The long-anticipated Mass Casualty Commission’s final report into the 2020 Nova Scotia shooting highlighted significant systemic issues within Canada’s national police force and called for widespread changes. “The future of the RCMP and of provincial policing requires focused re-evaluation,” said the report titled Turning the Tide Together. “We need to rethink the role of the police in a wider ecosystem of public safety.” The wide-ranging report examining the tragedy was publicly released in a series of volumes Thursday, totalling more than 3,000 pages.
Read more: A look at the 22 Nova Scotians killed in Canada’s worst mass shooting It touched on a variety of issues, including the police response, the killer’s access to firearms, the role of gender-based violence and the steps taken to inform the public as the rampage unfolded. “The commission’s mandate was broad in scope and ambitious in its timeline,” said commission chair Michael MacDonald Thursday, addressing a crowd gathered at the Best Western Glengarry hotel in Truro, N.S., for the public release of the report. “It required us to investigate the causes, context and circumstances giving rise to the mass casualty, police responses, and steps taken to inform, support and engage victims, families and affected citizens.” Read more: Brother of N.S.
shooting victim hopes to ‘close up a chapter’ with final inquiry report The report detailed the RCMP’s various failures in preventing, responding to, and reacting in the aftermath of the tragedy, and said the institution as a whole needs to be re-examined. “There were many warning signs of the perpetrator’s violence and missed opportunities to intervene in the years before the mass casualty.