Mass Casualty Commission: findings and what happened next
The mass casualty in Nova Scotia on 18 and 19 April 2020, in which 22 people were killed.
- Country
- Canada
- Type
- public inquiry
- Chaired by
- Michael MacDonald, Leanne J. Fitch, Kim Stanton
- Report published
- 30 March 2023
- Recommendations
- 130
Implementation, as of 10 May 2024A federal and provincial Progress Monitoring Committee tracks implementation. In March 2024 the federal government and RCMP reported actions on policing, public alerting, firearms and gender based violence.
What the inquiry found
- The Commissioners found "many warning signs of the perpetrator's violence and missed opportunities to intervene" before the mass casualty.1
- The Commissioners identified gaps and errors in the critical incident response and failures in public communications.1
- The report found that perpetrators of mass casualties "often have unaddressed histories of gender-based, intimate partner, or family violence."1
- Commissioner Fitch said "the RCMP must finally undergo the fundamental change called for in many previous reports."1
Key recommendations
- The final report, Turning the Tide Together, made 130 recommendations, more than half of them about policing.1,2
What happened next
- The RCMP published an external review of front line supervisor critical incident training, one of two recommendations with a six month timeline.2
- Public Safety Canada reported that Canada and Nova Scotia had set up a Progress Monitoring Committee funded with 3.5 million dollars over three years, and that the RCMP had created a Reform, Accountability and Culture sector.2
- The federal government listed other measures it linked to the report, including Bill C-21, which received Royal Assent on 15 December 2023 and added red and yellow flag firearms laws.2
Read the report: masscasualtycommission.ca/final-report/
Sources
- Mass Casualty Commission, Turning the Tide Together - The Final Report of the Mass Casualty Commission (30 March 2023)
- Public Safety Canada, Anniversary of the Release of the Mass Casualty Commission Final Report (10 May 2024)