`We can't heal if we don't have answers'
VICTIMS' FAMILIES DECRY SECRECY AROUND N.S. MASS SHOOTING
WHAT LED UP TO THIS MASS MURDER? WHAT HAPPENED WITH THE RESPONSE TIME FOR PUBLIC SAFETY? WHAT HAPPENED AFTER WITH THE INVESTIGATION? WE WANT TRUTHFUL ANSWERS.
— TAMMY OLIVER-MCCURDIE
Aspontaneous public memorial erupted soon after the 22 murders, one year ago this weekend. An unbridled riot of teddy bears and flowers, flags and photos, notes of love and loss arrived in the tiny Nova Scotia community of Portapique in the arms of mourners from near and far, despite pandemic restrictions.
It was an outpouring that soon poured out too much. The sprawling display was cleared away for the winter, officially, but many were already uncomfortable with such a constant, jarring reminder of the 13 hours a gunman scattered death and horror through central Nova Scotia, much of it while masquerading as an RCMP officer.
Now there are fears of something else being swept away with the arrival of the grim anniversary, which are the milestones we use to measure significant experiences, our best and our worst.
It is answers.
“We can't heal if we don't have answers,” said Charlene Bagley, whose father, Tom Bagley, was killed the morning of April 19, 2020.
“A year later and we are no further ahead.”
There are a lot of questions; there are official plans for answers. Many worry there just won't be enough of the latter.
This weekend in Nova Scotia focuses on the loss of those killed — 22 people, including a pregnant woman, some of whom were targeted, some from coincident encounters with a murderer in the midst of Canada's largest mass shooting — with a private service, a public contemplative walk and a memorial marathon.
For some, that's enough for now.
“The questions will all be answered in time. The man was mentally ill, what more needs to be known?” said one relative of a victim, who wasn't interested in discussing it further.
Others aren't as certain. There is also a rally planned for Saturday, in Calgary. It's called a Rally for Truth. It is organized by Tammy Oliver-mccurdie, of Red Deer, whose family was among the first wave of victims in the rampage: her sister, Jolene Oliver; 17-yearold niece, Emily Tuck; and brother-in-law, Aaron Tuck.
The rally encourages people to remember the victims by sharing messages of support but also to write out burning questions about the incident and “post them for all to see.”
“Almost one year later and we have more questions than answers in one of Canada's largest mass murders. So many disconnects and questions,” Oliver-mccurdie said on Facebook. “What led up to this mass murder? What happened with the response time for public safety? What happened after with the investigation?
“We want truthful answers,” she said. “We cannot wait for a public inquiry to be done to make changes to safety for all.”
One of Oliver-mccurdie's biggest questions is why the RCMP officers responding to the first calls of a shooting stopped at the top of Portapique Beach Road, leading to where the gunman's cottage was and where his first victims were, and did not move in and end the incident then and there, or see if people needed help.
If they had, she said, they might have saved her family.
“They already had police officers in the community, according to their statements, so if you just would've drove down the road a bit more you would've saw that Aaron was fighting … at the door, but no, my family was brutally murdered in their home, shot multiple times.”
For Bagley, one of her many questions is why there is such inordinate secrecy surrounding the gunman, still, even though he was shot and killed by police. The government is fighting in court to prevent media from reading RCMP documents on the incident and about the killer, Gabriel Wortman, 51.
“There shouldn't be this much secrecy for a dead man. He's dead and they're protecting him. Why?” she asked. “What are they hiding and why?”
Nick Beaton, whose pregnant wife, Kristen, was killed the morning after the nighttime rampage, has been publicly vocal with questions about the RCMP'S lack of communication during the rampage.
After the first wave of 13 killings in the night, the gunman eluded police and killed nine others the following day in surrounding communities.
Kristen Beaton would not likely have been outside that morning if the public alert system through cellphones had warned of the danger. She, like others, wouldn't have crossed paths with the killer.
Why wasn't the public more actively warned that a gunman dressed as a Mountie was still on the loose the next morning, he wants to know.
Paul Palango, a former Globe and Mail newspaper editor who retired to Nova Scotia, has written three books about the RCMP in the past. The shootings, so close to home, brought him out of retirement. He is now writing a book about the incident.
He too has a lot of questions, and deep suspicion.
“The RCMP has been trying for a year to put this story to sleep. They've done everything they can to stymie any sort of inspection or investigation of what they did,” Palango said.
Among his many questions is what the RCMP knew about the gunman before his murder spree, and about previous police dealings with him or with those close to him.
Brian Sauvé, president of the National Police Federation, the union that represents RCMP members, doesn't like such vocal dissatisfaction with the pace and transparency of the investigation.
“We understand families', friends', and others' deep-seated need for answers to this previously unimaginable violence. We want that, too,” Sauvé said.
“But some third-party commentators will inevitably seek the spotlight by offering personal speculation and conjecture that paints an incomplete and highly inaccurate picture of those terrifying and uncertain hours, to no positive or constructive end.”
The RCMP declined to discuss its investigation, what it calls Operation H-strong.
“From the outset of the H-strong investigation, the RCMP committed to keeping victims' families informed as well as providing the public and media with the facts related to H-strong, while maintaining the integrity of the investigation,” said Corp. Chris Marshall, spokesman for Nova Scotia RCMP.
“With the public inquiry now ongoing, the most appropriate and unbiased opportunity to provide any additional information and to address the April 2020 incidents is to do so with our full participation in the inquiry.”
A joint federal-provincial inquiry was announced in July. That wasn't the first choice for the governments, which initially announced a closed-door review, until a public outcry — led by the families of the victims — prompted a quick shift.
The Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission says it is independent of any government, institutions or other associations and has a mandate to “provide clarity around the causes, context and circumstances” of the shootings.
It talks tough.
“Difficult questions will need to be asked and uncomfortable facts will need to be considered. We intend to perform our duties with compassion and with an unwavering commitment to a full, transparent, and independent inquiry,” the commission says in its public materials.
A request to speak to one of the commissioners went unanswered.
In a video message posted on its website, the commission's chairman, J. Michael Macdonald, a retired Chief Justice of Nova Scotia, promised a granular investigation — “frame by frame, hour by hour,” he said.
The commission will be hearing from witnesses, gathering evidence and analyzing information, eventually releasing “their findings, lessons learned, and recommendations to help prevent and respond to similar events.”
What answers the inquiry finds won't come quickly.
The inquiry is scheduled to submit an interim report in May 2022 and a final report, including its findings and recommendations, is scheduled for the following November.
Meanwhile, other proceedings may provide some answers.
Police charged three people for allegedly supplying the gunman with ammunition in the month before his murder sprees: his spouse, Lisa Banfield, 52; her brother, James Banfield, 64; and her brother-in-law, Brian Brewster, 60.
James Banfield pleaded not guilty last week. He has a trial scheduled to start on Jan. 24, 2022. Brewster is scheduled for a court appearance on Monday. Lisa Banfield's appearance is scheduled for next month.
When they were charged in December, the RCMP said the three “had no prior knowledge of the gunman's actions on April 18 and 19.”
Other legal proceedings stemming from the murders include a proposed classaction lawsuit by the victims' families against the gunman's estate, and their lawsuit against the province and the RCMP.
Each proceeding may offer some answers. That's the hope.
“I hope that we are not going to be one of those unsolved mysteries,” Oliver-mccurdie said. “My family is gone but I will always ask questions and I will always be looking for truth.”