston said he has heard from family members who have expressed "frustration and concern about the structure of the inquiry."
"They feel left in the dark. This is not only disrespectful, it should cause us all to pause and ask, if the families don't have confidence in the process, how can the public?" Houston said.
The premier's remarks echo the concerns of a number of people whose loved ones were killed on April 18-19, 2020, including Darcy Dobson, who lost her mother, Heather O'Brien, and Charlene Bagley, who lost her father, Tom Bagley.
The Mass Casualty Commission is a joint federal-provincial inquiry examining the deaths of 22 people, including a pregnant woman, who were killed by a gunman over a 13-hour period in the rural Nova Scotia communities of Portapique, Wentworth, Debert and Shubenacadie.
Both levels of government initially announced a review of the mass shooting, but quickly backtracked in July 2020 after families lobbied for an independent, public inquiry.
"The reason Nova Scotians pulled together and pushed for an inquiry as opposed to a review was to ensure that it was honest, comprehensive, detailed and most importantly, designed to answer questions," Houston said.
"Yet, it is still not even known if key witnesses have been subpoenaed to testify, if there will be an opportunity to cross-examine them or if it will be a comprehensive list of witnesses."
He said the uncertainty is causing further, unnecessary trauma. Houston is urging the Mass Casualty Commission to meet with families and their counsel to listen to their concerns and provide a "plan that gives them confidence in the process."
Houston told reporters he raised concerns directly with the commission two weeks ago, but became more "anxious" this week when he didn't see changes.
Federal cabinet minister and Central Nova MP Sean Fraser is also weighing in on how the inquiry is treating those most affected.
"After speaking to certain victims' family members directly to discuss their concerns, I called a meeting with the premier of Nova Scotia and the federal minister of public safety. We are united in our view that the families' confidence in this process remains a paramount consideration," Fraser wrote in a social media post on Tuesday morning.
Fraser said he will work to ensure that federal and provincial leaders are aware of "each and every concern" going forward.
Thirteen Deadly Hours: The Nova Scotia Shooting
At the end of the first day, Barbara McLean, the inquiry's investigations director, said the commission was aware of Houston's comments.
"Frankly, we are surprised and disappointed. The Mass Casualty Commission is an independent inquiry and must remain free from interference, or external direction," McLean said, adding she hopes Houston will keep an open mind when it comes to any recommendations in the final report for how the province can improve public safety.
McLean said the commission needs to "remain free" of the two levels of governments that established it as well as institutions and people, including the 61 participants in the inquiry "who have divergent views on [its] work."
In his opening remarks, chief commissioner Michael MacDonald also addressed concerns about the perceived lack of transparency.
"Some people are concerned about the commission's independence, believing we may be susceptible to covering up for either the RCMP or government. Let me assure you, nothing could be further from the truth," MacDonald said.
He added that "independence is the backbone, the be-all-and-end-all, of inquiries."
Inquiry 'can't drag on'
MacDonald said the process the commission has developed to organize the roughly 40,000 pages of records, as well as information from more than 150 interviews, into documents will save time and money.
The alternative, he said, would be to spend years working through testimony and cross-examination of hundreds of witnesses.
"This approach will provide the public with as much information as we can at the earliest opportunity," he said. "We developed a process that is just as, if not more, effective than calling witness after witness — [it's] a process that will not drag on and on.
"That will result in a lot less trauma."
Michael
MacDonald, the chief commissioner of the Mass Casualty Commission,
speaks on Tuesday at the opening day of public hearings in Halifax. (Brett Ruskin/CBC)
But he said the approach will still be thorough and that commission will "be robust in its response if witnesses try to be misleading." He also said lawyers for participants will be able to cross-examine witnesses, something counsel for some of the families had asked for in the lead up to hearings.
The former Nova Scotia chief justice said the commissioners have a responsibility to get to the truth without causing more pain.
"Too often, I have seen the emotional toll of processes that can go on and on, lives waiting in the balance," he said. "This process cannot drag on for five years."
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/mass-casualty-commission-proceedings-1.6356891
Here's what to watch for during the N.S. mass shooting hearings
Mass Casualty Commission proceedings will run 3 to 4 days most weeks until end of May
The long-awaited public phase of the inquiry into the mass shootings of April 2020 that left 22 dead in Nova Scotia is beginning in Halifax on Tuesday morning, but the proceedings will be a far cry from a trial.
The goal of the joint federal and provincial inquiry is to make communities safer. Its mandate extends beyond looking at the 13 hours that a gunman disguised as a Mountie travelled freely through rural parts of the province, killing neighbours in Portapique and acquaintances and strangers in Wentworth, Debert and Shubenacadie.
Only a handful of people survived encounters with 51-year-old denturist Gabriel Wortman who torched homes, used guns he obtained illegally, and who police later described as paranoid and fixated on the end of the world.
The Mass Casualty Commission is responsible for examining how policing and government agencies responded to the tragedy, the role intimate partner violence played, the shooter's access to firearms and any other past dealings he had with police.
Charlene Bagley's father, Tom Bagley was a retired firefighter and navy veteran. He was killed when he stopped by his neighbours' home in Wentworth to check on them. The gunman was a stranger.
"The fact that my father was taken really does challenge the grieving process…. I can't fully heal until I know," she said. "I want answers."
