Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings
Family, friends and supporters of the victims of the mass killings in rural Nova Scotia in 2020 gather following the release of the Mass Casualty Commission inquiry’s final report in Truro, Nova Scotia, on Mar. 30, 2023. (AP)
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Updated 30 March 2023

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings

Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings
  • The Mass Casualty Commission says the RCMP missed red flags in the years leading up to the Nova Scotia rampage on April 18-19, 2020
  • The assailant, Gabriel Wortman, was killed by two Mounties at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 13 hours into his rampage

TRURO, Canada: A public inquiry has found widespread failures in how Canada’s federal police force responded to the country’s worst mass shooting and recommends that the government rethink the Royal Canadian Mounted Police’s central role in the country’s policing.
In a seven-volume report released Thursday, the Mass Casualty Commission also says the RCMP missed red flags in the years leading up to the Nova Scotia rampage on April 18-19, 2020, which left 22 people slain by a denture maker disguised as an RCMP officer and driving a replica police vehicle.
The assailant, Gabriel Wortman, was killed by two Mounties at a gas station in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 13 hours into his rampage. Disguised as a police officer, Wortman shot people in their homes and set fires in a killing spree that included 16 crime scenes in five rural communities across the Canadian province of Nova Scotia.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history and said he hopes the report is one of the many steps toward ensuring a tragedy like that never happens again. Trudeau attended the report’s release in Nova Scotia and said his government will examine it closely. “There is no question that there needs to be changes and there will be,” Trudeau said.
Among other things, the commission says the national police force is badly disorganized. Its review of the RCMP’s 5,000 pages of policies and procedures found the force’s own members were unclear on proper responses to critical incidents and communication with the public.
The report delves deeply into the causes of the mass shooting. These include the killer’s violence toward his spouse and the failure of police to act on it, and “implicit biases” that seemed to blind officers and community members to the danger a white, male professional posed.
In response, the commissioners call for a future RCMP where the current 26-week model of training is scrapped — as it’s no longer sufficient for the complex demands of policing. The academy would be replaced with a three-year, degree-based model of education, as exists in Finland.
The document begins with an account of the police errors in the years before the killings, and the events of April 18 and 19.
The report’s summary says that soon after the shooting started in Portapique, Nova Scotia, RCMP commanders disregarded witness accounts, and senior Mounties wrongly assumed residents were mistaken when they reported seeing the killer driving a fully marked RCMP cruiser.
“Important community sources of information were ignored,” it says.
In addition, the report says police failed to promptly send out alerts to the public with a description of the killer until it was too late for some of his victims.
Having laid out a litany of shortcomings, the inquiry calls for a fresh external review of the police force. It says the federal minister of public safety should then establish priorities for the RCMP, “retaining the tasks that are suitable to a federal policing agency, and identifying what responsibilities are better reassigned to other agencies.”
“This may entail a reconfiguration of policing in Canada and a new approach to federal financial support for provincial and municipal policing services,” the report says.
Michael Duheme, the interim RCMP commissioner, said he hasn’t had time to go through the recommendations despite the RCMP getting a copy of the report on Wednesday.
Duheme said he was “deeply sorry” for the pain and suffering endured by families of the victims. “I can’t even imagine what you have endured,” he said, adding that the RCMP “must learn and we are committed to do just that.”
Dennis Daley, the head of the RCMP in Nova Scotia, said to the families that he knows that the response “wasn’t what you needed to be. And for that I am deeply sorry.”
The victims in Canada’s worst mass shooting included an RCMP officer, a teacher, health-care workers, retirees, neighbors of the shooter and two correctional officers killed in their home. The rampage started when Wortman attacked his spouse.
“Nothing will bring my brother back or any of the other people in this horrible ordeal,” said Scott McLeod, the brother of victim Sean McLeod. “If this report makes a positive change nationwide it will be appreciated, I know, by families.”
The report details Wortman ‘s history of domestic violence in his relationships with women, including his spouse Lisa Banfield. In particular, the report notes the experience of Brenda Forbes, a neighbor in Portapique who informed the RCMP of Wortman’s violence toward Banfield. He never faced any consequences, but she dealt with years of stalking, harassment and threats from Wortman, prompting her to leave the province.
Jessica Zita, lawyer for Banfield, read a statement from her client in which she says she hopes there will be meaningful changes from the recommendations especially those involving domestic violence.
Mass shootings are relatively rare in Canada. The country overhauled its gun-control laws after gunman Marc Lepine killed 14 women and himself at Montreal’s Ecole Polytechnique college in 1989. Before the Nova Scotia rampage, that had been the country’s worst,


Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse

Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse
Updated 08 June 2023

Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse

Before-and-after satellite images show profound toll of Ukraine dam collapse
  • Before the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River broke, farm fields appear green and crossed by peaceful streets and farm roads and dotted with trees
  • Afterward, only metal roofs and treetops poke above the murky water

