'That's not acceptable': Families of N.S. shooting victims, lawyers boycott inquiry in protest
'That's not acceptable': Families of N.S. shooting victims, lawyers boycott inquiry in protest
'That's not acceptable': Families of N.S. shooting victims, lawyers boycott inquiry in protest
TRURO, N.S. -
There were plenty of empty seats at the Mass Casualty Commission's first day in Truro, N.S., Wednesday -- seats that would normally be filled.
It was the result of a boycott of the inquiry by many of those whose loved ones were killed in Nova Scotia's mass shooting in April 2020.
“It's total bullshit. I'll call it what it is,” said Nick Beaton, whose pregnant wife Kristen was killed on the second day of Gabriel Wortman’s massacre.
He joined his lawyers for a news conference in downtown Truro Wednesday to say the commission is failing.
“When these three (commissioners) got hired on, they have the power to subpoena and ask any question in the world, to anybody, and they're not using it," he said. “And they're scrubbing, they're scrubbing the words before they come out.”
Any other questions from other lawyers must be submitted in writing, to be asked at counsel's discretion.
"Two of the most critical RCMP members who assisted with the response in Portapique are being kept away from our clients,” says lawyer Sandra McCulloch. “That's not acceptable to our clients.”
“Our clients don't want to be used as pawns,” adds lawyer Rob Pineo. “Lending legitimacy to the process as if we're in agreement with how this commission is being run in that regard.”
Other lawyers are also boycotting proceedings.
Tara Miller, who represents another relative of Kristen Beaton, told CTV News she will not attend this week or the next. The lawyer for the Bond family, Joshua Bryson, won’t be attending next week on the instruction of his clients.
"We feel like, if we're going to be marginalized to this extent, there's really not much point in us being here to participate in these two witnesses,” says Bryson.
The commission insists accommodations don't keep it from doing its work.
“We will not allow accommodations that prevent the commission from gathering necessary information,” head commissioner Michael MacDonald told the commission in his opening statements Wednesday.
Senior commission counsel Emily Hill says the inquiry doesn't have any other requests for special accommodations at this point in time.
“But if we receive those requests, we'll deal with them in the same way,” says Hill.
That’s not exactly what Nick Beaton and his lawyers want to hear, in a search for answers they say the inquiry is only making more difficult on families.
“My baby, my wife are gone, nothing's going to change that,” says Beaton. “But I'm trying to stop the next husband, father, from going through the same thing. I’m not going to stop fighting.”
Wednesday, the commission heard testimony from Staff Sgt. Bruce Briers, who served as an RCMP risk manager on April 19, 2020 – the second day of the mass shooting.
Twenty-two Nova Scotians were killed in the rampage over April 18 and 19, 2020.
Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race, after ballots have already begun to be mailed out, and his campaign is fighting back against what it calls anonymous allegations.
Air Canada and Toronto's Pearson airport again claimed the top spots for flight delays on Tuesday, marking at least four days in a row where the country's biggest airline has placed No. 1 of any large carrier worldwide.
Canada's immigration department is restarting all Express Entry draws for immigration applications Wednesday, after pausing the program 18 months ago during the pandemic.
An emergency room physician is urging governments to address the country’s shortfall of health-care workers in light of the recent temporary shutdowns of emergency departments and the staffing downsizing at others.
A high school friend of B.C. teen Amanda Todd has testified he took action when he saw what he described as a 'pornographic' picture of her on Facebook in November 2011.
Kevin McCarthy, 37, and Irina McCarthy, 35, the parents of a two-year-old boy, were among seven people killed in the Chicago-area mass shooting on July 4.
The father of the Edmonton girl who was missing for nine days said he was getting ready to post another update on Facebook last Saturday when police knocked on his door.
Ryan Somes and Anthea Stanley were, by most standards, living a successful life in Toronto. With two kids under six, the couple had a home in Trinity Bellwoods and held high-end positions in the finance industry. But something still felt amiss, they said.
Calgarians and visitors to the city will have a chance to see a Royal Canadian Air Force tactical helicopter fly overhead when the Calgary Stampede kicks off.
Two young emergency room doctors, raised and trained in Montreal, are leaving their jobs after only two years to move back to Toronto – and they say the Quebec health-care model and Bill 96 are to blame.
An ambulance shortage and reduced clinic hours in Quebec's Abitibi-Temiscamingue region were not critical factors in the death of a 65-year-old man, a coroner has ruled.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are continuing their upward trajectory in Quebec, with the health ministry reporting an increase of 56 -- that's 183 entries and 127 discharges -- in 24 hours.
The father of the Edmonton girl who was missing for nine days said he was getting ready to post another update on Facebook last Saturday when police knocked on his door.
Canada's immigration department is restarting all Express Entry draws for immigration applications Wednesday, after pausing the program 18 months ago during the pandemic.
Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race, after ballots have already begun to be mailed out, and his campaign is fighting back against what it calls anonymous allegations.
June sales of Toronto homes fell by just over 41 per cent compared with the same month last year as higher borrowing costs weighed on the market, the region's real estate board said Wednesday.
Slumlords were squarely in the crosshairs of city council on Tuesday evening, but how to best ensure renters have safe and properly maintained housing proved divisive.
Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race, after ballots have already begun to be mailed out, and his campaign is fighting back against what it calls anonymous allegations.
New sub-variants of COVID-19 are in Manitoba, with scientists watching trends warning the mutated version of the Omicron variant called BA.5 is highly transmissible.
Ontario’s police watchdog has dropped its investigation into a 23-year-old woman who jumped out of a fourth-floor hotel room window when police knocked on the door.
Patrick Brown has been disqualified from the federal Conservative leadership race, after ballots have already begun to be mailed out, and his campaign is fighting back against what it calls anonymous allegations.
Environment Canada has issued a tornado warning for the R.M. of Kindersley including Kindersley Brock and Flaxcombe, and the R.M. of Oakdale including Coleville.
A group of Ukrainians who fled the war at home are waking up to a new life in Saskatchewan, they arrived in Regina Monday night on a humanitarian flight from Poland.
A 24-year-old man who was arrested near the east end Canadian Tire on Tuesday is connected to two recent robberies and two other incidents, the Regina Police Service (RPS) said in a news release.
Saskatchewan Roughriders' defensive linemen Pete Robertson and Anthony Lanier were named two of the Canadian Football League’s (CFL) top performers in Week 4.
Home sales in Greater Victoria dropped last month by 35 per cent since June 2021, with 612 properties sold compared to 942 properties last year, according to the region's real estate board,
From the moment a volunteer team from Langford crossed the Ukrainian border, it became real for them. Life in a warzone doesn't come to a halt when you live in Ukraine.
