We further decided to let the MMC present its final report, give people a month or so to digest the outcome, before we published the MMC recommendations. Now that time has passed, the Shoreline Journal will publish all 130 of the commission’s recommendations in four monthly installments, starting with the June 2023 issue, exactly as published in the Final Report as published and located on the MMC website.

This is Part 1 which includes recommendations 1 to 29.

NOTE: We, including you, might not agree totally with the entirety or feel the recommendations were as "inclusive" as we personally desired, but the Final Report has been presented. As a result, "It is the responsibility of everyone to study the recommendations and to use the recommendations as a yardstick to hold those who bear responsibility for implementation to do so efficiently and in a timely manner. (Maurice Rees, Publisher)

1: Recommendation V.1 FRAMEWORK FOR TRACKING MASS CASUALTY INCIDENTS
The Commission recommends that:
(a) All individuals and entities engaged in data-collection research and policy development, including law enforcement agencies and other authorities, adopt this definition of a mass casualty incident: An intentional act of violence during which one or more perpetrator(s) physically injure(s) and/or kill(s) four or more victims, whether or not known to the perpetrator, during a discrete period of time.

(b) All individuals and entities engaged in data-collection research and policy development, including law enforcement agencies and other authorities, collect data on the following: (i) Information about the perpetrator, including but not limited to:

• whether the perpetrator had a history of violence, including coercive control, sexual assault, uttering threats, and criminal harassment (stalking); whether those behaviours were reported or not; whether charges were laid or not; outcome of criminal charges;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of hate-based crimes or expressing hateful sentiments toward an identified group; reported or not; whether charges were laid or not; outcome of charges;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of extremism or connection to extremist movements or online forums;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of suicide attempts or
• suicidal ideation;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of harming or killing pets or animals, or threatening to do so;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of deliberately causing damage to property;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of being subjected to or witnessing family violence;
• whether the perpetrator had a history of alcohol and/or substance dependence;
• whether and how the perpetrator explained the mass casualty;
• whether the perpetrator had a manifesto and the contents thereof; and the connection, if any, between the perpetrator and the victims.

(ii) Information about access to weapons and ammunition, including but not limited to:
• specific weapons/firearms used;
• how the weapons/firearms were acquired; whether lawfully or unlawfully acquired and kept;
• the amount of ammunition the perpetrator had access to or had stockpiled;
• how ammunition was acquired; and
• history of weapons-related charges or complaints; whether criminal charges were laid or not; outcome of charges.
(iii) Information about the trajectory of the incident, including but not limited to:
• the pathway to the incident, including whether the perpetrator shared information about the plans and if so by what means and with whom ("leakage"); whether this information was reported or otherwise came to authorities’ attention; whether such reports were acted on and if so, how;
• the location of the mass casualty, including whether the attack began in one place and
moved to another or others;
• the perpetrator’s relationship with the place where the mass casualty incident happened;
• the duration of the active phase of the mass casualty incident; and
• the means by which the mass casualty incident ended.

2: Recommendation V.2
A PUBLIC HEALTH APPROACH TO PREVENTING MASS CASUALTY INCIDENTS
The Commission recommends that Strategies for prevention of mass casualty incidents should adopt public health approaches that are complex, nuanced, and community-wide while also addressing the perspectives, experience, and needs of marginalized communities.

3: Recommendation V.3
EXTERNAL EVALUATION OF RCMP BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES BRANCH
The Commission recommends that
(a) The RCMP commission an expert external evaluation of the Behavioural Sciences Branch to assess the extent to which its policies, procedures, personnel, and work product: (i) reflect the best practices set out in Volume 3, Chapter 8 of this Final Report; and
(i) reflect the best practices set out in Volume 3, Chapter 8 of this Final Report; and

(ii) are attentive to, and effectively counter, the potential operation of bias, stereotypes, and victim blaming.
(b) The external evaluation should also make recommendations as to how the Behavioural Sciences
Branch can improve its policies, procedures, practices, and training to implement best practices;
identify and counter the operation of stereotypes and victim blaming; and ensure that the failings
documented in this Final Report are not replicated in the future work of the Branch.
(i) This evaluation, and the steps taken by the RCMP to respond to the evaluation, should be
published on the RCMP’s website.
(ii) Other law enforcement agencies should review the completed evaluation and implement both
the lessons learned and the best practices into the behavioural sciences aspect of their mandates.

