Committee releases final report into 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting

The chair of the committee monitoring the implementation of recommendations from the inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting says more work needs to be done, but she is “optimistic” about the future.

The independent committee released its third and final annual report Monday, monitoring the progress towards 130 recommendations released as a result of the 2023 public inquiry known as the Mass Casualty Commission.

The public inquiry was conducted after a gunman shot and killed 22 people during a 13-hour rampage in the province on April 18 and 19, 2020.

Myra Freeman, chair of the Progress Monitoring Committee (PMC), said there are still approximately 40 recommendations that need to be addressed, but responsibility will now be handed over to the governments of Nova Scotia and Canada, along with the RCMP.

“I’m confident that they will figure out a way,” Freeman said. “We are strongly encouraged by the fact that they have committed this much action, this much progress to date, and they know the importance and the public will remind them.”

The 72-page report emphasizes that progress is being made on some fronts, including regulatory oversight, policing reforms and gender-based violence prevention.

This is the first year the committee delved into the aspects of gender-based violence, which is an area that Freeman said will require much more work from governments, police, community organizations and the public in years to come.

“It requires a societal change, and societal changes don’t happen overnight,” she said. “So what we need is a concerted effort to continue the action to keep people safe, and all of us have a responsibility to do it.”

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She said more work also needs to be done on the mental health front.

Freeman said some committee members asked for its mandate to be extended, but she said that was never something she brought forth to the government.

“We recognized this was a finite time,” she said.

But she added that even though the mandate has ended, the work does not stop here.

“We always knew that this work and addressing the recommendations would extend far beyond our three-year mandate,” she said. “We also knew that it was never an endpoint. That it was meant to be a first step and a foundation to a longer commitment for accountability, for transparency and for building stronger, safer communities.”

Nova Scotia is safer now than it was in 2020, Freeman said.

While he said the province is moving forward, Scott McLeod, whose brother Sean was killed in the attacks, said he is taking a “wait and see” approach.

“Some of the stuff that needs to be done isn’t just something that can be scratched down on paper or taught,” he said. “It has to continue to evolve and progress with society the way it is.”

With the bulk of the work now being transferred to governments and the RCMP, McLeod said he hopes institutions commit to sharing their progress towards the inquiry’s recommendations and making their work transparent.

Kristina Fifield, a trauma specialist who worked with the PMC, said that while the government is taking over, the public still has a responsibility to keep pushing for the recommendations to be implemented.

“This is going to require a lot of collective and community advocacy to continue moving this forward,” she said.

In the wake of increases in community-based violence, gender-based violence and intimate partner violence, Fifield said more needs to be done to hold perpetrators accountable and stop the cycle.

“We have a long, dark history of violence and violence being normalized and people protecting people that are using violence,” she said.

In a statement, Premier Tim Houston said the government is prepared to accept responsibility for the work moving forward.

“We will not settle for mere progress,” he said. “We want to make real, meaningful change.”

But the NDP Opposition said it is concerned with how the government is funding some associated services.

“We need to ensure the right resources are in place to build on the work that’s underway and support families and strengthen communities,” a statement from the NDP caucus said.

The government of Canada has taken “significant action” to support the work of the PMC over the past three years, said a joint statement from Gary Anandasangaree, minister of public safety, and Sean Fraser, minister of justice and attorney general of Canada.