Thread by @Tim_Bousquet

Good morning. I'm at today's proceedings of the Mass Casualty Commission, the public inquiry into the mass murders of April 18/19, 2020. To avoid this thread, you can mute the hashtag #MCC

There are no new documents released by the #MCC, and no witnesses today. Instead, there is a roundtable discussion of "Needs of Family and Community After Mass Casualty Incidents"

Panelists are:
• Facilitator: Emma Cunliffe
• Grete Dyb, U of Oslo;
• Jaclyn Schildkraut, SUNY/ Oswego
• Mary Fetchet, Voices Center for Resilience
• Serena Lewis, Grief Consultant
• Megan McElheran, Wayfound Mental Health
• Terry Mitchell, Psychologist
#MCC

I won't give a blow-by-blow, but will tweet out things of particular interest #MCC

Today's proceedings are back at the Halifax Convention Centre. It's like going back to your old high school, and it's even shittier than you remembered #MCC

I am not the best to be reporting on today's panel. I'm more privately oriented on matters of grief and loss, which is my limitation and not criticism. The gist of the testimony so far is that events like this suck, and people suffer in many ways, for a long time #MCC

One panelist points out the memorials are one way to help people come to terms with the loss. I've noted before that there has yet to be a public physical memorial (whether some sort of art or natural space) created to memorialize April 18/19, 2020 #MCC

I don't think this has to be a huge thing. Consider the Swiss Air memorial, which is understated and yet quite moving. #MCC

I won't identify them, but I know of one person who experienced the mass murders who has had a complete mental health breakdown, and came close to self-harm and harming others. Thankfully, there was intervention/help, and I don't know what their situation is now. #MCC

One panelist: "Let's not pathologize normal human reaction" to terrible shit. #MCC

Now we're at the media criticism part of the panel. #MCC

Panelist says the hashtag #NovaScotiaStrong was difficult, because it implied that people should be stoic and not express grief. "We should keep the casseroles coming," she says. #MCC

And Philip wrote about this: “Why strong? Why not ‘Nova Scotia Together’?"

https://twitter.com/PhilMoscovitch/status/1541799363818803203?s=20&t=WTc5lwFZg67oecPx_BlxWg

Purported letter to RCMP Commissioner Lucki rebuked her for trying to influence messaging after mass murders halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/purpo… by @dartjenhen

One of the strangest things to me throughout the #MCC proceedings is the oft-repeated notion that rural communities were some sort of friendly, safe paradise before 2020. That's not the experience of many people who live in rural communities.

As I said, I wasn't the best person to report on today's proceedings. We're winding down. Tomorrow the #MCC is taking the day off as there's a Regimental Memorial Service for Heidi Stevenson. Back on Thursday with "Needs of First Responders After Mass Casualty Incidents"

I think as a result of the article the Halifax Examiner just published, the #MCC has just tabled the letter from Scanlan to Lucki halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/purpo…

Since Friday, we asked Scanlan, the RCMP, and the MCC to tell us whether the letter we had in our possession was authentic. They each refused to say one way or the other. So we published anyway, with lots of caveats, "purported" and so forth MORE

Only AFTER we published, did the #MCC frantically move to table the very same letter and placing the letter on it's webpage, meaning it is indeed authentic masscasualtycommission.ca/files/fd-sourc…

I was in the room when this happened. They clearly were not prepared to table the letter until after we published.