Ottawa. Thanks for being with us on CBC news, CBC news network, live streaming around the world on the CBC app and on CBC News. Ca. We are standing by to bring you the Prime Minister’s briefing. This is not like another briefing. Nova Scotians are trying to come to terms with a mass shooting, gunman killing at least 16 people. We’re hearing more about the victims, their names, their stories. a RCMP Constable, a grade schoolteacher, a volunteer firefighter, and a nurse among the dead. We are expecting an update from Nova Scotia at 2:00 local time. We are expecting the Prime Minister to address this today as well, but because of the nature of this story and how important it is, we will start in Nova Scotia. Brett Ruskin and tom Murphy joinus. Brett is in Portapique where this all began, but we’ll start with tom in Halifax for the latest on what we know.

TOM:

We’re expecting an rcmpbriefing in a couple of hours now to shed more light on what happened. We’re hearing of more victims. The count is up to 17 including the killer. You mentioned the occupations of some of those people. Just devastating. People woke up in Nova Scotia wondered if this was a dream. is this going to be over. People are trying not to let this define them, saying they’regoing to help families who are feeling the pain and give them virtual hug. The RCMP have been scant with the details. They are still trying to piece together the crime scenes, and there are multiple crime scenes across Nova Scotia, which makes it complicated. There were house fires in Portapique, where Brett is, and we learned that three people died in that location. Little bits and pieces like that are starting to come through. We’re learning more about the personalities and the people behind the deadly stats here.

Rosemary:

What do we know more about the second shooter, who is also dead. What more do we know about him or his interactions or connections to the community.

TOM:

He’s a mystery. People in his community of Portapique where he lived and inhalifax where he had a denturistshop, people liked him. They felt he was a good community person. There is the other side of him that is being exposed. This is a guy who had a penchant for old police cars. He used to buy them and fix themup. He had an RCMP car that was fake but he was driving it and he also had RCMP clothing. This all points to a premeditation. In terms of what motivated him and why he did this, that is unanswered.

Rosemary:

As we learn more about the shooter, we’re also learning more about the victims. We know a veteran RCMP constableheidi Stevenson was also killed. What do we know?

TOM:

Heidi Stevenson was a 23-year veteran of the RCMP. She was at one point the face of the RCMP in this province. She would do interviews for the RCMP. I know some people from the media know her and there has been some reaction coming in about how important she was in people’s lives in this part of the province. We know three of the people who died in the fire in Wentworth, one of those was a corrections officer. That’s a loss that that professional community is feeling as well. Two Victoria order nurses staff members, who were busy helping in the COVID-19 fight. They died as well. and Lisa McCully who died and left behind a family.

Rosemary:

Tom Murphy, thank you for that. Let me turn to Brett Ruskin who is in Portapique. It’s a small community. How are people dealing with things today as they start to understand the magnitude of whathappened?

Brett:

a small community indeed. This is the police check-point that is set up here. Only residents being allowed in and out. Investigators going in to begin the process of piecing together what happened at this scene, but it seems all across the province. This really proves this type of thing could happen anywhere. If it were to happen here, this is a quiet, not even a community, a neighbourhood, about 100 residents down this road, about a few dozen homes. Nothing really happens here. Certainly not the types of things we have been seeing over the last 24 hours, police cars zooming in and out with swat team officers and large guns drawn, with huge structures ablaze in the middle of the night. This is not something you would typically expect from this community. As for the other communities we’ve seen Wentworth, Debert, shubenacadie, Glenholme, these are rural communities, farm land, you could drop them anywhere in the country. They’re small towns, tight-knit communities, everyone knows everyone. One of the things about the communities is police put out a notice in the middle of this emergency with the risk of an active shooter saying stay home, lock your doors, stay in the basement, many people I’ve spoken with say they never lock their doors. This is taking this community byshock.

Rosemary:

Brett Ruskin in Portapique and tom morefy in Halifax. As Brett mentioned, the investigation is spanning over at least 50 kilometres. There is an RCMP briefing we are expecting that will be an important one. The Prime Minister is expected to give his daily briefing outside Rideau cottage in about eight minutes or so. We do expect him to spend a lot of time talking about what happened in Nova Scotia, given the magnitude of the tragedy. I want to show viewers the inside of the house of commons. That’s where I’ll bring in My colleagues the host of “power & politics,” Vassy kapelos, and David Cochrane. In the midst of this it seems the house of commons has returned because there was no agreement between four of the parties and the conservatives todo something different. This is also something that is preoccupying Ottawa right now. Vassy, what is the latest we know?

