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WORLD NEWS Friday 31 March 2023
Canada mass shooting inquiry identifies many police failings

TRURO, Nova Scotia (AP) — shortcomings, the inquiry
A public inquiry has found calls for a fresh external re-
widespread failures in how view of the police force. It
Canada’s federal police says the federal minister of
force responded to the public safety should then
country’s worst mass shoot- establish priorities for the
ing and recommends that RCMP, “retaining the tasks
the government rethink the that are suitable to a fed-
Royal Canadian Mounted eral policing agency, and
Police’s central role in the identifying what responsibil-
country’s policing. ities are better reassigned
In a seven-volume report to other agencies.”
released Thursday, the “This may entail a reconfig-
Mass Casualty Commission uration of policing in Can-
also says the RCMP missed ada and a new approach
red flags in the years lead- to federal financial support
ing up to the Nova Scotia for provincial and munici-
rampage on April 18-19, pal policing services,” the
2020, which left 22 people report says.
slain by a denture maker Michael Duheme, the in-
disguised as an RCMP of- terim RCMP commissioner,
ficer and driving a replica said he was “deeply sorry”
police vehicle. for the pain and suffer-
The assailant, Gabriel Wort- A memorial pays tribute to Royal Canadian Mounted Police Constable Heidi Stevenson, a mother ing endured by families of
man, was killed by two of two and a 23-year veteran of the force, along the highway in Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia, on the victims. “I can’t even
Mounties at a gas station Tuesday, April 21, 2020. imagine what you have
in Enfield, Nova Scotia, 13 Associated Press endured,” he said, adding
hours into his rampage. there needs to be changes ases” that seemed to blind the killings, and the events that the RCMP “must learn
Disguised as a police offi- and there will be,” Trudeau officers and community of April 18 and 19. and we are committed to
cer, Wortman shot people said. Among other things, members to the danger a The report’s summary says do just that.”
in their homes and set fires the commission says the na- white, male professional that soon after the shoot- Dennis Daley, the head of
in a killing spree across tional police force is badly posed. ing started in Portapique, the RCMP in Nova Scotia,
the Canadian province of disorganized. Its review of In response, the commis- Nova Scotia, RCMP com- said to the families that he
Nova Scotia. the RCMP’s 5,000 pages sioners call for a future manders disregarded wit- knows that the response
Prime Minister Justin of policies and procedures RCMP where the current ness accounts, and senior “wasn’t what you needed
Trudeau called it one of found the force’s own 26-week model of training Mounties wrongly assumed to be. And for that I am
the darkest chapters in members were unclear on is scrapped as it’s no lon- residents were mistaken deeply sorry.”
Canadian history and proper responses to critical ger sufficient for the com- when they reported see- The victims in Canada’s
said he hopes the report is incidents and communica- plex demands of policing. ing the killer driving a fully worst mass shooting in-
one of the many steps to- tion with the public. The academy would be marked RCMP cruiser. cluded an RCMP officer, a
ward ensuring a tragedy The report delves deeply replaced with a three-year, In addition, the report says teacher, health-care work-
like that never happens into the causes of the mass degree-based model of police failed to promptly ers, retirees, neighbors of
again. Trudeau attended shooting. education, as exists in Fin- send out alerts to the pub- the shooter and two cor-
the report’s release in Nova These include the killer’s land. lic with a description of the rectional officers killed in
Scotia and said his govern- violence toward his spouse The document begins with killer until it was too late for their home. The rampage
ment will examine it closely. and the failure of police to an account of the police some of his victims. started when Wortman at-
“There is no question that act on it, and “implicit bi- errors in the years before Having laid out a litany of tacked his spouse. q

Netanyahu supporters block highway to support judicial plan

TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — along the Ayalon highway, Netanyahu and his allies
Thousands of right-wing Is- the main north-south thor- say the plan is needed to
raelis on Thursday blocked oughfare running through rein a system unelected
a main highway in Tel Aviv the coastal city. activist judges who wield
as they demonstrated in After especially intense too much power over po-
favor of Prime Minister Ben- protests, Netanyahu this litical matters.
jamin Netanyahu’s plan to week froze the plan and Opponents say the chang-
overhaul the country’s judi- began negotiations with his es would destroy a system
cial system. political opponents aimed of checks and balances by
The crowd was much small- at finding a compromise concentrating too much
er than the hundreds of plan. power in the hands of Ne-
thousands of people who But his opponents have tanyahu and his allies in
have taken to the streets in vowed to continue their parliament.
recent months to demon- protests as well. They also say Netanyahu
strate against the plan. The plan would give Ne- has a conflict of interest
But the gathering had the tanyahu’s parliamentary while he is on trial for crimi- Right-wing Israelis rally in support of Prime Minister Benjamin
same effect. Protesters coalition control over judi- nal charges and has no Netanyahu, seen in poster, and his government’s plans to
honked their car horns and cial appointments and the business meddling in the overhaul the judicial system, in Tel Aviv, Israel, Thursday, March
hoisted blue and white Is- power to overturn Supreme country’s legal system.q 30, 2023.
raeli flags crippling traffic Court decisions it opposes. Associated Press