4: Recommendation V.4
PERIODIC REVIEW OF RCMP BEHAVIOURAL SCIENCES BRANCH
The Commission recommends that
(a) The RCMP periodically obtain an expert external evaluation of the Behavioural Sciences Branch’s work to ensure that this work:
(i) reflects the best practices set out in Volume 3, Chapter 8, of this Final Report; and
(ii) is attentive to, and effectively counters, the potential operation of bias, stereotypes, and victim blaming.
(b) These evaluations, and the steps taken by the RCMP to respond to them, should be published on the RCMP’s website.

5: Recommendation V.5
CONFLICT OF INTEREST IN FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSESSMENT
The Commission recommends that Where a forensic psychological assessment has the potential to shed light on the death of a police officer or may affect evaluations of the quality of a police agency’s work, that assessment should be completed by an independent forensic psychologist or unit. In this context, independence means that
the psychologist or unit has no historical or present employment or reporting relationship with the police agency concerned, and that measures to prevent bias are put in place.

6: Recommendation V.6
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE AND POLICE AND PROSECUTORIAL DISCRETION TO LAY CRIMINAL CHARGES
The Commission recommends that
(a) Police and Crown attorneys / counsel carefully consider the context of intimate partner violence, and particularly coercive control, when criminal charges are being contemplated against survivors of such violence; and
(b) Police investigations and public prosecutions should engage subject matter experts to help ensure that the dynamics of intimate partner violence are understood.

7: Recommendation V.7
COUNTERING VICTIM BLAMING AND HYPER-RESPONSIBILIZATION OF WOMEN SURVIVORS
The Commission recommends that Federal, provincial, and territorial governments work with and support community-based groups and experts in the gender-based advocacy and support sector to develop and deliver prevention materials and social awareness programs that counter victim blaming and hyper-responsibilization (holding of an
individual to higher standards than what would typically be expected of the average person) of women survivors of gender-based violence.

8: Recommendation V.8
WOMEN-CENTRIC RISK ASSESSMENTS
The Commission recommends that

(a) The federal government should initiate and support the development of a common framework for women-centric risk assessments through a process led by the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.
(b) All agencies responsible for the development and application of risk assessment tools integrate this common framework into their work in collaboration with the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector and on the basis of direct input from women survivors.
(c) The common framework and the risk assessment tools built on this framework have a dual aim of ensuring an effective response to immediate threats and long-term protection.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• We support the adoption and implementation of the Renfrew County Inquest jury
recommendation 41:41. Investigate and develop a common framework for risk assessment in IPV[intimate partner violence] cases, which includes a common understanding of IPVrisk factors and lethality. This should be done in meaningful consultation and collaboration with those impacted by and assisting survivors of IPV, and consider key IPVprinciples, including victim-centred, intersectional, gender-specific, trauma-informed, anti-oppressive, and evidence-based approaches.
• The common framework should be based on work done by the gender-based violence and advocacy sector, including on
* the identification of risk factors and the integration of contextualized knowledge about
the patterns of perpetration, women’s perspectives and experiences; and
* systemic factors that contribute to risk assessment tools used by all agencies,
including the police, primarily to assist women to develop and carry out effective
safety plans for themselves, their children, and other dependants (family members,
pets, and livestock).

9: Recommendation V.9
CREATING SAFE SPACES TO REPORT VIOLENCE
The Commission recommends that
(a) Governments, service providers, community-based organizations, and others engaged with the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector take a systemic approach to learning about and removing barriers to women survivors, with a focus on the diverse needs of marginalized women survivors and the needs of other women who are vulnerable as a result of their precarious status or situation.
(b) Community-based organizations, supported by governments, should develop safe spaces suited to their community needs in which women can report violence and seek help.
(c) Community-based reporting systems should include the capacity to move beyond individual incidents and identify and address patterns of violent behaviour.
(d) Community-based reporting systems should be linked with the police in a manner that takes into account the input and needs of women survivors.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• Funding should be adequate and include stable core funding for services that have been demonstrably effective in meeting the needs of women survivors of gender-based violence and that contribute to preventing gender-based violence, including interventions with perpetrators.
• These services should be funded over the long term and should not be discontinued until it has been demonstrated that the services are no longer required or an equally effective alternative has been established.
• Priority should be placed on providing adequate and stable core funding to organizations in the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.
• A further priority should be funding community-based resources and services, particularly in communities where marginalized women are located.

