Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Honourable senators, today I rise to pay tribute to the 22 victims of the shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia, which was and still is the worst mass shooting in Canadian history.

The 22 women and men who lost their lives leave more than just their families in mourning. An entire community is being forced to endure this unspeakable tragedy. This beautiful part of rural Nova Scotia, where everyone knows everyone and where time has stood still since April 2020, is still in pain. Twenty-two innocent victims were shot or burned by a man who was known to have beaten his partner. In fact, it was following an episode of intimate partner violence on April 18, 2020, that the murderer roamed Portapique on a killing spree that lasted over 13 hours.

Public hearings into this tragedy are happening now, and I deplore the Government of Canada’s treatment of the 22 families of the innocent victims. Over the past two years, these families were not invited to be an integral part of the inquiry. They have complained publicly about being kept in the dark as to how the inquiry would work. That shows a lack of respect for the family and friends of the 22 victims. It is also an unacceptable way to re-victimize them and make them suffer all over again.

They should never have been treated this way, because they are the ones most directly affected by this tragedy and therefore the ones who most deserve answers about the RCMP’s responsibility in this matter.

The inquiry has already exposed multiple communication errors made by the RCMP, which was slow to give the public adequate warning to protect them. This would have helped stop the gunman’s rampage sooner. This tragedy leaves wondering about the RCMP’s preparedness and the resources that it must have in order to intervene faster and more effectively when faced with a possible mass killing. The Portapique tragedy must serve as an impetus for change; otherwise, we will have failed on all counts.

I therefore call on the federal government and the Minister of Public Safety to assume their responsibilities and act immediately to ensure that the RCMP is adequately equipped so that a tragedy of this nature can be better managed, or better still, prevented altogether. I hope these 22 women and men will never be forgotten. We must stand together in paying them a heartfelt tribute on this second anniversary. Our prayers and thoughts are with the victims’ families. Thank you.

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Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: My question is for the Government Representative in the Senate. Senator Gold, as I said in my statement, we are two weeks away from the anniversary of Canada’s worst mass shooting, when 22 innocent victims in Portapique lost their lives.

In February, I asked you about the families of the 22 victims, who had complained about the lack of information and especially the lack of cooperation over the past two years with respect to the public inquiry into the tragedy. Although the victims’ families were satisfied with the commissioner’s decision to call the killer’s widow and the police officers who participated in the operation to testify, these families had to fight for that information, which is totally unacceptable. I would like to remind you, Senator Gold, that the Canadian Victims Bill of Rights, a supra-constitutional statute, states in section 7 that:

Every victim has the right, on request, to information about

Have you obtained information about why the victims’ families were not part of the public inquiry even though they should have been?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: In my statement a few moments ago, I touched on another very important issue, namely the disorganization at the RCMP. As we know, the RCMP is responsible for policing large parts of Canada’s territory and provides community-based services that are equivalent to municipal police services.

We also know that the amount of time it took to locate the killer was partly due to this disorganization and a lack of communication. The killer was intercepted by a stroke of luck. If not for that, there could have been even more victims.

Can you tell us what the minister responsible for the RCMP, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, plans to do to strengthen the RCMP and make sure it has the response capabilities it needs in order to prevent such a tragedy from happening again?

Hon. Pierre-Hugues Boisvenu: Senator Yussuff, thank you so much for your speech. I can tell you’ve done some very in-depth research that will really help us define the scope of this measure.

You talked about more support for women who are victims of intimate partner violence. You are correct. A woman in hiding is a woman in poverty, because she will likely have to leave her job, her family and her home. Those are economically unacceptable conditions.

In 2013, I succeeded in passing Bill C-44 to give the parents of missing or murdered children up to 35 weeks of benefits in addition to 16 weeks of EI, which is a total of 52 weeks.

Senator, would you want to work with me to modify the program so that women who are victims of violence and have to go into hiding can get benefits for six or eight months, so they don’t succumb to poverty after reporting their abuser?

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