Rosemary:

That is the Prime Minister of Canada giving his daily briefing, but today a different tone and message, primarily about the shooting that killed at least 18 people not including the shooter in Nova Scotia. Let me bring in My colleagues Vassy kapelos and David Cochrane. Vassy, over to you first.

Vassy:

Hey, Rosie. On the comments of what happened in Nova Scotia, a number of different condolences offered by the Prime Minister. He was asked interestingly if he was willing to relax any of the social distancing rules for those who will find it tough to mourn all of this and grieve all of this from their homes rather than getting together. He talked about how difficult it would be from a public health standpoint. He said there is going to be a virtual vigil. Some things that stood out for me on this subject were questions, first of all, whether or not the subject was on the federal government’s radar or onagencies’ radar. He didn’t at this point have an answer about that. I don’t know to what degree the suspect might have been. That is a pertinent question, given the severity of these actions. As we learn more about the motive and about what happened, those kinds of questions will persist. He was also asked how he felt and what his reaction was upon learning that the suspect was almost obsessed with the RCMP. Had dressed up and taken cars and things like that. He didn’t really respond necessarily to that, but kept pointing out that there is a lot more to learn and put focus back on the victims of course where all of our thoughts are on the severity of the crime. He was also asked about gun control legislation. Again, it’s difficult to know because there are so few details about motive and about how this all unfolded at this point whether or not that would have made a difference, but those questions are interesting because the government had been promising gun control legislation for a number of months. My understanding the last conversation about it was that something was expected this spring. They had been promising it right through the election campaign. They did a consultation last April, so about a year ago. There were calls for people who wanted more to bring that legislation in sooner. I notice the Prime Minister said they still intend to, but once this pandemic thing is over. That gives us an indication when that might happen. a number of policy-oriented questions and intelligence questions associated with what we’ve seen unfold in Nova Scotia. Not a lot of answers because there are so few details at thismoment.

Rosemary:

Borrowing a page from the Prime Minister of new Zealand ardern, when she called on media to do the same thing the Prime Minister said here, not to show the photo or say the name of the killer in the media.

David:

For the second time in2020 we’ve seen him leaning into the symbolism of his foal as Prime Minister to comfort people in a time of great tragedy. Iran flight 752 was just over a hundred days ago. The stark difference between then and now is just how much COVID-19 is robbing people the ability to go to rituals and milestones and seeking cold front from their loved ones. and being asked if we can relax things to allow that to happen. There is an acute focus on these18 murders, because as the killer went door to door, the police today are going door to door and making terrible and horrible discoveries. He pivoted to the point that it’s not just – it’s people who are dying of cancer, people who are dying of heart disease, people dying of the ordinary run-of-the-mill things we see each year and the total inability of families to find comfort and seek relief from their grief with loved ones and gatherings and how difficult that is. This is why when he’s asking thepolitical questions, he says I don’t want to be bickering or arguing with anyone on this. It does seem there’s going to bean agreement by the end of the day to sit in person once a weekand supplement that with virtualsittings. On fundamental issues of life and death, nothing is working asit should because of this. Everything from parliament on down have to find ways to adapt.

Rosemary:

Thank you for this. I will come back to you if I have time. I wanted to go to colchester where we are speaking to Lenora the M.P. there.

Interview:

Thank you, Rosie.

Rosemary:

How did you find out what was unfolding in Portapique, I guess late Saturday.

Interview:

I didn’t hear anything about it until yesterday morning. The government did give me a call to let me know that there was an active shooter and I should let My constituents know. So I immediately went to twitter and retweeted some of the stuff the RCMP were saying. At that point in time he was still on the loose and we were telling people to make sure they locked their doors and if they saw a gentleman with his description, not to go anywhere near him, that he was armed and dangerous. Not quite the type of thing you would expect to wake up to on a Sunday morning in the middle of a sleepy little town, in the middle of COVID-19 shutdown, where everyone is in their home s. Within an hour or an hour and a half I found out that he had been apprehended and shortly after that we heard that he was deceased.

Rosemary:

Tell us a little bit some of those communities. We were talking to Brett Ruskin. Portapique is cottage country and these are small towns where people would know each other I would imagine?

Interview:

Oh, yes. As the Prime Minister said, we all know each other here. Where you live in Portapique or Debert or shubenacadie, we are all related, cousins, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives. So many, many, many of us know people who know people who are definitely involved and their family members have been affected. Many people were looking for loved ones yesterday, putting up their pictures saying, have you seen them? they live in Portapique. I can’t get ah old of them. and Wentworth is another area. Sadly I found out that a number of those folks they were looking for are deceased.