10: Recommendation V.10
REPLACEMENT OF MANDATORY ARREST AND CHARGING POLICIES AND PROTOCOLS FOR
INTIMATE PARTNER VIOLENCE OFFENCES
The Commission recommends that:
(a) Provincial and territorial governments replace mandatory arrest and charging policies and protocols
for intimate partner violence offences with frameworks for structured decision-making by police, with
a focus on violence prevention.
(b) The federal government initiate and support a collaborative process that brings together the gender-
based violence advocacy and support sector, policy-makers, the legal community, community safety
and law enforcement agencies, and other interested parties to develop a national framework for a
women-centred approach to responding to intimate partner violence, including structured decision-
making by police that focuses on violence prevention.
(c) Provincial and territorial governments, working with gender-based violence advocacy and support
sectors, develop policies and protocols for implementing this national framework to address
jurisdiction-specific needs.
IMPLEMENTATION POINT
• One model worth exploring in planning the national initiative is the approach taken in the development of the Canadian Framework for Collaborative Police Response on Sexual Violence.

11: Recommendation V.11
EXTERNAL ACCOUNTABILITY MECHANISM FOR POLICING RESPONSES TO INTIMATE PARTNER
VIOLENCE
The Commission recommends that:
(a) The federal government support the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector to work with police services to expand upon the National Framework for Collaborative Police Action on Intimate Partner Violence.
(b) This framework should include an external accountability mechanism.
IMPLEMENTATION POINT
The Improving Institutional Accountability Project model or a similar model should be considered.

12: Recommendation V.12
EFFECTIVE APPROACHES TO ADDRESSING COERCIVE CONTROL AS A FORM OF GENDER-BASED INTIMATE PARTNER AND FAMILY VIOLENCE
The Commission recommends that:
(a) Federal, provincial, and territorial governments establish an expert advisory group, drawing on the
gender-based violence advocacy and support sector, to examine whether and how criminal law could
better address the context of persistent patterns of controlling behaviour at the core of gender-based, intimate partner, and family violence.
(b) The federal government amend the Criminal Code to recognize that reasonable resistance violence
by the victim of a pattern of coercive and controlling behaviour is self-defence.
(c) Where they have not already done so, provincial and territorial governments amend their family law
statutes to incorporate a definition of family violence that encompasses patterns of coercive and controlling behaviour as a factor to be considered in proceedings under these statutes.
(d) All provincial and territorial governments work collaboratively with the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector, policy-makers, the legal community, community safety and law
enforcement agencies, and other interested parties to develop educational and public awareness
campaigns about coercive control.
IMPLEMENTATION POINT
• We support the adoption and implementation of the Renfrew County Inquest jury recommendation 38: Ensure that IPV[intimate partner violence]-related public education campaigns address IPV perpetration and should include men’s voices, represent men’s experiences, and prompt men to seek help to address their own abusive behaviours. They should highlight opening the door to conversations about concerning behaviours.

13: Recommendation V.13
EPIDEMIC-LEVEL FUNDING FOR GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE PREVENTION AND INTERVENTIONS
The Commission recommends that: Federal, provincial, and territorial funding to end gender-based violence be commensurate with the scale of the problem. It should prioritize prevention and provide women survivors with paths to safety.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• Funding should be adequate and include stable core funding for services that have been demonstrably effective in meeting the needs of women survivors of gender-based violence and that contribute to preventing gender-based violence, including interventions with perpetrators.
• These services should be funded over the long term and should not be discontinued until it has been demonstrated that the services are no longer required or an equally effective alternative has been established.
• Priority should be placed on providing adequate and stable core funding to organizations in the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.
• A further priority should be funding community-based resources and services, particularly in communities where marginalized women are located.

