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27 minutes: the RCMP’s communications division hesitated when the public most needed to be warned about the mass murderer

June 9, 2022 By Tim Bousquet 3 Comments

Twenty-seven minutes. That’s how much time passed during which a written tweet sat on a computer screen before someone pressed “tweet” to make it public. The prepared tweet read: “#Colchester: [perpetrator’s name] may be driving what appears to be an RCMP vehicle & may be wearing an RCMP uniform. There’s 1 difference btwn his car […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Aaron Patton, Adam Merchant, Alert Ready, Chief Dave MacNeil, Cpl. Jennifer Clarke, Cst. Heidi Stevenson, Debert, Emergency Alert Team (ERT), Enfield, gun violence, Hunter Road, Immediate Action Rapid Deployment (IARD), Jeff West, Lia Scanlan, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Nova Scotia Mass Casualty Commission (MCC), Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather, RCMP twitter alert, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Staff Sergeant Steve Halliday, Staff Sgt. Al Carroll, Staff Sgt. Brian Rehill, Staff Sgt. Bruce Briers, Staff-Sergeant Addie MacCallum, Stuart Beselt, Wentworth

Here’s all the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020

April 26, 2022 By Tim Bousquet, Jennifer Henderson, Joan Baxter, Yvette d'Entremont, Suzanne Rent, Zane Woodford, Philip Moscovitch, Stephen Kimber, El Jones, Erica Butler, Paul Palango and Chris Murphy

Articles      Twitter threads April 2020 was a difficult time in Nova Scotia. A strange new virus was loose in the world, and no one knew what would happen. Nova Scotia was under lockdown — restaurants and bars were closed, schools were online, health orders prohibited people from gathering socially, and the disease had entered […]

Filed Under: Featured, Investigation, News, Policing Tagged With: Debert, Enfield, Hunter Road, inquiry, Mass Casualty Commission (MCC), Mass murder, Nova Scotia massacre, Onslow Fire Hall, Portapique, RCMP, shooting, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Wentworth

Time for a serious rethink of the Serious Incident Response Team?

A mentally disturbed man holding a pellet gun is shot and killed by police who mistook it for a handgun. The officer who killed him fired when the man pointed his fake gun at police after another officer had fired a rubber bullet at him and missed... There must be better ways to handle these cases. Just don't ask SIRT to suggest those ways.

March 14, 2021 By Stephen Kimber 6 Comments

On July 9, 2020, the RCMP responded to a “call of an armed man who was uttering threats” at a home where he lived with his mother in Eastern Passage. “When police arrived,” the Mounties said in a news release after the incident, “they located the man, a 60-year-old from Eastern Passage, armed with a […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured Tagged With: Felix Cacchione, justice, mass killing Nova Scotia, Santina Rao, SIRT

This is why the Halifax Examiner keeps going to court

Morning File, Wednesday, May 20, 2020

May 20, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 7 Comments

News 1. New info on mass shooting Yesterday, I wrote two articles about the April 18/19 mass murders. One is “Court document provides new info on mass murder,” which provides new information about what happened in Portapique that terrible Saturday night and a chilling eyewitness account to the murders of Cst. Heidi Stevenson and Joey […]

Filed Under: Featured Tagged With: Canadian Border Security Agency (CBSA), CBSA, Debert, Enfield, fake RCMP car, FOIPOP, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, redacted ITO, search warrants, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Wentworth

Murderer escaped Portapique within 10 minutes of police arriving

April 28, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 2 Comments

RCMP Support Services Officer Darren Campbell provided an update today on the investigation into the April 18-19 massacre across Nova Scotia. New information includes: • 435 witnesses have been identified, and about half of them have been interviewed; • it’s not known if anyone assisted the murderer, who we’re calling “GW,” in planning or preparing for […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Darren Campbell, Debert, Enfield, fake RCMP car, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, Shubenacadie, SIRT, timeline, Wentworth

Portapique tragedy: We need a full public inquiry

It isn't about assigning blame. But there are questions we need to answer, and it isn’t good enough for the RCMP to conduct an internal investigation into what happened and why, and then tell us what they decide we’re allowed to know.