Vassy:

The latest I’m hearing is there will be a motion introduced by the liberals. and the nature of the tension I should just say is over how many times they should be meeting. The liberals are offering once a week in person and then some virtual, supplemental sessions. The n. D.p. and the bloc quÉbÉcois are supportive of thatin various forms. The conservatives are arguing for more in-person sessions withreduced M.P.s there. My understanding is the liberalswill introduce a motion with that plan in plan, one that the rest of the parties agree to. It might take up most of the dayand then there will be some kindof vote on it. All of that is subject to change. As you’ve been reporting, rosie, it’s fluctuated minute to minuteand hour to hour, and also set against the backdrop of everything you’ve been talking about. Difficult to I guess see the sort of benefits of all this arguing right now. I think that – expect some sortof agreement between most of theparties. I’m not sure this will continue much beyond that, but who knows.

Rosemary:

It does in the light of the pandemic, which we continue to cover. That’s obviously affecting the entire country. and now the killing of 16 people in a mass shooting in Nova Scotia. It becomes a little difficult I think for politicians in moments like these. It’s not that it’s not important to have accountability inside the house. It’s in light of the other things happening, the arguments are a little more difficult to make. David, your perspective.

David:

It’s interesting. Andrew Scheer has been like an auctioneer going in reverse. He wanted five days a week and now he’s down to three days a week. That has been the compromise that the other parties have agreed to. The greens don’t want any session unless there is a vote. The bloc is content to have rules of engagement so they don’t have to go through this every time they have to come back. Yves-franÇois blanchet accusing the conservatives of holding them hostage. While there’s an obsession here about the numbers of sittings and the numbers of hours of question period, I think the country might be worried about other numbers, 35, 000 cases of COVID-19, and 16 deaths in Nova Scotia due to a shooting. In the times we’re in, no funerals or wakes. This is a time when the Prime Minister and other dignitaries would travel to Nova Scotia to offer comfort in a time like this, and none of that is happening because of what’s going on. It makes it difficult to argue that politics as much as you canneeds to continue in parliament with as many as three sittings a week. Andrew Scheer said if M.P.s can go to a grocery store, they can come here. But what are we told about that, go once a week. and you don’t need to get on a plane from Vancouver to Ottawa to buy your grocery. It looks like the majority is going to get its way with the motion that is going to be presented and voted on.

Rosemary:

I will say, I did go to bed last night thinking they would reach an agreement in light of the things you’ve mentioned, the times we’re in and the gravity of what we’re dealing with now. That doesn’t appear to have happened. I don’t think all the parties believe that parliament should have some role to play, that there should be some attempt to be able to hold the government to account and answer some questions. That is a vital part of our democracy. It’s just like on a day like today quibbling about the hours and the times, it becomes a little bit difficult to talk about the importance of that. There is an importance to it, it becomes a legitimate concern. Vassy, I’ll get you to weigh in as we continue to wait for the Prime Minister.

Vassy:

At the heart of all of this is like you and David point out a desire for accountability. There’s evidence that that accountability has worked over the past month, right. There’s lots of legislation that the government has introduced that has some holes that the opposition parties pointed out. They went back and got agreement. I think the disagreement is how that accountability should be inperson. There are some saying they don’twant anything in person and they feel safe. Some are saying there should be more M.P.s than are there now. I think it’s hard for people sitting at home watching the horror in Nova Scotia unfold, who are living the reality of COVID-19. There is a need for accountability. I wouldn’t disagree with that especially as a journalist. The contention from the conservatives is that the Prime Minister is answering questions every day, why isn’t he in the house. He should be open to receiving those questions from the opposition. It sounds like what was being proposed is different than normal. There would be a few hours of accountability. There is a question mark over how this virtual thing would go, if it would be effective. We’ve seen examples of things right across the country of things not working. You would have thought much of this would have occurred in negotiations behind the scenes. Instead, we’ll see this play outin the house of commons today. Maybe there will be an agreementand they will vote on it. Certainly not the first thing onpeople’s minds right now.

Rosemary:

I think that’s fair to say. I agree with all of your points. We will see if the Prime Minister is asked about it and whether there is any sign from him if we are closer to a deal. There is a necessity for politics and politicians to be playing their important roles right now. But how that looks and what that looks like is still being workedout. As we stand by to wait for the Prime Minister and his daily briefing which is usual his government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Today we are told it will be about around what happened in Nova Scotia. Not surprisingly. He did address it yesterday verybriefly, just offering his thanks to first res ponders and people for following instructions, but at that time the scale of what had happened was not well understood. The RCMP has not confirmed the number of deaths nor had they confirmed that one of their own had fallen. There will be other things for the Prime Minister to say today. We are expecting of course to hear from public safety minister bill Blair a little bit later as well as of course the Nova Scotia RCMP. Just to remind you what we are dealing with in terms of number sand what happened in Nova Scotia, it started to unfold Saturday night. The shooter now believed to have taken out at least 16 people and he himself was also killed when he was taken into custody is ourunderstanding. Let me go back to David if I can. Obviously these are – here is the Prime Minister. There we go. We will let him talk about events as they unfolded in Nova Scotia.