Five years later, the families of the victims of Canada’s worst murder spree are still looking for answers
Anatomy of a Cover-Up
By Paul Palango
Paul Palango
Photo: © Sharon McNamara
About the Author
PAUL PALANGO is a veteran investigative journalist. He started his career at the Hamilton Spectator, his hometown newspaper. In 1977, he joined the Globe and Mail as a reporter, and between 1983 and his resignation in 1990, he served successively as its sports editor, Metro editor, and, eventually, national editor. During his tenure at the Globe, Palango’s reporters swept the Centre for Investigative Reporting Awards in five consecutive years. In 1989, he accepted the Michener Award on behalf of the Globe.
Paul Palango
Intro
Paul Palango
Intro
22 Murders by Paul Palango
Paul Palango
As
news broke of a killer rampaging across the tiny community of
Portapique, Nova Scotia, late on April 18, 2020, details were oddly hard
to come by. Who was the killer? Why was he not apprehended? What were
police doing? How many were dead? And why was the gunman still on the
loose the next morning and killing again? The RCMP was largely silent
then, and continued to obscure the actions of denturist Gabriel Wortman
after an officer shot and killed him at a gas station during a chance
encounter.
Though retired as an investigative journalist and
author, Paul Palango spent much of his career reporting on Canada's
troubled national police force. Watching the RCMP stumble through the
Portapique massacre, only a few hours from his Nova Scotia home, Palango
knew the story behind the headlines was more complicated and damning
than anyone was willing to admit. With the COVID-19 lockdown sealing off
the Maritimes, no journalist in the province knew the RCMP better than
Palango did. Within a month, he was back in print and on the radio,
peeling away the layers of this murderous episode as only he could, and
unearthing the collision of failure and malfeasance that cost a quiet
community 22 innocent lives. (From Random House Canada)
Paul Palango is a Canadian investigative journalist. He started his career at the Hamilton Spectator, his hometown newspaper. In 1977, he joined the Globe and Mail as
a reporter, and between 1983 and his resignation in 1990, he served
successively as its sports editor, Metro editor, and, eventually,
national editor. During his tenure at the Globe, Palango's reporters swept the Centre for Investigative Reporting Awards in five consecutive years.