Media seek RCMP warrants

A hearing has been set for Monday in Truro provincial court to consider a media application to unseal the RCMP warrants pertaining to a mass murderer from Portapique.

Judge Al Bégin held a teleconference Thursday with the Crown attorneys in the case, along with a number of media representatives, including a reporter from the Saltwire Network, to set the ground rules for the Monday session, which will also be conducted over the telephone because of social distancing related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The judge's first order of business Thursday was dealing with an email from Crown attorneys Mark Heerema and Shauna Macdonald, whom he said suggested there was no urgency in dealing with the application and which the judge appeared to be opposed to having the warrants unsealed.

“I reject Crown counsel's suggestion that there is no urgency to this,” Bégin said. “This was the largest mass murder in Canadian history and it left my jurisdiction shattered, the province of Nova Scotia shocked and the country stunned.”

The shooter, whose name is generally being withheld out

of respect for the victims and their families, murdered 22 people between April 18 and 19 in a series of shootings and structure fires that began in the Portapique area and ended approximately 13 hours later in Enfield, when he was fatally shot by the RCMP.

During Thursday's teleconference, Bégin also stressed that “it is important to recognize that each court determines its own schedule.”

And, given that court cases scheduled in Truro and across the province have been postponed to at least June or July, Bégin said, there is no reason not to immediately deal with the application to unseal the warrants.

“If information, and I haven't made any decisions yet, but if information is deemed releasable after a hearing it should be done in a timely way,” he said. “This means I have the time now to deal with this before we enter the possibility of the possible madness of overburdened court dockets starting in June. Now is the best time to deal with this.”

If the Crown decides to contest the Monday hearing, Bégin said he will be “setting strict guidelines” going forward for briefs and hearing dates.