Charlene
Bagley walks at a march in downtown Halifax on July 29, 2020, in
connection with the announcement of a public inquiry into the mass
killing. Her father, Tom Bagley, was one of the 22 victims. (Shaina Luck/CBC)
When Tom Bagley left home for his usual morning walk on April 19, 2020, police had not yet publicly identified their suspect. It would be another hour before they shared on Twitter that he was in a mock cruiser.
"I want to know why an [emergency] alert wasn't called. Mainly because I know for certain that would have saved his life," said Charlene Bagley, who lives in the Halifax area.
Bagley is among a number of people directly impacted who say they've lost faith in the inquiry process they demanded and doubt it will actually bring answers to questions that have haunted them since April 2020.
She wrote a letter to the commission last week in which she said she wanted to hear testimony under oath from the officers who fired at the Onslow fire hall as well as the gunman's partner, Lisa Banfield.
"She knew him more than anybody. She lived with him," Bagley said in an interview, adding she's also skeptical of the accounts presented by the RCMP.
Banfield's lawyer said he was unable to comment on his client's involvement in the commission until after her trial that starts in late March. Banfield has pleaded not guilty to giving the gunman the ammunition he used in the shootings, although police say she didn't know his plans.
Hearings not all witnesses
This week's proceedings at the Halifax Convention Centre will be livestreamed and won't involve the introduction of any new evidence until next Monday. On Tuesday, the commissioners are scheduled to give opening remarks and there will be a panel on mental health and wellness.
The inquiry has cost $13 million so far and until this point, its work has happened behind the scenes. A team of investigators has been combing through tens of thousands of pages of documents — including notes and files subpoenaed from the RCMP — as well as conducting their own interviews with front-line officers and other first responders.
But it's uncertain how many of them will be called upon to testify.
Emily Hill, senior counsel for the Mass Casualty Commission, said some days the hearings won't have any witnesses. Instead, lawyers for the commission will be presenting summaries of their investigation, compiled in "foundational documents" that will be posted publicly as they're introduced.
Next week the plan is to start with documents outlining what happened in Portapique.
Inquiry into Nova Scotia mass shooting opens amid criticism
"So part of the question around how witnesses will deliver evidence will depend on what questions do we need answers to. What are we trying to understand from this witness?" she said.
"Public inquiries are not aimed at finding fault. They're not aimed at finding civil or criminal responsibility. They're aimed at understanding what happened and learning from that and thinking about what can we do differently in the future."
Questions about cross examination
Along the way, the commission will be consulting with the dozens of groups and individuals participating in the inquiry — there are 61 in total — about who to call as witnesses. It will be up to the commissioners to decide on a case-by-case basis whether counsel for the participants will be able to cross-examine those witnesses, Hill said.
Patterson Law, a Nova Scotia law firm that represents 23 participants, including more than half the families, has been critical of that format. The firm has said it needs more clarity on who will be called and what their own role will be in order to prepare and represent the families.
From left, the three commissioners overseeing the Mass
Casualty Commission are: Leanne Fitch, Kim Stanton and Michael
MacDonald. (Maria Jose Burgos/CBC, Kim Stanton/LEAF, Andrew Vaughan/The
Canadian Press)
Hill said "everything is not mapped out" for the hearings that will run three or four days most weeks until the end of May. But she said the public is getting a full, independent inquiry.
"We have confidence in the information that we've collected, how this process has evolved to the place where we can move now into public proceedings and begin to have these conversations with the public and continue to learn from them," she said.
Investigation not over
Barbara McLean, leader of the commission's investigative team, said even as the hearings present its findings, it will still continue the process of gathering information and interviewing people if needed.
"The public proceedings are just the next step in our inquiry. And that's really where a public inquiry is different than a civil or a court process where it goes to court and it's done," she said.
"The sooner we know things, the sooner people do come forward, the better for us that we can see where it fits and that it can influence our work. But there's still a lot of work left to do and still a lot of people to speak to."
A memorial sits at the top of Portapique Beach Road in Portapique on April 21, 2020. (Craig Paisley/CBC)
The commission's interim report is due in May and the final report is due in November. In between, there will be a third phase of hearings focused on findings and recommendations, likely starting at the end of the summer. Hill said they are "on track" to meet those deadlines.
Meanwhile, the RCMP said in a news release that it has been co-operating with the commission and hopes it provides a "full accounting of what happened."
Keys to successful inquiry
Ed Ratushny, an emeritus professor of law at the University of Ottawa who has worked with inquiries as counsel and author of The Conduct of Public Inquiries: Law, Policy, and Practice, said in his experience, inquiries have the best outcomes when the people under scrutiny — whether they be police, judges or public servants — "recognize that mistakes have been made."
"They feel a responsibility for them and they want to make changes to ensure that it doesn't happen again," he told CBC in an interview last month.
"They all say, 'Yeah, we've got to do something about this and … we're not afraid to say that we contributed to that, to the problem. And because we're sorry that it happened and we really want to prevent it from happening again.'"
RCMP
investigators search for evidence on April 23, 2020, at the location
where Const. Heidi Stevenson was killed along the highway in
Shubenacadie, N.S. (Andrew Vaughan/The Canadian Press)
That type of acknowledgement is what Nick Beaton wants to hear. His pregnant wife, Kristen, was killed the morning of April 19.
"Putting my son to bed every night alone and asking where mommy is, you know, this is supposed to put forth steps to prevent this from happening again and show the RCMP this is where your faults were, this is where it could've went different, this is where the government could have went different ... even us, as citizens, if this happens again this is what you should or shouldn't do," he said.
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With files from Angela MacIvor and Kayla Hounsell
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