Head of committee monitoring response to N.S. mass shooting satisfied with progress

The head of a committee monitoring the government’s response to the inquiry into the 2020 Nova Scotia mass killing says she’s pleased with progress made so far.

Myra Freeman was appointed chair three months ago to the independent committee monitoring how governments and police forces are implementing recommendations from the report into the shooting that killed 22 people.

The federal-provincial inquiry filed a 3,000-page report with 130 non-binding recommendations into such things as community safety and well-being, police reform and public mental health, access to firearms, and gender-based violence.

Freeman said today in an update briefing that she is satisfied that meaningful progress is being made by police and governments in many areas.

However, she didn’t give details or release any supporting documents, explaining that her group’s first annual report will come in November.

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Freeman says the recommendations are complex and require a “huge amount” of co-ordination to implement them all.

The public inquiry’s final report, released in March 2023, offered a harsh critique of the RCMP’s actions in April 2020, when a man disguised as a Mountie and driving a replica RCMP cruiser fatally shot friends, neighbours and strangers during a 13-hour rampage through northern and central Nova Scotia.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 19, 2024.