Say what you like about the Mass Casualty Commission—call it expensive, disrespectful or a let down—you can’t deny there’s a lot to read on the commission website. And at the end of October, another 2,000 or so documents were made public, adding to the pile of statements, decisions, transcripts, foundational documents and such related to […]
Portapique
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What to expect when the Portapique Mass Casualty Commission public proceedings begin this week
The public part of the Mass Casualty Commission—the expensive, slow-moving inquiry into what happened when a gunman dressed as an RCMP officer shot and killed 22 Nova Scotians in April 2020—starts Tuesday, February 22. That’s four months later than first planned. The joint federal and provincial commission will open public proceedings tomorrow at 9:30am at […]
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Mass Casualty Commission’s public proceedings could have started today
Today, Oct 26, was supposed to be the start of public proceedings for the federal and provincial public inquiry into what happened when a gunman dressed as an RCMP officer shot and killed 22 Nova Scotians in April 2020. Instead, the first public hearings into the Portapique tragedy will begin in February—four months later than […]
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Pilot Picasso reflects on a tough year after Portapique
On Sunday, April 19, 2020, Dimitri Neonakis was at home with his girlfriend, stunned, as news from Portapique slowly made its way to the public. By the end of the day, he was exhausted. The pandemic was still fresh—shutdowns had begun in Nova Scotia just one month prior—and now the province was dealing with the […]
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We’re still calling it femicide
It’s been one year since the mass shooting in Portapique. Across the province, communities and families are taking time to remember the 22 lives that were violently and prematurely taken in an act of misogynist violence. Over the past year we have all struggled to make sense of this violence, the loss of innocent lives […]
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Timeline of the year after Portapique
The shattering events that started a year ago in Portapique had repercussions far beyond the small Nova Scotia community. A lot has happened since then, whether it be related to gun laws, police regulations or the investigation into what, exactly, happened during those two chaotic days. Here’s a summary of the last 12 months of […]
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How to tune in to the Portapique memorial service livestream
It’s been a year since a man who was a known domestic abuser went on a killing rampage that would become the largest in recent Canadian history. To remember the 22 victims, the Nova Scotia Remembers Legacy Society has organized a memorial service, which will be held Sunday, April 18 at 3pm. You can tune […]
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Charging shooter’s ex-partner causing ‘rise in misogyny and victim-blaming’
On December 4, Nova Scotia RCMP released an out-of-the-blue update on what they are still calling Operation H-Strong, more commonly known as the worst mass shooting in Canadian history, which began in Portapique on April 18, 2020. In the release, RCMP say they have charged three people with supplying ammunition to the gunman in advance […]
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The public inquiry announcement is only a first step
W hat if, dear Nova Scotians, we’ve been played? Bamboozled. That the whole review-not-an-inquiry announcement was a hot ploy? The government knew that no matter what it said about its plan to investigate the largest mass shooting in Canada’s history, folks would criticize and demand more. Families of murder victims bring an unquenchable moral outrage to […]
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Activists won’t rest until official public inquiry into shootings is called
On Monday July 27, over a hundred people gathered at Victoria Park in downtown Halifax to protest the lack of an official public inquiry into the Nova Scotia shootings that took place on April 18 and 19. Just four days before the protest, on July 23, the federal and provincial governments had announced a joint […]
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From day one, advocates knew shooting was linked to domestic violence
Although it took RCMP over a week to address the Nova Scotia massacre’s relation to domestic violence, Canadian feminists and activists say they saw the telltale signs from the start. “I immediately thought this probably had a domestic violence event that precipitated it or was an element to it,” says Leighann Burns, a founder of […]
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Canada bans military-style assault rifles 12 days after mass shooting
On May 1, less than two weeks after Canada’s worst mass shooting to date, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced a ban on military-style assault weapons. “These weapons were designed for one purpose and one purpose only — to kill the largest amount of people in the shortest amount of time,” he told the public during his […]