14: Recommendation V.14
MOBILIZING A SOCIETY-WIDE RESPONSE
The Commission recommends that
(a) All levels of government in Canada declare gender-based, intimate partner, and family violence to be an epidemic that warrants a meaningful and sustained society-wide response.
(b) Non-governmental bodies, including learning institutions, professional and trade associations, and businesses, declare gender-based, intimate partner, and family violence to be an epidemic that warrants a meaningful and sustained society-wide response.
(c) Men take up individual and concerted action to contribute to ending this epidemic.
IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• A whole of society response recognizes the range of actors that have roles and
responsibilities to contribute to ending this epidemic, including: federal, provincial, territorial, municipal, and Indigenous governments; the health sector and the justice system; the non-governmental and community-based social services sector; businesses, and workplaces;
media; schools and educational institutions; communities; and individuals, including survivors and perpetrators.
• A whole of society response respects and values the expertise and experience of survivors and the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.

15: Recommendation V.15
WOMEN-CENTRED STRATEGIES AND ACTIONS
The Commission recommends that:
(a) All organizations and individuals adopt women-centred strategies and actions to prevent, intervene
in, and respond to gender-based violence, and to support restoration and healing;
(b) Women-centred strategies and actions be facilitated through the development and support of
holistic, comprehensive, coordinated, collaborative, and integrated advocacy, support, and services.
(c) Women-centred solutions focus foremost on taking active steps to listen to, learn from, and situate
the most marginalized and oppressed women and women living in precarious circumstances.
IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• Recognition of the expertise and experience of the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector, including survivors of gender-based violence, is essential.
• No effective solutions can be developed without input from the people for whom they are being developed.
• Tailored solutions are required in recognition that there is no effective "one size fits all" approach.
• Institutional and personal dynamics that result in silencing women must be actively noticed, identified, resisted, and remedied.
• Women should be seen as members of communities rather than in purely individualistic terms.
• Approaches should affirm and support women’s agency.

16: Recommendation V.16
PUTTING WOMEN’S SAFETY FIRST
The Commission recommends that:
(a) All governments and agencies should prioritize women’s safety in all strategies to prevent, intervene
in, and respond to gender-based violence and in those designed to support recovery and healing.
(b) Governments should shift priority and funding away from carceral responses and toward primary
prevention, including through lifting women and girls out of poverty and supporting healthy
masculinities.
(c) Governments should take steps to ensure women are resourced so they can stay safe and find paths
to safety when they are threatened, including by lifting women and girls out of poverty with a focus on marginalized and oppressed women and women living in precarious situations.

(d) Governments should employ restorative approaches in cases where a woman-centred approach is
maintained and survivors are adequately supported and resourced.

17: Recommendation V.17
NATIONAL ACCOUNTABILITY FRAMEWORK
The Commission recommends that:
(a) The federal government establish by statute an independent and impartial gender-based violence
commissioner with adequate, stable funding, and effective powers, including the responsibility to
make an annual report to Parliament.
(b) The federal government develop the mandate for the gender-based violence commissioner in
consultation with provincial and territorial governments, women survivors including women from
marginalized and precarious communities, and the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
The commissioner’s mandate could include:
• Working with governments and community organizations to promote coordinated, transparent, and consistent monitoring and evaluation frameworks.
• Providing a national approach to victim-survivor engagement, to ensure their diverse experiences inform policies and solutions (similar to the Australian Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission).
• Developing indicators for all four levels of activity (individual, relational, community, societal) and reporting to the public at least once a year.
• Establishing and working with an advisory committee that consists of women survivors, particularly marginalized women survivors, and representatives of the gender-based violence advocacy and support sector.
• Contributing to a national discussion on gender-based violence, including by holding biannual virtual women’s safety symposiums.
• Assisting to coordinate a national research agenda and promoting knowledge sharing.

Volume 4: Community
18: Recommendation C.1
STRENGTHENING RURAL WELL-BEING THROUGH INCLUSION
The Commission recommends that:
(a) Provincial and territorial governments take steps to address urban bias in decision-making by fostering meaningful inclusion of rural communities in all areas affecting them.
(b) The federal government support the inclusion of rural communities in decision-making on issues within their jurisdiction.