KHERSON, Ukraine: Before-and-after images of the area downstream from a dam that collapsed Tuesday vividly show the extent of the devastation of a large, flooded swathe of southern Ukraine.
Before the Kakhovka dam on the Dnieper River broke, farm fields appear green and crossed by peaceful streets and farm roads and dotted with trees. Afterward, only metal roofs and treetops poke above the murky water. Greenhouses and homes are almost entirely submerged.
The pre-collapse satellite photos were taken in May and early June. Photos of the same area taken after the dam collapsed clearly show how much of it has become unlivable. Brown water as high as people covers much of the territory captured in the images.
Paired with exclusive drone footage of the Ukrainian dam and surrounding villages occupied by Russia, the before-and-after satellite images illustrate the profound changes wrought by the disaster.
Ukraine has warned since last October that the hydroelectric dam was mined by Russian forces, and accused them of touching off an explosion that has turned the downstream areas into a waterlogged wasteland. Russia said Ukraine hit the dam with a missile. But while the AP footage clearly shows the extent of the damage to the region, it offered a limited snapshot of the partially submerged dam, making it difficult to categorically rule out any scenario.
Experts have said the structure was in disrepair, which could also have led to its collapse.


WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas

WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas
Updated 08 June 2023

WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas

WHO rushes supplies to Ukraine, readies to tackle disease in flood areas
  • Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam
  • "The impact of the region's water supply sanitation systems and public health services cannot be underestimated," WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing

GENEVA: The World Health Organization has rushed emergency supplies to flood-hit parts of Ukraine and are preparing to respond to an array of health risks including trauma, drowning and waterborne diseases like cholera, officials said on Thursday.
Russia and Ukraine have traded blame for the bursting of the Soviet-era Kakhovka hydroelectric dam, which sent waters cascading across the war zone of southern Ukraine in the early hours of Tuesday, forcing tens of thousands to flee their homes.
“The impact of the region’s water supply sanitation systems and public health services cannot be underestimated,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press briefing.
“The WHO has rushed in to support the authorities and health care workers in preventive measures against waterborne diseases and to improve disease surveillance.”
Asked specifically about cholera, WHO technical officer Teresa Zakaria said that the risk of an outbreak was present since the pathogen exists in the environment. She said that the WHO was working with Ukraine’s health ministry to put mechanisms in place to ensure that vaccines can be imported if needed.
“We are trying to address quite a wide range of health risks actually associated with the floods, starting from trauma to drowning, to waterborne diseases but also all the way to the potential implications of disruption to chronic treatment,” she added.
The huge Kakhovka Dam on the Dnipro River separates Russian and Ukrainian forces and people have been affected on both sides of its banks. WHO’s Emergencies Director Mike Ryan said the WHO has offered assistance to Russian-controlled areas but that its operational presence was “primarily” on the Ukrainian side.
He said Russian authorities had given them assurances that people living in areas it occupies were being “well monitored, well cared for, well fed (and) well supported.”
“We will be delighted to be able to access those areas and be able to monitor health as we would in most situations wish to do,” he said, adding it would be for the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to agree how that could be achieved.


UK unveils new sanctions targeting Russia’s ally Belarus

UK unveils new sanctions targeting Russia’s ally Belarus
Updated 08 June 2023

UK unveils new sanctions targeting Russia’s ally Belarus

UK unveils new sanctions targeting Russia’s ally Belarus
  • London said the new curbs would hit Belarus exports that have been funding the administration of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko
  • The UK is now banning imports of gold, cement, wood and rubber from Belarus, and blocking exports of banknotes and machinery

LONDON: Britain announced Thursday new sanctions against Belarus, its latest punishment for the eastern European country’s support of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and suppression of anti-government activists.
London said the new curbs would hit Belarus exports that have been funding the administration of authoritarian leader Alexander Lukashenko, an ally of Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and “crack down on Russia’s efforts to circumvent sanctions.”
Western countries have imposed several rounds of sanctions on Moscow, and its neighbor to the west Minsk, following the launch of the Russian war in Ukraine in February last year.
The UK is now banning imports of gold, cement, wood and rubber from Belarus, and blocking exports of banknotes and machinery, alongside goods, technologies and materials that could be used to produce chemical and biological weapons.
The measures also give Britain grounds to prevent designated Belarusian media organizations from spreading propaganda and disinformation in the UK, including over the Internet.
Social media companies and Internet service providers will be required to restrict access to the websites of sanctioned Belarusian media organizations, as occurs with sanctioned Russian outlets.
The new legislation also expands sanctions criteria, giving the UK government the basis to target a broader range of Belarusians, such as Lukashenko’s aides, advisers and ministers.
“This new package ratchets up the economic pressure on Lukashenko and his regime which actively facilitates the Russian war effort and ignores Ukraine’s territorial integrity,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said in a statement.
“Our support for Ukraine will remain resolute for as long as it takes and the UK will not hesitate to introduce further measures against those who prop up Putin’s war.”
Belarus has been ruled by Lukashenko since 1994.
The UK was among a number of Western countries that imposed sanctions on Lukashenko’s government for its suppression of mass anti-government protests in 2020.
Western countries then imposed various new sanctions last year over its role in Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine.
Lukashenko has allowed Russia to use Belarusian territory and airspace to conduct missile and drone strikes against Ukraine, as well as providing training and logistical support to Moscow’s forces.


