Less than a week after the federal and Nova Scotia governments announced that an independent panel will review April’s shooting rampage in Nova Scotia, federal Minister of Public Safety Bill Blair announced Tuesday a full public inquiry into the worst mass murder in Canadian history.
A gunman disguised as a police officer cut a swath of mayhem in a 13-hour gun rampage across rural Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, killing 22 people and setting buildings and vehicles ablaze until he was shot by police.
“The tragedy that took place in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, 2020 devastated families, friends and communities,” Blair said in a statement. “Canadians deserve answers to how such a tragedy could occur.”
The announcement came after days of mounting pressure on Ottawa and the provincial government of Nova Scotia by victims’ families, civil society groups and politicians, including Liberal MPs from Nova Scotia, to hold a full public inquiry with powers to compel witnesses to testify under oath instead of the independent review that lacked those powers.
In a statement on Facebook Tuesday morning, Sean Fraser, the MP for Central Nova and the parliamentary secretary to the minister of finance, said he was “deeply upset” by last Thursday’s decision to move forward with a review instead of a public inquiry.
“If ever there was a moment to listen to Nova Scotians and reconsider the path being taken, it is now,” Fraser said in his post.
Darren Fisher, MP for Dartmouth-Cole Harbour, also said in a tweet Tuesday he’s been “advocating” for a public inquiry.
“We have heard calls from families, survivors, advocates, and Nova Scotia Members of Parliament for more transparency,” Blair said.
Under the authority of the Inquiries Act, the full public inquiry will include the power to summon witnesses and require them to give evidence, produce documents and “things as the commissioners deem requisite to the full investigation of the matters into which they are appointed to examine,” Blair added.
Former Nova Scotia chief justice Michael MacDonald, former federal justice minister Anne McLellan and Leanne Fitch, a former chief of the Fredericton Police Force in neighbouring New Brunswick, who were recruited to be members of the independent review, have agreed to assist in the public inquiry and will serve as commissioners, Blair said.
Earlier in the day, Nova Scotia’s Minister of Justice and Attorney General, Mark Furey, said that if the federal government agreed to a joint public inquiry where federal agencies including the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Canada Border Services Agency, Criminal Intelligence Services Canada, Canadian Firearms Registry and the Public Alert Ready System will participate and offer testimony, his government would support that.
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