The MCC’s Disorienting Presentation Unfair to the Viewing Public and Not At All Trauma-Informed

We are now six days into the Mass Casualty Commission proceedings, and frustration is brewing. So far, the process designed by the Commissioners seems intended to sap as much dramatic interest as possible from the proceedings, as though that were synonymous with being “trauma-informed”. Witness statements and officer notes have been published in full, parties have been forced to beg for witnesses, lawyers have had to give advance warning of their lines of questioning, police have tried to exploit “trauma-informed” into a blanket exemption from testifying, and in all the talk about Portapique we have not yet heard a single word spoken from a person who was actually there. One thing that has become clear to anyone observing the first six days is that there are a variety of interests at play in the proceedings. Public interest in the Mass Casualty Commission is part of the field of battle among these various interests. It is in the interests of the families and community members, and all those who want to see changes emerge from the MCC for that interest to remain strong. The police and government interests, on the other hand, are served if interest drops off, or if at least the fallout from the bad publicity can be managed.