US suspends food aid to Ethiopia, says it is not reaching needy

US suspends food aid to Ethiopia, says it is not reaching needy
Updated 08 June 2023

US suspends food aid to Ethiopia, says it is not reaching needy

US suspends food aid to Ethiopia, says it is not reaching needy
  • The United States is by far the largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia
  • More than 20 million people need food aid, most of them due to drought and a recently-concluded war

NAIROBI: The US Agency for International Development (USAID) said on Thursday it was suspending food aid to Ethiopia because its donations were being diverted from people in need.
A spokesperson said in a statement that USAID had determined, in coordination with the Ethiopian government, that a “widespread and coordinated campaign is diverting food assistance from the people of Ethiopia.”
The statement did not say who was behind the campaign.
The United States is by far the largest humanitarian donor to Ethiopia, where more than 20 million people need food aid, most of them due to drought and a recently-concluded war in the northern Tigray region.
According to an internal briefing by a group of foreign donors to Ethiopia seen by Reuters, USAID believes the food has been diverted to Ethiopian military units.
“The scheme appears to be orchestrated by federal and regional government entities, with military units across the country benefiting from humanitarian assistance,” said the document from the Humanitarian and Resilience Donor Group (HRDG), which includes USAID.
Spokespeople for the Ethiopian government and military did not immediately respond to requests for comment. USAID declined to comment on the report.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the issue on Thursday with Ethiopian Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Demeke Mekonnen on the margins of a conference in Saudi Arabia.
The State Department said afterwards that Blinken welcomed a commitment by Ethiopia’s government to work with the United States to conduct a full investigation.
The USAID spokesperson said the agency intended to resume food assistance as soon as it was confident in the integrity of the system.
USAID and the UN World Food Programme (WFP) had already suspended food aid to the northern Ethiopian region of Tigray last month in response to information that large amounts of aid there were being diverted.
A two-year war in Tigray between the federal government and forces led by the region’s dominant political party ended in a truce in November after killing tens of thousands of people and creating famine-like conditions for hundreds of thousands.
In the 2022 fiscal year, USAID disbursed nearly $1.5 billion in humanitarian assistance to Ethiopia, most of it food aid.
The HRDG briefing document, which was circulated among donors on Wednesday, recommended that Ethiopia’s government allow donors to deliver aid through “alternative modalities” like cash transfers.
It also urged donors to call on Ethiopia’s government to make a public statement condemning the diversion and demanding that aid workers not be harassed.
Ethiopia’s food crisis has deepened in recent years as a result of the war in Tigray and the Horn of Africa’s worst drought in decades.
WFP is also investigating “systemic” food diversion across Ethiopia, according to an email sent last week by the agency’s deputy director to staff in Ethiopia.
A WFP spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.


Scottish boy who died following ‘playground incident’ named

Scottish boy who died following ‘playground incident’ named
Updated 08 June 2023

Scottish boy who died following ‘playground incident’ named

Scottish boy who died following ‘playground incident’ named
  • Hamdan Aslam, 14, taken to hospital on Tuesday
  • Police say investigation ongoing

LONDON: A 14-year-old boy who died after a “playground incident” with another pupil at a school in Scotland has been named.

Hamdan Aslam was taken to hospital on Tuesday after emergency services were called to St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, Bathgate, West Lothian. He was later pronounced dead. 

Police Scotland said they were told of the incident at 1:20 p.m. Tuesday, adding: “Officers were called to a report of concern for a 14-year-old boy at a school in the Bathgate area.

“He was taken by ambulance to hospital for treatment, but died a short time later. His family have been informed and inquiries are ongoing to establish the full circumstances of the death.”

The police did not comment further, but sources told Sky News “no criminality” occurred in the incident, which involved two pupils.

The local Bathgate Mosque said in a statement: “During these difficult moments, the (Aslam) family needs our support and prayers.

“We ask Allah to grant Hamdan the highest rank in Jannah and provide the family with sabr (patience) to bear this loss. It is crucial that we refrain from making assumptions and speculations regarding this tragedy.”

St Kentigern’s Academy headteacher, Andrew Sharkey, said pupils and staff were receiving support, with the school having previously confirmed an “isolated incident” had occurred. 

Local Member of the Scottish Parliament Fiona Hyslop tweeted: “My deepest condolences are with the family and friends of the pupil who has died at St Kentigern’s Academy in my constituency.

“I hope those closest to him are given the privacy they deserve at this tragic time. Pupils and staff I am sure will be supported through this period.”

The nearby St John the Baptist Parish Church, Fauldhouse, posted to its congregation on Facebook: “Can you please keep the family and friends of the young S3 pupil who sadly passed away after an incident at St Kentigern’s Academy in your thoughts and prayers.”