Trudeau Liberals' $48-million study finds 'whiteness' of gunman facilitated Portapique, NS massacre

A $48-million study into the 2020 Portapique, N.S. mass shootings blames the bloodshed on the race of the white “perpetrator” and suggests violence prevention is more effective than imprisoning violent offenders.

The report, released recently, is the result of months of public hearings but the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report, blames the whiteness of the gunman and suggests that incarceration of men committing domestic violence is not a helpful response.

Gabriel Wortman went on a 13-hour rampage on April 18 and 19, killing 22 people, including a pregnant mother. 

The report states, “The perpetrator’s pattern of violent and intimidating behaviour was facilitated by the power and privilege he experienced as a white man with professional status and substantial means.” 

The commission’s findings suggest there are a number of “risk factors” that could lead to domestic homicide, including owning pets and livestock and suggest women need to assess their own safety.

“The gender-based violence advocacy and support sector is working to deepen our contextualized understanding of risk factors through a variety of initiatives, including domestic homicide reviews, action research projects that include interviews and collaborations with survivors, research into specific issues such as the role of pets and livestock ownership in risk assessments, and development of risk assessment tools that can be used by women themselves and by organizations that serve them.”

The report recommends that mandatory arrest and incarceration for domestic violence incidents should be replaced by a violence prevention system that can “identify and address patterns of violent behavior” rather than punishing offending individuals.

“Community-based reporting systems should include the capacity to move beyond individual incidents and identify and address patterns of violent behaviour. (d) Community-based reporting systems should be linked with the police in a manner that takes into account the input and needs of women survivors. MAIN FINDING:d Mandatory arrest and charging policies and protocols have often failed to keep women safe and have resulted in unintended harms that in some cases endanger women. LESSON LEARNED: Mandatory arrest and charging policies and protocols for offences arising from intimate partner violence should be abolished and replaced by a new women-centred framework that focuses on violence prevention rather than a carceral response.”

The report encourages the federal government to gather together all affected parties of domestic violence and “develop a national framework for a women-centred approach” to the issue that focuses almost entirely on violence prevention.

“The federal government initiate and support a collaborative process that brings together the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector, policy-makers, the legal community, community safety and law enforcement agencies, and other interested parties to develop a national framework for a women-centred approach to responding to intimate partner violence, including structured decision-making by police that focuses on violence prevention.”