Nova Scotia mass shooting victims’ families press for RCMP to testify at inquiry

Editor’s note: The details in this story are disturbing.

The public inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass shooting is hearing from lawyers for victims’ families Monday on why they want to call RCMP officers and a key 911 operator to the stand.

Sandra McCulloch, a lawyer for 14 of the 22 victims’ families, cited the need to have five supervising officers testify to explain their decisions on the night of April 18, 2020, as the killer’s 13-hour rampage began in Portapique, N.S.

For example, she says she wants to ask a supervising officer, Staff Sgt. Brian Rehill, about his comment that sending more officers into the enclave would have created the risk of Mounties shooting at each other.

Lawyers for the Mounties and the RCMP police union said questions to the officers can be addressed through written responses and it may be more relevant to call them later in the hearings.

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Commission chairman Michael MacDonald said during his opening remarks that the commission does “expect to hear from” the RCMP officers being sought as witnesses, but the timing and format has yet to be determined.

The proceedings have a mandate to be “trauma-informed,” and the police union has argued officers could be re-traumatized if they are forced to testify. However, McCulloch argued it may cause families trauma not to hear a full account of police actions.

On April 18, 2020, at least 19 victims were killed during a 12-hour spree, which only ended when RCMP officers took out the lone suspect, Gabriel Wortman, at a gas station north of Halifax.

The shooting began that Saturday evening with a firearms complaint in Portapique.

When officers arrived, they reportedly found “several casualties” inside and outside a home in the area, but Wortman was not there. He led police on a lengthy chase, and at one point, the 51-year-old wore a police uniform and drove a mock-up cruiser while on his killing spree across the province’s northern area. He was killed after being intercepted by officers at a gas station in Enfield, N.S.

Police have said it will take a long time to chronicle everything that occurred during the rampage, which is now the deadliest shooting in Canadian history.

– With files from Claire Fenton and Hana Mae Nassar