GOV'T REVIEW SHOWS DISRESPECT FOR NOVA SCOTIANS

   The federal-provincial review of the worst mass shooting in Canadian history will have no power to subpoena evidence or compel testimony. Announced Thursday in Halifax, it is required to hold no public hearings, but will conduct its work in camera. It is explicitly ordered to keep secret “all documents and information collected, received and/or considered … during its work.” It is not mandated to consider whether Nova Scotia, where the faith of many in the Mounties was shaken by the April rampage, should continue using the RCMP as its rural and small-town police force.
   This adds up to a disgusting abdication of accountability and responsibility.
   The Portapique calamity left 23 people dead, including 21 civilians, one RCMP officer, and the lone gunman. For 13 hours, police fetishist Gabriel Wortman ranged across a wide swath of Nova Scotia, shooting acquaintances and strangers at will.

   The RCMP response was slow, chaotic, and ineffective. The Mounties failed to use a provincial alert system designed to protect citizens from this sort of event. They failed to set up a secondary perimeter around the original crime scene. They failed to enlist nearby municipal police to block highways the gunman used. The officers who did respond were ill-equipped, inexperienced, and ill-trained.