I understand you're busy. You're the commanding officer of the Nova Scotia RCMP. The RCMP got this report yesterday at 9:00 in the morning, I understand.

One of the things we've heard from victims' families and from survivors is that they've lost trust in the force. What does it say to them that a day after you got your hands on the report, you haven't looked at it?

As you realize, it came out yesterday. It's my full expectation that I will read the report in its entirety. I've committed to Nova Scotians that we will act on each of the recommendations. 

However, what I also like to point out is that we did not wait for the Mass Casualty Commission's report to come out. We recognized areas that we needed to improve. 

We've made significant changes here in Nova Scotia that will benefit Nova Scotians. It'll benefit policing across the country. It will benefit the RCMP. 

Darcy Dobson, right, daughter of victim Heather O'Brien, and Nick Beaton, husband of victim Kristen Beaton, embrace before the delivery of the final report of the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry into the 2020 N.S. mass shooting. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

One of the most shocking things that comes out [of the report] is that police, in the words of the commissioners, did not provide advice to community members on what needed to happen to ensure that they were safe. How does something like that happen?

I think what happens during a dynamic event is that the information doesn't get relayed where it needs to go.… Recognize that our first responders went into a nightmare there and, you know, did their best efforts at their own peril to respond to this. 

What I can tell you is that we have made improvements not only here in Nova Scotia but across the country on the use of emergency alerting. We were used to it through Amber Alerts and weather events, but we've taken significant strides — as policing has across the country — to activate the emergency alerting.

Here in Nova Scotia, since then, we've used it over 18 times. So we've progressed significantly, which gives that early warning to communities. 

I would also say that on our public communications, that follow-up is so very important to me in the transparency and the accountability. So we've taken additional steps to really talk plain language with the community, to warn them of what is taking place.

Part of [the] future vision, if I can put it that way, for policing that came out of … the presentation of the report, and in the report itself, is this idea that the focus in many ways of policing should be: how do we prevent future violence? What does that say to you?

Any time we can strengthen partnerships, we can strengthen work with stakeholders, we can work better with communities — because it's really a whole of a community.

Friends, family and supporters of the victims of the 2020 mass killings in rural Nova Scotia react at the beginning of the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry's final report. (Darren Calabrese/The Canadian Press)

The reality, though, is that three years after this awful tragedy, there are many people in this community that just don't trust the RCMP. We spoke with Darcy Dobson. She is the daughter of Heather O'Brien, who was killed in those 13 hours. She said that there will never be a time when she sees a police car that a shiver doesn't go down her spine. What does that say to you?

It is disappointing, and I heard that myself this afternoon from one of the family members. It's not something that I want to hear because policing, we're here to serve. We're here to assist.

But the people don't trust you. The people who are in this community don't trust you.

I do recognize the need to rebuild those relationships. What I'm hoping is that they do see us taking the report [seriously]. They do see us changing. They do see us evolving and even implementing changes before the report came out. 

What will show people in this community that things are different, that things would be different the next time if, God forbid, there was a similar tragedy here?

I think they've already seen with emergency alerting that things are different. In Nova Scotia since April of 2020, we've had 18 such alerts. So I think they've seen the difference. They've seen us adjusting to the new reality. 

I think by doing interviews such as this, where I'm willing to come before interviews to talk about the RCMP, talk about policing, I think that increases the transparency. 

With files from CBC News. Produced by Amanda Grant and Mary-Catherine McIntosh. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.

When Jessica Zita opened the Mass Casualty Commission's final report this week, she says she felt deeply moved by the focus on gender-based violence and specifically how her client Lisa Banfield has been mistreated.

"It's validating for her," said Zita. "It validates her experience and her feelings, which have been challenged and brought into question significantly the last three years."

Banfield was in an abusive relationship for two decades with Gabriel Wortman — the man responsible for killing 22 people in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020. His shooting rampage started in Portapique with a violent attack on Banfield, who managed to escape in the woods near their home.

In the weeks and months that followed, an undercurrent of skepticism burbled across the province about Banfield's role that night and the fact she never reported his abuse.

The commissioners made a point in their final report to call out those critics.

Jessica Zita is one of the lawyers who represented Lisa Banfield at the Mass Casualty Commission. (Michael Cole/CBC)

"In our view, this powerful myth or stereotype led to the perception that Ms. Banfield had some level of responsibility for the mass casualty and contributed to the ensuing victim-blaming dynamic," the report said.

"She is in no way responsible for the perpetrator's actions but rather is a victim of his violent acts. She was not aware of what he was planning, nor is it reasonable to hold her responsible for the lack of reporting on his prior violent behaviours."

Banfield knew her spouse owned illegal guns and smuggled them across the U.S. border. She told the public inquiry last July she never went to police about the violence she endured because he held a gun to her head and threatened to hurt her family.

She testified that's exactly what she believed he intended when he couldn't find her the night of the rampage. 

In the final report, the commissioners stated that Banfield was not only a survivor of the mass casualty event — she was also a victim.

"I take that as almost a communication that Lisa should not be apologetic for being a victim and being a survivor and that's such a powerful statement," Zita said.

'Single most important' lesson

The commissioners declared their position on gender-based violence, stating "we believe this
lesson to be the single most important one to be learned from this mass casualty."

They described it as an epidemic that, like the COVID-19 pandemic, warrants a "meaningful, whole of society response."

"It is alarming to know that some people responded to the early RCMP communications on the night of April 18, 2020, by thinking, 'It's a domestic situation.' The mistaken implication is that a 'domestic situation' is not one that sets off warning bells."

The commission's report also takes aim at the RCMP for its "failure to take meaningful steps" to follow up on a report from former neighbour Brenda Forbes, who claims she told police in 2013 that Banfield was a victim of domestic violence and that Wortman had illegal guns. 

The commissioners concluded that Forbes's complaint was never properly investigated.

Victimized again

"The failure to take meaningful steps in response to Brenda Forbes' report concerning the perpetrator's 2013 assault on Lisa Banfield is an example of a more general pattern of systemic inadequacies in response to gender-based violence," the commissioners wrote. 

"This failure is striking given Ms. Forbes' third-party report of the assault including information about the perpetrator's illegal possession of firearms and her ongoing concerns about Ms. Banfield's safety."

The RCMP's handling of Banfield in the months following the mass casualty also caught the attention of the commissioners.

"The RCMP's treatment of Lisa Banfield during the RCMP's H-Strong investigation is an example of the kind of revictimization that makes it less likely that women survivors of gender-based violence will seek help from police," said the report.

She was initially interviewed as a witness by officers while she was in hospital with injuries inflicted by Wortman. She fully co-operated with police as they spent several hours interviewing her. Unbeknownst to Banfield, she later turned into a suspect and was criminally charged in December 2020 for supplying ammunition to the gunman.

But that happened weeks after investigators videotaped a re-enactment with Banfield in Portapique, as she walked them through step-by-step what happened to her on the night of the mass shooting.

The charges were later withdrawn after the case went to restorative justice. 

Zita and her law firm have repeatedly argued that RCMP officers manipulated Banfield's vulnerable status as a victim to benefit their investigation. 

"The RCMP did not treat Ms. Banfield as a surviving victim of the mass casualty; that is, as an important witness who required careful debriefing and who would need support services."

Zita says that finding alone is "powerful."

"If the report is read carefully and implemented — that's its purpose. It's to make sure that there are no more Lisa Banfields," she said.