'It just can’t be left to happen that way again': Families affected by N.S. shooting call for action, better supports

Over several days in September, the Mass Casualty Commission held a series of closed-door consultations with family members and others affected by the April 2020 Nova Scotia mass shooting.

What the commissioners heard was criticism of the RCMP, discontent with some of the decisions made by the MCC, and of the lack of access to mental health services and support after the tragedy.

The transcripts of the sessions were made public by the commission Thursday.

The lawyer representing many families and survivors of the shootings says it was an opportunity for them to speak directly to those in charge of the inquiry, after spending months observing public proceedings.

“Some of them would say this should have come sooner,” says Sandra McCulloch. “But nevertheless, that they had the opportunity to have their voices heard was very important.”

Many family members laid bare their criticisms of the RCMP’s lack of command coordination, failure to issue an emergency alert, and poor communications during and after the events of April 18-19, 2020.

Nick Beaton described the moment an RCMP officer came to his home and told him his wife Kristen and their unborn child had been killed after an agonizing eight hours waiting for news.

“One guy got out and his first words to me was like, 'You will be happy to know ...  you're the first one notified,' is what he said to me,” Beaton said. “And I still don't know how I didn't knock him out."

His mother, Bev Beaton, told commissioners she had to distract her young grandson while Beaton collapsed to the ground in grief. She said that terrible moment came only after her son had told police he'd go to the crime scene to find out himself if they didn’t notify him soon as to Kristen’s whereabouts.

“There's no way in hell that a victim's family should have to feel like they have no other option," she said.

She described how officers at the crime scene on Plains Road near Debert had failed to cover her daughter-in-law’s body with a blanket, and images of her remains ended up online, including a six-minute video.

The RCMP had the images taken down.

“Do I feel right now today this could happen again in our community? One hundred per cent,” she told the commissioners. “Do I think the RCMP would be ready for it if it happened today? No.”

She and other family members also criticized decisions made by the commissioners, such as allowing some RCMP witnesses to appear behind closed doors, and allowing Gabriel Wortman's former spouse, Lisa Banfield, to appear without live cross-examination from participant lawyers.

The daughter of retired firefighter Tom Bagley, who was murdered in Wentworth on the second day of the killings, questioned the MCC’s “trauma-informed” approach.

"... one thing that continued to traumatize me after this event ... was basically feeling like ... everywhere we turned, a wall was put up for us," said Charlene Bagley.

Many of those left behind -- both family members of the victims and survivors in affected communities -- described difficulties trying to access mental health care both in the months after the tragedy, and even now.

Ryan Farrington’s mother and stepfather, Frank and Dawn Gulenchyn, were killed in their home in Portapique.

Farrington lives in Ontario, which he said made it even more difficult to access care.

“I didn't hear anything from anybody,” he said, “I just felt like I was in the dark and had absolutely nobody to lean on ..."

Jennifer Zahl Bruland travelled from the United States to describe to commissioners her experience after her father, U.S. Navy veteran John Zahl, and her stepmother, Joanne Thomas, were killed by the gunman in Portapique.

“I had to call victims services and tell them, ‘Do you know that your number is not accessible from the United States?’ They acted shocked. Nobody had bothered to check,” she said. Counseling services, there was six months or more before my counsellor could be added, and then it took more months for them to figure out that she needed to be paid in U.S. dollars.”

“There was a lot of people that were sort of missed in the process,” says Scott McLeod, the brother of victim Sean McLeod. “When somebody's dealing with the mental health side of something like this, a five-minute meet and greet's not an end-all for anything.”

McLeod’s session with the commissioners also included several residents of Portapique, who spoke of the trauma of still living in the shattered community, and the lack of regular and meaningful contact with Victims Services.

“I don’t hear from them at all,” said former resident Mallory Colpitts. “In fact, the last time I ... asked a question about a treatment option, they told me they would get back to me and never did.”

Darrin Murphy, whose brother, Bernie, was also a resident of Portapique, said Bernie changed after the tragedy.

“I talked to my brother about two months after this happened ... And he told me that he was told that it would take up to nine months to get to mental health. And when I seen him, I didn’t recognize him. He was not the same person we knew,” he said.

Bernie Murphy died in December, and his sister-in-law told the commission she believed the stress and what he experienced, “contributed to his death.”

Survivor Leon Joudrey was also part of the small group session, telling the commissioners he never received a call from Victims Services.

“When you're shaking every day and somebody tells you, ‘it'll be three weeks,’ doesn’t help you much,” said Joudrey.

Joudrey died suddenly Sunday. The week before, he told CTV News in an interview about the “hell” he was enduring, unable to sell his home and move away from the memories that haunted him in Portapique.

“When you are struggling and have to call a list of 10 or 15 different service providers ... that's just not good enough,” says McCulloch. “Hopefully this is something the commission will really dig into in its final report. We need to pay attention to what those individuals need and not leave any behind to struggle and suffer on their own, to try to find to find their own way out of this tragedy, or a tragedy like this in the future."

“It just can’t be left to happen that way again,” she says.