19: Recommendation C.2
NATIONAL RESOURCE HUB FOR MASS CASUALTY RESPONSES
The Commissions recommends that:
The federal government should establish, by September 2023, a National Resource Hub for Mass
Casualty Responses with a mandate to:
(a) serve as a centre of expertise for the provision of services to victims and affected persons, including
families and friends of victims, during and after a mass casualty;
(b) draw on national and international experience, research, and promising practices;
(c) build capacity across all levels of government to plan responses to future mass casualty incidents
and respond effectively to victim needs in the short, medium, and long term, including through the
development of draft protocols, training modules, handbooks, and other resources, and a databases
of experts;
(d) assist in the development of a standard of victim response across jurisdictions in Canada, while
building in flexibility to respond in ways appropriate to the specific community; and
(e) facilitate the provision of assistance to victims, family members, and other affected persons who
reside outside the jurisdiction where the mass casualty took place (whether in Canada or in another
country) and facilitate assistance to foreign victims and affected persons, including, for example,
through cross-border support service referrals.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• The federal government should consult the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police National
Working Group Supporting Victims of Terrorism and Mass Violence; their relevant Indigenous, provincial, and territorial counterparts; the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime; other victims’ rights advocacy organizations; provincial victims’ services programs; and the Federal Ombudsman for Victims of Crime.
• The expertise developed by this National Resource Hub for Mass Casualty Responses could extend to other types of emergency and major incident response.
• The National Resource Hub could also assist directly in training personnel, and could potentially establish a small national team to be mobilized quickly in response to a mass casualty.

20: Recommendation C.3
AMENDING THE CANADIAN DISASTER DATABASE TO INCLUDE MASS CASUALTY INCIDENTS
The Commission recommends that The Minister of Public Safety Canada amend the categories of events used in the Canadian Disaster Database to include mass casualty incidents as defined in Recommendation V.1: "An intentional act of violence during which one or more perpetrator(s) physically injure(s) and/or kill(s) four or more victims,
whether or not known to the perpetrator, during a discrete period of time."

21: Recommendation C.4
FUNDAMENTAL REVIEW OF ALERT READY
The Commission recommends that The federal, provincial, and territorial governments should undertake a fundamental review of public emergency alerting to determine whether and how the Alert Ready system can be reformed in such a way that it meets the legal responsibility to warn the population of an emergency that threatens life,
livelihoods, health, and property.
This joint governmental review of the national public alerting system should be comprehensive and at a minimum address the following:
(a) It should include substantive community and stakeholder engagement at all stages.
(b) It should establish a national framework for public alerting, led by Public Safety Canada, with operationalization to continue on a provincial, territorial, and Indigenous government basis but pursuant to national standards. It should restructure in order to transition from reliance on a private corporation as the provider of Canada’s national alerting system.

(c) It should be completed in advance of and inform the next round of negotiations with the licensee /
candidates and be taken into consideration in any renewal issued before the completion of the review.
(d) It should be based on the following system design principles: centring the public; building a system
of systems; enhancing governance; formulating a concept of operations; protecting privacy; focusing
on preparedness; assuring equality and inclusiveness; and promoting continuous learning and
improvement.
(e) It should include a comprehensive review of communications interoperability across the public safety
system.
IMPLEMENTATION POINT
• Consideration should be given to the value of establishing a national emergency
management system.

22: Recommendation C.5
TRIENNIAL REVIEW OF THE NATIONAL PUBLIC ALERTING SYSTEM
The Commission recommends that The senior officials responsible for emergency management undertake a review of the national public alerting system every three years and that a report on the process and findings of this review be made public.
The review include a public-engagement component, including a national poll about the awareness and
assessment of the national public alerting system.
The review take into consideration the diverse needs of people living in Canada, including urban, rural,
and remote communities, official language minorities, and marginalized communities.

23: Recommendation C.6
REVITALIZING POLICE-BASED VICTIM SERVICES WITH A DUTY OF CARE
The Commission recommends that:

(a) The RCMP and other police services adopt policies recognizing a duty of care in the provision of services to survivors and affected persons.
(b) All police personnel communicating with survivors and affected persons do so pursuant to trauma-
informed and victim-centred principles, and that they receive the education, mentoring, and support
required to integrate these principles effectively.

