In February 2014, Mohammed Eshaq fell to his death from the 10th-floor balcony of his South End Halifax apartment. Eshaq lived with schizophrenia, and was an in-patient at the Nova Scotia Hospital’s Simpson Landing at the time. He left on a 15-minute pass and didn’t go back, instead taking transit to his parents’ place. They […]
“Insufficient grounds”
Susie Butlin repeatedly pleaded with the RCMP to intervene to stop her neighbour Junior Duggan from harassing her. The police took no action. A friend says an RCMP officer told Butlin her allegations against Duggan made her, not him, a "menace to society." Three days later, Duggan killed Butlin.
Since September 2017, when her best friend, 58-year-old Susan (Susie) Butlin, was shot and killed in her home at Bayhead, near Tatamagouche, Suzanne Davis has been in pain. Davis still thinks about her friend — whom she’d known since kindergarten — all the time. She says if they didn’t speak on the phone three times […]
What will it take to restart film and TV production?
Morning File, Thursday, June 18, 2020
News 1. New class-action lawsuit proposed against RCMP and attorneys general of Canada, NS Families of those killed on April 18 and 19 in Nova Scotia are suing the RCMP, along with the attorneys general of Canada and Nova Scotia, for failings related to the mass murders. The suit is being brought by Patterson Law […]
Bill Casey: the shooting of the Onslow fire hall reflects a broader RCMP communications failure
The RCMP will pay for damages to the Onslow-Belmont Fire Hall. Two of the force’s officers fired dozens of shots that struck the building during the manhunt for the mass murderer who killed 22 people in April. Luckily, none of the three Belmont firefighters inside the fire hall were injured. Neither were an EMO official […]
Colchester councillor: change in RCMP policing model left information gap on shooter
Mike Gregory knows policing is very different today than it was in 1989 when he arrived as an RCMP officer in Tatamagouche. The recent murderous one-man rampage across central Nova Scotia has made him reflect on those differences. Gregory also served in Digby, Halifax, and Sackville over his 30-year career. In smaller locations especially, he […]
RCMP Rural Policing: Strangers in a Hurry, Policing Strangers
The debate over the RCMP’s response to the mass shootings at Portapique and other rural locations has focused on the lack of awareness of — and response to — earlier community complaints and information about the offender. I am struck by the amount of prior knowledge and information that local residents and neighbours had of […]
Inquiry into mass shooting will be announced soon
A federal-provincial inquiry into the mass shooting that claimed the lives of 22 Nova Scotians could be announced as early as next week after the details are sorted out. Attorney General Mark Furey said yesterday discussions between the province and federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair are in the “final stages.” Premier Stephen McNeil told […]
Mass shooting lawsuit amended; victims’ families call for public inquiry
The class action lawsuit brought against the estate of the man who killed 22 people and injured seven others during a fiery rampage across northern Nova Scotia has been updated through an amended statement of claim. The lawsuit includes three groups of plaintiffs: those whose loved ones were murdered by the person the Halifax Examiner […]
Nova Scotia massacre: Did the RCMP “risk it out” one time too many?
Catharine Mansley was a Mountie for 24 years. In time her mind began to go from all the stress of being a RCMP patrol officer in Halifax County. She began drinking. When she complained about her problem to her supervisors, that just added to them. She was caught driving drunk twice. Convicted once, she went […]
RCMP’s rural policing is an ongoing disaster, say Colchester County councillors
The RCMP’s rural policing strategy has been for many years an ongoing disaster and a danger to the public in Colchester County, say two municipal councillors with law enforcement backgrounds. Most of the victims killed in the Nova Scotia massacre of April 18-19 lived in Colchester County, the majority of them at Portapique at the […]