Rosemary:

Some of the names and the stories of the people that were killed are starting to emerge today. We heard the Prime Minister say there, Lenore, that it’s up to 18 people that were killed. How do you react to that knowing that these are your people in some ways?

Interview:

I mean, obviously it’s really heart breaking. People are in shock. We’re still in shock right now.

Rosemary:

Sure.

Interview:

Some people are starting to mourn, but the mourning is going to go on for some time, I believe, as the shock waves keep growing and more and more people realize who was killed and basically senselessly. I know a lot of people are also saying we do not want to become known as, oh, the place where the biggest killing ever took place in Canada, mass killing. We don’t want to become known asthat. We are a beautiful, quiet, peaceful part of the world and everybody is really very warm and kind and caring. We prefer to be known and remembered as that, rather than some place where this horrific thing has happened.

Rosemary:

You spoke to the Prime Minister yesterday. What was he able to say to you that was helpful or to the community that they need to know?

Interview:

Basically he was very, very compassionate. Very kind and understanding. He wanted to know if there’s anything that I need, understanding how difficult this is to go through. Making sure I knew if our community needs anything, the government will be there. Today he came on the phone with all of us, with the entire Nova Scotian liberal caucus and basically said the same thing. It’s nice to have a leader who is kind and compassionate and understanding and takes the time to do this with his members and anyone else who has been affected. I know My community appreciates it and we appreciate the outpouring of love from across Canada to be honest. We’re very moved by that.

Rosemary:

We only have identified a number of the victims, so if there’s some that we haven’t, maybe we won’t get into names, but do you personally know any of the 18 people that lost their lives?

Interview:

I don’t know all of the names myself yet, but I know who some of them are and I have friends who are friends of those people. I also have friends who knew the gunman who contacted me and saidthey’re in a state of shock because they went to school withhim. They’ve known him since he was 16. He was such a nice guy. They talked to him all the time. He seemed to be fine. Another friend said that the gentleman drove into his brother’s yard in a car on Sunday and they had a few words and he seemed normal and drove off and said he was having a drive. So, you know, as the RCMP said, this is an ongoing investigation. Because there are so many places where the crimes took place, it’s going to be very interesting. It’s like a jig-saw puzzle and trying to pull those pieces together. It’s going to be interesting, but it’s heart breaking for us on the ground.

Rosemary:

You heard the Prime Minister get the question about whether physical distancing should be relaxed for some of the families involved in this. I understand completely that everyone across the country, there have been more than 1, 600 deaths related to COVID-19 and then deaths due to other illnesses and accidents. All those people are having to do funerals and memorials without being in attendance. But I wonder if because of the violence and the magnitude of this incident, whether you think there should be some ability for people to, in some safe way, come together to feel things together as a community.

Interview:

Well, I think for one thing that would be up to the premier of Nova Scotia I would imagine, but the thing is I wouldn’t want to go to a funeral thinking that perhaps I might spread a disease to somebody else and have more deaths because of My involvement. I think we have to think of the bigger picture of all of us and protecting all Nova Scotians and all Canadians. That’s why we are doing what we’re doing and sacrificing our lives and jobs and everything by staying home. So there are going to be vigils. There are going to be online vigils. I know there is one on Friday night at 7:00 on Facebook, that communities – colchester supporting our community is the name of that Facebook page. That’s a community-led vigil. I’m going to take part in that and that’s what I would do.

Rosemary:

Do you recognize how difficult this is because of the fact we’re in the pandemic, even for yourself personally, the fact that we’re so disconnected from people?

Interview:

I definitely do. We’re all on Facebook. We’re not a Twitter-verse here in cumberland and colchester. Most of us are of an age where we prefer facebook. We are actually reaching out andtalking to each other. a number of friends have posted things where they’re broken-hearted because it’s their family members and they can’t go and see them.

Rosemary:

Lenore zann, thank you for taking the time. Nova Scotia M.P. lenore zann. We are all thinking about you and your riding.

Interview:

Thank you very much from Nova Scotia. We love you. Thank you.

Rosemary:

Stay healthy of course. That leads us to the end of our coverage today of the federal government’s briefing on COVID-19. We are not going to bring you the federal briefing with ministers and public health officials today because of the ongoing situation in Nova Scotia. You can watch that briefing online. Actually, provinces, many of them are delaying some of their press conferences because the RCMP’s next update on what unfolded over the past couple ofdays, day and a half in Nova Scotia, will take place at 1:00 eastern. Bill Blair, the Minister of public safety, is expected to speak to the media at 1:30 eastern. Of course we do know that there will be updates from provinces, Ontario, quÉbec, and others on the ongoing state of the pandemic of COVID-19. That is our coverage on CBC. CBC news network will continue with our coverage. I’m rosemary Barton. [♪♪♪] [ please stand by ]