Six years ago, the worst mass shooting incident in the history of Canada claimed the lives of 22 innocent people in Portapique, Nova Scotia, and deeply affected thousands more.
Every year, USJE has taken the time to recognize the enormous impact that this tragedy has had on the lives of so many Nova Scotians and Canadians, including the families who lost loved ones, and those who were injured, terrorized or killed during the violent rampage. USJE is also deeply aware of how the broader community of Portapique continues to be directly or indirectly impacted.
Beyond this, however, USJE is particularly cognizant of how this tragedy affected both front line and operational members of the RCMP, the Correctional Service of Canada, other first responders, including many of USJE’s members in Nova Scotia working for the RCMP as federally employed public service employees, or public safety personnel.
The Mass Casualty Report’s Final Report, Turning the Tide Together, was released on March 30, 2023. It comprised of 7 volumes—totaling over 3000 pages—and contained a robust examination of the many facets of policing and societal factors that were at play preceding, during, and subsequent to these horribly traumatic events in rural Nova Scotia.
Federal public service employees working for the RCMP are a crucial part of the operational backbone from coast to coast to coast and were deeply impacted by what transpired in Portapique and surrounding areas.
Their role in supporting all aspects of RCMP operations is quite significant and their lived experiences as RCMP employees and residents living in Nova Scotia and the Atlantic region need to be better understood as the RCMP moves forward with many of the recommendations in this report.
Upon the release of the report in March 2023, USJE took the opportunity to highlight the following recommendations which remain relevant:
- We need to rethink the role of the police in a wider ecosystem of public safety. Significant changes are needed to address various community safety and well-being needs of the 21st century. The existing culture of policing must change. Issues around interoperability between emergency responders and other community safety partners, for example, require improvement.”
While the Commission is clear about forging important partnerships with external community partners, agencies etc., the specific roles of the RCMP’s federal public service employees or civilian members were not examined in a fulsome manner.
Additionally, the Commission makes an urgent call for better coordination across policing services and related agencies who are overseen by different levels of government (municipal, provincial, federal, etc.).
Previously, USJE has noted that emergency psychological services that were made available to other groups involved in the tragedy were, unfortunately, not extended to those who were involved in a technical or operational (behind the scenes) manner in the events.
These realities, among others, underscore the urgency of USJE’s time sensitive request of the federal government to amend the Government Employees Compensation Act (GECA), in order to close a key gap in federal legislation. This would ensure that federal public safety personnel have access to Workers’ Compensation for mental health related injuries, just like first responders in most provinces and territories.
GECA is a piece of legislation that has not fundamentally changed since its establishment 50 years ago. As it is currently written, it leaves behind tens of thousands of federal public safety personnel who suffer from psychological injuries owing to their efforts to keep Canadians safe from coast to coast to coast.
Gender Based Violence
The role of gender-based violence was very well highlighted by the Mass Casualty Commission. USJE echoes the concerns expressed in the report about the extent to which gender-based violence affects intimate partners, children, families, and communities in Nova Scotia and beyond.
USJE has fully endorsed the recommendation that there must be an effort to mobilize a whole-of-society response as articulated in the report, including a concerted and long-term focus on situating women’s experience at the centre; putting safety first; and imposing meaningful accountable measures.
In particular, the report says:
putting safety first “necessitates lifting women and girls out of poverty, decentering the criminal justice system, emphasizing primary prevention, and supporting healthy masculinity.”
The report also emphasized that rurality and gender-based violence are often linked. As USJE represents nearly 20,000 federal public safety employees from coast to coast to coast who live in and serve a broad range of urban, rural, and remote communities, we support any and all efforts focused on better resourcing agencies and organizations in rural and remote Canada.
This includes areas of policing, violence prevention and a major investment in families and the next generation. The term “women” in this text is understood in its largest possible meaning to include gender-based violence against any people who identify as women.
In conclusion, on the occasion of this 6th anniversary, USJE extends its sincere condolences to all those affected by the Portapique tragedy. We seek to continue to do our part to address gender based violence through our National Equity Committee, training of our union’s leadership and related efforts.