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'No question there need to be changes': PM responds to Nova Scotia mass shooting commission report

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Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered a brief initial response to the final report from the Mass Casualty Commission (MCC) into Canada's worst mass shooting, which claimed the lives of 22 people in Nova Scotia in 2020.

Vowing changes will come, here's what the prime minister had to say in full, speaking to media outside of where the report was released in Truro, N.S.:

"It was important for me to be here today to support the families, to show that all Canadians continue to stand with the family members, the community, the people of Nova Scotia and elsewhere, who have been so deeply affected over the three years almost since this horrific, horrific day.

Obviously, I thank the commissioners for their comprehensive work, looking at all aspects of what happened and how we need to move forward.

We will take the time now to properly digest and understand the recommendations, and the conclusions, and the opportunities that the commission has put forward for us to take up.

There's no question there need to be changes, and there will be, but we will take the time to get those right."

The prime minister then restated similar comments in French.

In the report the commissioners stated: "We believe that how the Government of Canada and the RCMP respond to the recommendations we make in this report could have a significant bearing on the future of the RCMP’s contract policing services." 

This was one of a series of calls for change directed at the federal government in the report.

Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino are also being called on to:

  • Tighten restrictions on automatic and semi-automatic weapons;
  • Establish limits on the stockpiling of ammunition by individual firearms owners;
  • Maintain a moratorium on the sale of decommissioned RCMP vehicles;
  • Renew and extend bystander intervention awareness and education campaigns; and 
  • Develop a national policy for those affected by a mass casualty event. 

Read more about what Trudeau is being called to do, here. 

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