May 6, 2022
This update includes information about public submissions and details for next week’s schedule.
This week, the Commission heard from six more witnesses, including a technical witness. Throughout proceedings the Commission will continue to hear from people in a variety of ways, including witness testimony, submissions, roundtables, and small group sessions to hear individuals’ experiences directly.
To date, the Commission has entered more than 1,000 exhibits into evidence, including Commissioned Reports, Foundational Documents, and source material documents such as police notes, 911 call transcripts, summaries of medical examiner reports and videos like security camera footage. The Commission has issued more than 70 subpoenas and our investigations team has carried out more than 200 investigative interviews, with more scheduled.
Foundational Documents and source material documents are posted online here. Commissioned Reports, their source material and roundtable documents can be found here.
Schedule for the week of May 9
The Commission’s calendar has been updated with the details for next week including witnesses, Foundational Documents, Commissioned Reports and information about an upcoming roundtable. Please note: there are no proceedings on Monday, May 9. The calendar will continue to be updated on Fridays with details for the following week.
- Presentation of Foundational Document: Alert Ready in Nova Scotia
- Legislation and regulation regarding public alerting
- Witness: Paul Mason, Executive Director of the Emergency Management Office (EMO), to provide greater context and understanding of both the policy and roll-out of Alert Ready in Nova Scotia and specifically, to speak to his role in policy, management and implementation of Alert Ready in Nova Scotia
- Witness: Rodney Legge, Technical advisor to EMO regarding Alert Ready, to provide greater context and understanding of both the policy and roll-out of Alert Ready in Nova Scotia and specifically, to speak to his technical knowledge of the roll-out of Alert Ready in Nova Scotia
- Witness: Michael Hallowes to explain key principles of system design and governance with respect to public alert systems; to explain key principles of inter-agency collaboration and inter-operability in effective emergency and critical incident response, including with respect to public communications and education; to explain how Alert Ready compares with the best practices and principles he identifies; and to provide examples of the successful application of the principles he describes within other systems
- Participant Submissions on Emergency Alerting
- Roundtable: Public communications during emergency events, including emergency alerting. See more details about this roundtable on our website
- Related Commissioned Report: Communication Interoperability and the Alert Ready System, Chris Davis, Cheryl McNeil & Peter Gamble
Public Submissions
As we broaden our focus to explore how and why the mass casualty happened, we want to make sure we have gathered input on the issues outlined in the mandate from all possible sources, including members of the public who have experience in these areas, either professionally or personally, and research, academic, technical or other sources. Our public submissions process will provide an opportunity for the public to share perspectives and help inform the recommendations we will make in our final report.
You can submit suggestions, written submissions, and any additional information, such as research articles, via our website. We encourage you to review the Commission’s mandate, list of Commissioned Reports, and continue to engage in public proceedings to inform your submissions.
You do not need to be an expert or policy maker to provide a meaningful submission. We want to hear from you if you have something to share that would be helpful for the Commission to consider. That could be anything from academic reports or research on related issues to a simple suggestion or change that you think would make your local community safer.
Please submit your response by September 1, 2022. Your participation is appreciated.
If you prefer to share your input over the phone or video call please contact the Commission to set up a time. You can email info@masscasualtycommisson.ca or call 902-407-7532 (local) or 1-833-635-2501 (toll-free).
You can also email submissions to info@masscasualtycommission.ca and include “Public Submission” in the subject line of the email.
How to Stay Updated
As always, you can watch the webcasts or listen to live audio from the proceedings by calling 1-877-385-4099 (toll free) and entering code 1742076 followed by the # sign. Recordings of the webcasts along with transcripts are available, so that you may engage in this work at a time that works best for you.
Members of the public can register to attend proceedings in person on the Commission’s website. The venues for public proceedings change periodically so please use the registration portal or website calendar to confirm locations on the date you wish to attend.
Always remember that supports are available if you or a loved one need them, both on-site at the proceedings and through the Commission’s website.
Sincerely,
The Mass Casualty Commission
Hon. J. Michael MacDonald, Chair
Leanne J. Fitch (Ret. Police Chief, M.O.M.)
Dr. Kim Stanton