(c) RCMP policies, protocols, and training recognize the priority of providing to survivors and affected persons full and accurate information at the earliest opportunity, including through regularly scheduled contact updates even where there is no new information to provide.
(d) Any holdback of information for investigative purposes should be limited in time and scope to that
which is truly necessary to protect investigative integrity.
(e) The RCMP update its description of the role and responsibilities of family liaison officers in
consultation with subject matter experts and integrating lessons learned and feedback received from
Participants at the Commission.
(f) The RCMP should review and revise its next of kin notification policy and protocols and design an
education module to facilitate its implementation.
(g) The RCMP take steps necessary to ensure these policies and their implementation fully meet or
exceed Nova Scotia policing standards.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• Preservation of victim dignity should be a priority, including through taking steps to ensure
victim’s bodies are secured, covered as quickly as possible, and protected such that video
footage and photographs cannot be taken.
• RCMP policies, protocols, and training should recognize that in order for the family liaison
officer to succeed, their colleagues (e.g., those in the Major Crimes Unit) must support them
by providing accurate and timely information.
• A family liaison officer should offer meaningful updates and guidance about the investigation,
as well as general information on related offices and services—including, but not limited to,
the medical examiner, insurance, crime scene and evidence cleaning, and mental and physical
health supports.

24: Recommendation C.7
POLICE-BASED SERVICES FOR PERSONS AFFECTED BY MASS CASUALTIES
The Commission recommends that (a) Critical incident command groups should include a member dedicated solely to victim management
and that the critical incident plan include a victim crisis response component to meet the information
needs of survivors and affected persons during a major event or emergency.
(b) The victim crisis response should include: a dedicated telephone line for individuals seeking
information about family or friends; a website platform; a multidisciplinary victim response team; and
protocols and guidelines, including for the establishment of a family assistance centre.
(c) The time standard for mobilizing the victim management response plan should be 90 minutes from
the time a critical incident response is activated.

(d) Victim management response should be a component of annual table-top critical incident response
preparedness exercises.
(e) Upon request, the National Resource Office for Mass Casualty Responses (Recommendation C.1)
assist municipal police forces to build their capacity to activate a victim management response to a
critical incident, including by developing model protocols, a website plan, training modules, and other
tools.

25: Recommendation C.8
PROACTIVE PRE-CRITICAL INCIDENT WELLNESS PLANNING
The Commission recommends that:
(a) All public safety agencies should develop and promote pre-critical incident wellness planning.
(b) All public safety agencies should develop wellness programming that is proactive and preventive in
nature.
(c) The leadership of public safety agencies should take proactive steps to ensure that all responders are
accorded equal organizational support and to promote healthy help-seeking behaviour.
(d) Public safety agencies in each jurisdiction should collaborate to provide training, including tabletop
exercises, to civilian members of the responder community, including volunteers, as one aspect of
their pre–critical incident planning.
IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
Proactive and preventive wellness programs should address the following areas:
• pre-critical incident planning and training;
• integrated and intensive training to develop skills and build awareness about mental wellness
(such as the Before Operational Stress Program and breathing techniques to modulate
stress);
• enhanced mental health training for supervisors and officers, to promote cultural change;
• peer support programs, supported by evidence-based training, that take hierarchy into
account, matching experience to experience, and ensure that a diversity of peer supporters
are available to connect;
• effective informal peer support and for peer support to spouses and families of responders;
• readily available information and knowledge about the resources for peers; and
• active facilitation of help-seeking behaviour, including by: addressing stigma; increasing and ongoing awareness about resources; enhancing confidential options; raising awareness about problematic forms of stoicism; openly acknowledging the difficult work; promoting effective workplace policies making supports available, including in the discussion those who should play a role in these support systems; and providing evidence-based supports.

