Thread by @Tim_Bousquet

Good morning. The next tweet will have a gentle reminder about how to avoid this thread. If this Triggers you, you may not want to read the next tweet.

I'm at the proceedings of the Mass Casualty Commission. If you want to avoid this coverage, you can mute the hashtag #MCC

Today, the #MCC is looking at the "psychological autopsy" of the killer. I was skeptical of it, and when I read it yesterday, I found my skepticism was entirely warranted.

Unfortunately, the autopsy itself is not public. But you can read an overly academic critique of it here: masscasualtycommission.ca/files/commissi… #MCC

When I say it's "overly academic," I'm not faulting the work of the academics, but just to say it's not very accessible to the public. #MCC

The authors of the critique, Kristy Martire and Tess Neal, are testifying today. Hopefully, they will speak in lay terms. They are being questioned by #MCC lawyer Jamie Van Wart.

There's a tech glitch #MCC

My problems with the psychological autopsy. First, it uses the term "injustice collector," which was invented by an FBI profiler, and so far as I know has never been critiqued or verified by other researchers #MCC

Also, the author, Dr. Matt Logan, mattloganhalo.com may or may not have respect in the field, but the report is full of simple and repeated grammatical errors, like using apostrophes for plurals and the like. This is from a supposed expert, so we should expect better #MCC

Logan says the victims fall into several targets: Grievance Based Target, Reactive Target, Incidental Random Target, and Displacement Based Target. Whether these are real things is one issue, but that aside, Logan relies on VERY thin evidence to assign them to the victims #MCC

For instance, Logan says Lilian Campbell was killed because as the killer was driving by her, she reminded him of his mother. There is ZERO evidence for this. None at all. #MCC

Logan also says that Sean McLeod had a previous marriage; after he divorced he lived in Portapique for a while, and expressed (apparently to GW) a romantic interest in Lisa McCully, but she didn't return the interest. Logan makes a huge leap here... #MCC

Logan says that McLeod's years-old, never reciprocated romantic interest in McCully, who GW had a short relationship with, was why GW drove to Hunter Road and killed McLeod, and so McLeod was a "Grievance Based Target." This is a ridiculously thin chain of argument #MCC

Tess Neal, one of the experts testifying, is quite skeptical of psychological autopsies in general. "Some scholars suggest that there may be no possible way to accept the validity of psychological autopsies" #MCC

Here are the 8 "best practices" that Neal and Martire say should be used in a psychological autopsy or behaviour profile: #MCC

Meal and Martire asked 108 questions about Logan's autopsy related to best practices. Of those, in 76 best practices "were not at all present" #MCC

Neal: we don't even know why this report was written. It's not clear what was trying to be achieved #MCC

Van Wart: is this report scientifically credible? Martire: [a lot of words that mean "no"]. Van Wart: can people rely on this report? Martire: I wouldn't rely on it #MCC

Martire: there is very little credible evidence that this assessment is accurate #MCC

Neal: because the report authors were employed by the RCMP, there's a big issue of bias #MCC

Neal names all the various sorts of potential bias, organizational allegiance, confirmation bias, etc. #MCC

Neal: the report starts with a memorial for Heidi Stevenson, which is problematic #MCC

Neal: there was no quality assurance at all. No methodology, no review. It's not clear that the authors are licensed or trained psychologists #MCC

I should note that besides Logan, the report relied on investigators: Sgt. Laura Seeley, Cpl. Angela McKay, Cst. Jerry Rose-Berthiaume, and Cst. Shawn Stanton. #MCC

Martire: the report is full of opinion and statements of unsupported fact #MCC

Martire: the report twice mentions there are limitations, but it doesn't spell out what those limitations are #MCC

Neal: there was NO reference to critical scholarship about psychological autopsies, or explain why people might disagree, and didn't offer any alternative hypotheses #MCC

Neal: in terms of ethical obligations, "it's not possible" to say whether they adhered to codes of conduct and professional standards. #MCC

Neal: psychology is an imperfect science, and there's plenty of room for mistakes and bias. We should be upfront about that, and hold ourselves accountable for the quality of our work #MCC

Martire: all sciences are imperfect, and we're trying to improve psychology. "we want to see people grappling with these questions of best practices" #MCC

Martire: lots and lots of people have pointed out the problems we've underscored in our report. Neal: We're trying to help psychologists improve their work, and we want to hold psychologists accountable #MCC

When the break comes, I'll outline in this thread the other conclusions of the psychology autopsy #MCC

We're breaking for 30 minutes. I'll find a place to sit and recount all the victims, one moment... #MCC