Protesters decry ‘shocking and paternalistic’ decision to hold review, not inquiry into Nova Scotia mass shooting
“About 200 people gathered at Victoria Park in Halifax at noon Monday for a general strike intended to draw attention to demands for a public inquiry into the Nova Scotia mass killing.
The event was slated to run from noon to 12:22, a 22-minute strike to pay homage to the 22 people whose lives were taken during the weekend of April 18-19.
“This is something that all sectors of society have asked for,” Martha Paynter, founder and coordinator of Women’s Wellness Within, told reporters before the event started.
Her organization works for reproductive justice, prison abolition and health equity. It was one of several feminist community activist and advocacy groups behind Monday’s ‘Strike back: Demand an inquiry’ event.
“This is really a minimum response to the largest massacre in Canada in our lifetimes and it’s required to even begin to deal with the trauma this province has experienced,” she said.
On Thursday, the provincial and federal governments announced a joint independent review would be conducted into the tragedy rather than a public inquiry. That’s what victims’ families, national women’s organizations, senators, and many others had asked for.
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