26: Recommendation C.9
POST–MASS CASUALTY INCIDENT EMERGENCY RESPONDER MENTAL HEALTH LEAD
The Commission recommends that Immediately following a mass casualty incident, the provincial government should appoint a mental health point person to coordinate the mental health leads in each division or agency that responded to the incident. This liaison role would have the responsibility to oversee and evaluate the provision of confidential support services to emergency responders from all agencies and the informal sector, and to promote their wellness.
IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
The mandate of the mental health lead would include the following tasks: establish and maintain regularly scheduled contact with emergency responders in the aftermath of the incident; coordinate and convene cross-agency debriefings; take steps to ensure a continuum of care to responders in the immediate, short and long term; advise the leadership of public safety agencies on issues that affect personnel mental health (including work and shift assignments); liaise with the post-incident support lead (Recommendation C.1) to coordinate the provision of service to emergency responders whose needs cannot be met through public safety agencies; advise the provincial government concerning unmet needs; and evaluate the impact of the mass casualty on emergency responders and provide advice to public safety agencies, other employers, and the provincial government concerning steps to be taken to better meet wellness needs.
Post–critical incident wellness plans should include: provision for relief workers to relieve emergency responders affected by the critical incident; changes to leave policies to facilitate emergency responders taking the time required to meet their wellness needs; the opportunity to jointly debrief after a critical incident; provision for more in-person meetings and communication in the post incident period; sufficiency of support resources, both regularly and over a longer period of time; uniformity in support resources for emergency responders (including civilians) across agencies; facilitation of on-site support for responders;
• coordination of supports within public safety agencies to facilitate access by emergency responders; resources for in-house wellness units following a mass casualty to meet the additional demands; and
• training for coach officers / supervisors / managers / leaders to ensure proactive support of emergency responders with up-to-date information about available mental health supports and understanding of the issues facing emergency responders members on the ground.

27: Recommendation C.10
MAINSTREAMING AND INCREASING AVAILABILITY OF MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
The Commission recommends that Federal, provincial, and territorial governments should develop a national action plan to promote better integration of preventive and supportive mental health care into the Canadian healthcare system, so as to ensure greater access to these services on an equal level as physical healthcare.

28: Recommendation C.11
ENHANCE GRIEF, BEREAVEMENT, TRAUMA, AND RESILIENCY LITERACY
The Commission recommends that:
(a) The Nova Scotia Health Authority, in consultation with community-based health organizations and
service providers in the affected communities, should develop a public education and awareness
campaign to foster greater literacy about grief, bereavement, trauma, and resiliency.
(b) Other Canadian health authorities, in consultation with community-based health organizations and
service providers, should take steps to increase grief, bereavement, trauma, and resiliency literacy.
IMPLEMENTATION POINT
• These education and awareness campaigns should include ongoing education in schools. Consideration should also be given to include them alongside existing programs – for example, as a requirement for workplaces as part of workers compensation programs.

POST-MASS CASUALTY INCIDENT SUPPORT PLANS
The Commission recommends that:
(a) Health Canada, in consultation with provincial and territorial health authorities and subject matter
experts, should develop a national policy, protocols, and program to provide a range of health and
social support services required by those most affected by a mass casualty, both for individuals and
for communities as a whole.
(b) The national policy and protocols should establish a national standard that can be adapted to the
specific circumstances of the mass casualty, and the program should include allocations of funding to
support their implementation.
(c) The national standard for post-mass casualty incident support plans should be developed on the
basis of, and integrate, these guiding principles: (i) respectful treatment of those most affected, including through recognition of their unique perspective, experiences, and needs and their involvement in the implementation of the post–critical incident support plan; (ii) recovery and resilience established as the desired outcomes; (iii) trauma-informed and victim-centred service provision; (iv) proactive, comprehensive, and coordinated support services that include navigation assistance; (v) commitment to providing services in the immediate, short and medium, and long term; and (vi) ongoing needs assessments, monitoring, and periodic evaluation of programs and services.
(d) One of the national protocols should provide that a multidisciplinary team be established and
mobilized within 24 hours to assist local service providers to initiate a support plan immediately
following a mass casualty.
(e) The protocols for post-mass casualty incident support plans should provide for the designation of
a post-incident support lead with the responsibility to coordinate the implementation of the plan,
including through adapting it to the specific circumstance of the mass casualty.
(f) The national program should liaise with the National Resource Hub for Mass Casualty Responses
(Recommendation C.2) to develop and operationalize a knowledge exchange network to facilitate the
sharing of promising practices, research, and evaluations across Canada, including through monitoring
international developments in post-critical incident support planning and service provision.

IMPLEMENTATION POINTS
• Service providers should receive training to enable theme to provide support services following a mass casualty, including through modules to support the wellness of service providers who are engaged in this work.
• The national policy and protocols should include the issue of the financial assistance required to support affected persons and communities.
• The national policy and protocols should include designated liaisons for directly affected family members who live elsewhere in Canada, beyond the jurisdiction of the mass casualty, or outside Canada.
• Trauma-informed training should be integrated across public sector service delivery and be made available to community-based organizations.

Part 2 which will be published in the July 2023 issue will include recommendations 30 to 61.