A special commission has finished a nearly three-year review of a 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia.
Canadian officials said a failure in border policies was partly responsible for the gunman illegally smuggling multiple firearms from Maine and using them in Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.
Gunman Gabriel Wortman shot and killed 22 people across rural Nova Scotia and later died in a shootout with police back in April 2020.
The report from Canadian officials details how Wortman acquired two firearms from a friend in Maine. He then got a third, a semi-automatic rifle, at a gun show in Houlton through another man. All three firearms were used during the mass shooting.
No Americans have been charged.
The seven-volume report describes a breakdown in communications among Canadian border and intelligence agencies. Intelligence agencies didn’t know how frequently Wortman crossed the Canadian-Maine border. And while intelligence officials had identified safety risks with Wortman, the border agency had approved him for Canada’s trusted traveler program.
The report recommends that border communities and Canadian and U.S. officials coordinate and improve efforts to prevent illegal gun smuggling.
This article appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.
