An Update from the Commissioners – September 16, 2022

What Happened This Week

As we head into the final week of public proceedings, the Commission is working on gathering input and developing recommendations that build on everything we have learned to date, including all of the work to determine what happened and how and why it happened.

We want to ensure that our recommendations do not inadvertently have a disproportionate or unintended impact on disadvantaged or marginalized groups in society. In order to make recommendations that do not have unintended consequences for some communities, we have asked for input and participation from those groups so that their diverse voices and perspectives will help inform our recommendations.

On Tuesday, we engaged with members of Indigenous communities, making sure they had opportunities to speak with us and to share their suggestions for recommendations.

A similar session had been planned on Monday with representatives from African Nova Scotian communities, but unfortunately this session had to be cancelled due to scheduling issues. The Commission has conducted interviews with members of African Nova Scotian communities, heard from community members at roundtables, and will continue to consult with those representatives.

On Wednesday, we held our final roundtable, which focused on police oversight, supervision and accountability. Experts taking part helped highlight opportunities to improve how police forces are governed and held to account.

As part of ongoing Participant Consultations, on Thursday we heard from justice-related organizations sharing their perspectives on potential recommendations. We also heard from Avalon Sexual Assault Centre, a Participant with the Commission, on their community engagement work with marginalized communities targeted by the perpetrator.

Final Week of Public Proceedings

In-person public proceedings will take place next week at the Glengarry Best Western in Truro. Please do not forget to register if you would like to attend in person. You can also follow proceedings by watching the webcasts or by listening to live audio from the proceedings by calling 1-877-385-4099 (toll free) and entering code 1742076 followed by the # sign.

• Tuesday, September 20 to Friday, September 23
  • 9:30am Participant Submissions
    • Participants will make their final oral submissions over the course of the week, sharing their suggestions for recommendations with the Commissioners. Final submissions were originally scheduled for Sept 19-22, but due to Monday, September 19 being declared a national day of mourning, our schedule has shifted by one day.
    • The schedule for each day will be posted on our calendar.

• Friday, September 23
  • Participant Submissions
  • Commissioners’ Final Remarks
    • We will conclude public proceedings, looking ahead to next steps and the final report

Wrapping Up Phase 3 and Call for Ideas

While public proceedings will conclude on September 23, the Commission’s Phase 3 work focused on developing recommendations will continue until the end of September. During this phase, the Commission team is holding additional meetings in smaller settings with people directly affected by the mass casualty and community members.

We encourage everyone to share suggestions for recommendations until September 30. We welcome your ideas on how to help make communities safer. Throughout our work, you may have heard from a relative, neighbour, or someone across Canada or the United States about suggestions for strengthening community safety. If you would like to put your heads together with others to come up with recommendations, a Discussion Guide is available on our website. Please go to masscasualtycommission.ca/share to learn more.

As you think about potential recommendations, remember you can draw on all the information shared during proceedings to date. The Foundational Documents, supplementary reports and related source materials provide extensive detail on what happened. The Commissioned Reports, meanwhile, provide a broad and deep exploration of the root causes and related issues behind the mass casualty. In addition, the archive of public proceeding webcasts on our website includes videos of the many witnesses, roundtables and other discussions that have helped build our understanding of what happened and how and why it happened.   

With public proceedings drawing to a close, we appreciate that this material continues to be difficult. If you or someone you know needs help, please reach out to the mental health team at proceedings or to the wellness support resources listed on our website.

Sincerely,

The Mass Casualty Commission

Hon. J. Michael MacDonald, Chair

Leanne J. Fitch (Ret. Police Chief, M.O.M.)

Dr. Kim Stanton