HALIFAX — The commission of inquiry probing the mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives in 2020 is again delaying public hearings, saying they are now expected to begin late next month.
The commission’s website says the public sessions will begin on Feb. 22, rather than Jan. 25 — which was a date set after an October start was delayed due to large volumes of materials the commission staff were reviewing.
The three-person commission looking into the April 18-19, 2020 shootings says in a release that documents laying out how the killings occurred were circulated to interested parties and needed revisions.
The commission says these documents will be made public between Feb. 24 and April 14, but they will first be edited to “protect the privacy and dignity of witnesses and victims.”
The commission, led by former Nova Scotia chief justice Michael MacDonald, says on its website an interim report will be provided by June 1 and a final report by Dec. 1, 2022.
The RCMP have confirmed that on the night of April 18, 2020, a lone gunman set fire to several homes and killed 13 people in Portapique, N.S., before evading police and killing nine more people the next day.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 11, 2022.
The Canadian Press