Five years ago, the worst mass shooting incident in the history of our country claimed the lives of 22 innocent people in Portapique, Nova Scotia, and deeply affected thousands more.
USJE recognizes all those who were touched by this tragedy, including the families who lost loved ones, and those who were injured, terrorized or killed during the violent rampage. This includes Lisa Banfield (the gunman’s common law partner), front line and operational members of the RCMP, the Correctional Service of Canada, other first responders, as well as the broader community of Portapique whose residents were directly or indirectly impacted.
Many of USJE’s members in Nova Scotia — who are federal public safety personnel employees — were deeply affected by this tragedy, particularly those with the RCMP.
We know this day will never be forgotten by Canadians, and the many Nova Scotians whose lives were changed by this horrible event.
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.
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.”
USJE members are fleetingly mentioned in the report in the context of first responders and service people, including police operations personnel within the RCMP and other policing agencies, emergency health service professionals, firefighters, and others providing front-line services.
This said, however, when it comes to the specific roles that USJE members would have played in their professional capacity that day, the report is not explicit. There are vague notions of “RCMP operational teams” mentioned throughout report. But, USJE members — who were and are part of the RCMP operational backbone — were not the subject of sustained research or interviews by the Commission, perhaps in part because many were not on the front line on the weekend in question.
Understandably, the focus is almost entirely on the 22 victims, the various witnesses, and their families as well as the police officers and other key policing personnel who played a role that day.
Notably, the report emphasizes that:
- RCMP policy requires that a scene commander be designated at a critical incident that entails an IARD response, but no one was appointed to fill that role. The absence of a trained scene commander had a significant adverse impact on the RCMP’s critical incident response in Portapique.”
Less acknowledged is the impact on RCMP operational staff who were, nonetheless, deeply implicated in many aspects of policing and public safety promotion and enforcement.
This said, the section of the report focused on the RCMP Operational Communications Centre and the non-commissioned officers who worked on the response from further afield is relevant to USJE’s membership. It sets out and examines the RCMP’s approach to the critical incident response in the first few hours of the mass casualty.
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.).
USJE does note that the emergency psychological services made available to other groups involved in the tragedy were not extended to those who were involved in a technical or operational (behind the scenes) manner in the events.
There was a focus on ensuring information and support was provided to the families of victims, affected citizens, and the community, which USJE fully supports as those services were clearly needed and important.
Nonetheless, even within the RCMP, Public Service Employees and Civilian Members were unfortunately not given access to supports available to RCMP Officers.
Gender Based Violence
USJE recognizes the extent and severity of gender-based violence as it affects intimate partners, children, families, and organizations. USJE concurs with the recommendation that there must be an effort to mobilize a whole-of-society response; a concerted and long-term focus on situating women’s experience at the centre; putting safety first; and imposing meaningful accountable measures.
The report does assert that:
- putting safety first “necessitates lifting women and girls out of poverty, decentering the criminal justice system, emphasizing primary prevention, and supporting healthy masculinity.”
Rurality and gender-based violence are often linked, as is highlighted in the variety of reports on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. 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.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Mass Casualty Commission represents a historic analysis of one of Canada’s largest modern-day tragedies. The complexity and sophistication of this report is impressive, but the fact that many of USJE’s members continue to be overlooked is quite disappointing.
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.