April 26, 2020 By Stephen Kimber 3 Comments

Late on the afternoon of Sunday, April 19, I sat in front of my television waiting for an RCMP briefing I fully expected would help me make sense of the confusing cascade of disjointed, disconcerting, increasingly frightening news bytes and bulletins that had tumbled out and over one another all that day. I’d woken to […]

Filed Under: Commentary, Featured, News Tagged With: Debert, Enfield, fake RCMP car, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, Mass murder, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, Portapique shooting, Public Inquiry, rampage, RCMP, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Wentworth

These are the 22 people murdered in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020

April 22, 2020 By Erica Butler, Joan Baxter, Jennifer Henderson, Tim Bousquet, Philip Moscovitch, Yvette d'Entremont, Linda Pannozzo and El Jones 1 Comment

Lisa McCully Lisa was a school teacher who was instrumental in keeping the Debert Elementary School open; Gina Goulet Gina was a denturist in Shubenacadie, a two-time cancer survivor, avid sport fisher and Cuban salsa dancer. “She really loved life,” her daughter Amelia Butler told the Globe and Mail. “She was a fighter.” Gina had two […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Debert, Enfield, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, Shubenacadie, SIRT, victims, Wentworth

“There’s a person down there with a gun”: first responder audio from the beginning of the murder spree

April 22, 2020 By Tim Bousquet Leave a Comment

The Halifax Examiner has obtained audio of first responders responding to the call to Portapique Saturday night, soon after the mass murder spree began. This audio clip starts at about 11:08pm Saturday night. Here’s a rough transcript of that audio: So there’s a structure fire. There’s a person down there with a gun. They’re still […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Debert, Enfield, first responder audio Nova Scotia, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Wentworth

There are 22 victims in the weekend murder spree

An RCMP statement about the the tragedy is vague and misleading.

April 21, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 5 Comments

The number of victims in last weekend’s mass murder rampage is 22. Additionally, the RCMP says other people were injured, but the police are not saying how many others, or who they are. That information comes from an RCMP statement issued Tuesday afternoon. As written, the release says that “We believe there to be 23 […]

Filed Under: Featured, News Tagged With: Debert, Enfield, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, Shubenacadie, SIRT, victims, Wentworth

RCMP investigator: There are “in excess of 19 victims” in Nova Scotia’s mass murder rampage

April 20, 2020 By Tim Bousquet 2 Comments

Police have confirmed that there are now “in excess of 19 victims” in yesterday’s mass murder rampage in Nova Scotia, said Chris Leather, the chief investigative officer for the RCMP in Nova Scotia. The Halifax Examiner has identified 15 of the victims. However, Leather said there are 16 crime scenes in Portapique and other northern […]

Filed Under: Featured, News, Province House Tagged With: Chris Leather, Debert, Enfield, gun violence, Hunter Road, mass killing, mass shooting, massacre, murder spree, Nova Scotia, Onslow Fire Hall, Policing, Portapique, rampage, RCMP, shooting rampage Nova Scotia, Shubenacadie, SIRT, Wentworth

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PRICED OUT

A collage of various housing options in HRM, including co-ops, apartment buildings, shelters, and tents
PRICED OUT is the Examiner’s investigative reporting project focused on the housing crisis.

You can learn about the project, including how we’re asking readers to direct our reporting, our published articles, and what we’re working on, on the PRICED OUT homepage.

2020 mass murders

Nine images illustrating the locations, maps, and memorials of the mass shootings

All of the Halifax Examiner’s reporting on the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020, and recent articles on the Mass Casualty Commission and newly-released documents.

Updated regularly.

Uncover: Dead Wrong

In 1995, Brenda Way was brutally murdered behind a Dartmouth apartment building. In 1999, Glen Assoun was found guilty of the murder. He served 17 years in prison, but steadfastly maintained his innocence. In 2019, Glen Assoun was fully exonerated.

Halifax Examiner founder and investigative journalist Tim Bousquet has followed the story of Glen Assoun's wrongful conviction for over five years. Now, Bousquet tells that story as host of Season 7 of the CBC podcast series Uncover: Dead Wrong.

Click here to go to listen to the podcast, or search for CBC Uncover on Apple podcasts, Spotify, or any other podcast aggregator.

The Tideline, with Tara Thorne

A young white woman with dark hair and a purple shirt lies on a large rock at dusk, looking up at the sky and playing her banjolele.

Episode 85 of The Tideline, with Tara Thorne, is published.

Logan Robins (writer/director/composer) and Katherine Norris (star/composer) of the Unnatural Disaster Theatre Company are on the show this week ahead of their provincial tour of HIPPOPOSTUMOUS, Robins’ musical exploration of invasive species, colonization, environmentalism, and history. Hear how Pablo Escobar’s personal hippos have invaded and are ruining a section of Colombia, why Robins was intrigued to make a show about it, and all the places you can catch it this July. Plus Norris cracks out the banjolele to perform one of the show’s songs. And the new jam from Beauts!

Listen to the episode here.

Check out some of the past episodes here.

Subscribe to the podcast to get episodes automatically downloaded to your device — there’s a great instructional article here. Email Suzanne for help.

You can reach Tara here.

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  • Halifax council votes to plan for Centennial Pool replacement, support universal basic income, and more June 28, 2022
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