MCC Day 8 - Banfield’s Charges, Overnight in Debert, and Decision on Witnesses

There were three important happenings today relating to the Mass Casualty Commission. Two of the three took place within the Commission proceedings, while the third occurred across the harbour in the Dartmouth Provincial Court. In Dartmouth this morning, Crown Prosecutors advised the Court that they were referring Lisa Banfield’s criminal charges to restorative justice. She had been scheduled to go to trial later this month on charges of supplying ammunition to her spouse, Gabriel Wortman. That trial will now not take place. In the Commission proceedings itself, the day started off with a presentation from Commission Counsel, Roger Burrill, addressing the Commission’s findings on the perpetrator’s movements overnight, when he left Portapique and drove to Debert. Video surveillance from businesses along the route show that Wortman drove north into Debert, took a right down Ventura Boulevard, then drove into the Debert Business Park. It was there where he parked behind Brian MacDonald’s welding shop for nearly six hours. The next video evidence is of him driving west on Ventura Boulevard at 5:42 AM. The final matter of significance the proceedings today was a decision by the Commissioners with respect to witnesses who will be called to testify. To their credit, the Commissioners not only returned with a decision in a timely fashion, giving it now, rather than when the proceedings come back on at the end of March, and they also approved nearly every witness that was requested by the parties. That means that Lisa Banfield, the first responding officers, all of the involved Staff Sergeants and other supervisors, as well as the commanding officers for the Province and the head of the RCMP. This was the first clear indication from the Commissioners of what ‘trauma-informed’ means in the context of this inquiry. There will be witnesses, and they will be subjected to cross examination. This is a key moment not only for the families, but also for the public confidence in the MCC. The first witnesses will be called on March 28th, and they will be the three officers who were the first ones in Portapique after the initial 911 calls. Cst. Stuart Beselt, Cst. Adam Merchant, and Cst. Aaron Patton will testify together as a panel, and there will be other witnesses that week. The supervisors are expected to testify in late May, when the MCC takes a closer look at the command decisions that were made during the mass casualty.