TORONTO —
RCMP say at least 18 people, including one of their veteran officers, are the victims of a mass killing in Nova Scotia, making it the worst in Canadian history.
But police warn the death toll could rise as investigators unravel the extent of the suspect’s violent path across the province Saturday night and into Sunday.
The suspect, who at one point in his rampage wore a police uniform and drove a car made to look like an RCMP cruiser, is also dead following the incident, bringing the death count to 19.
It is known that he shot some of his victims.
In a news conference in Dartmouth, N.S. on Sunday, investigators related the enormity of the incident.
“Today is a devastating day for Nova Scotia and it will remain etched in the minds of many for years to come,” said commanding RCMP officer Lee Bergerman.
“What has unfolded overnight and into this morning is incomprehensible and many families are experiencing the loss of a loved one.”
Police confirmed that Const. Heidi Stevenson, a 23-year veteran of the Nova Scotia RCMP, died Sunday morning while responding to the active shooter incident.
“Heidi answered the call of duty and lost her life while protecting those she served,” said Bergerman. “Two children have lost their mother and a husband has lost his wife. Parents have lost their daughter and countless others lost an incredible friend and colleague.”
A male RCMP officer was also taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. His identity has not been released.
“He and his family will be supported and we will be alongside him as he begins his road to recovery,” said Bergerman.
Premier Stephen McNeil offered condolences to families of the victims and called the incident “one of the most senseless acts of violence in our province’s history.”
The death toll surpasses that of the 14 victims killed in the 1989 Polytechnique massacre in Montreal.
But police are warning their investigation could lead to finding more victims because the suspect travelled across the province in a prolonged attack that appear to be “at least in part, very random in nature,” said RCMP Chief Supt. Chris Leather during a news conference Sunday evening.
Leather said it was hard to specify the exact number of victims, “because as we’re standing here, the investigation continues into areas that we have not yet explored across the province.”
SEVERAL PEOPLE FOUND DEAD AT PORTAPIQUE HOME
Leather said police first responded to a residence in Portapique, N.S. late Saturday evening after receiving several 911 calls about an active shooter.
When officers arrived, Leather said they found “several casualties” inside and outside of the home.
“This was a very quickly evolving situation and a chaotic scene,” said Leather, the criminal operations officer for Nova Scotia RCMP.
Officers secured the area in Portapique, which is approximately 130 km north of Halifax and 40 km west of Truro, and started searching for the suspect, but they were unable to locate him. Shaken residents of the rural area, already in lockdown because of the pandemic, were told to lock their doors and stay inside.
Leather said the search for the suspect led to several sites in the area, including structures that were on fire.
“The search continued overnight and into the morning,” said Leather. “This morning we actively sought out the suspect through multiple communities throughout Nova Scotia.”
Police provided updates on Twitter overnight and into Sunday morning as they tracked the suspect across the province. Police confirmed that they were responding to an “active shooter situation,” and asked residents to remain in their homes with their doors locked.
They also revealed that the suspect may have been dressed as an RCMP officer in a lookalike RCMP vehicle.
Investigators first released the suspect’s identity before 9 a.m. Sunday. They said 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman was considered armed and dangerous and warned that he should not be approached.
SUSPECT TRAVELLED IN VEHICLE RESEMBLING RCMP CRUISER
Police said that, at one point, the suspect was driving what appeared to be an RCMP vehicle and wearing an RCMP uniform — though he was not an RCMP officer.
Leather said the fact that Wortman had an RCMP uniform and a vehicle resembling a police cruiser indicates that the incident may have been planned.
“That’s an important element of the investigation,” said Leather. “The fact that this individual had a police car and a uniform at his disposal certainly speaks to it not being a random act.”
They later said he was driving a silver Chevrolet Tracker.
Police continued to track Wortman across the province, warning the public about sightings in Glenholme, Debert, Brookfield and Milford.
VICTIMS WERE ‘SCATTERED ACROSS THE PROVINCE’
Leather said the investigation involves “multiple crime scenes” and that there are victims “scattered across the province.”
“There are several locations across the province where persons have been killed.”
He said investigators believe the sole suspect is believed to be responsible for the killings.
“He alone moved across the northern part of the province and committed, it would appear, several homicides,” said Leather.
He didn’t specify where the crime scenes are located, saying the investigation is in the early stages. He also said it’s possible police could learn about additional crime scenes and victims in the coming days.
“Some of these crime scenes we’ve not even begun to process … it is an ongoing investigation that could reveal additional details in the coming days,” said Leather.
“The investigation continues into areas that we’ve not yet explored across the province.”
In Shubenacadie, N.S., there were several burned-out vehicles, which appeared to be police cruisers, along the highway. Witnesses also reported hearing between seven and 10 gunshots.
“I hear the shots and I look out and … there’s a guy running back-and-forth up beside the, what looks to be a police vehicle,” recalled one witness at the scene. “Then after a short bit I saw fire.”
Leather confirmed that Wortman did exchange gunfire with police at one point during the chase, but wouldn’t say where.
SUSPECT SHOT AND KILLED IN ENFIELD
Officers eventually tracked Wortman to the Irving gas station and Big Stop restaurant in Enfield, N.S., about 90 kilometres away from Portapique, where he was shot and killed late Sunday morning.
Leather wouldn’t confirm that Wortman was shot by police, but he did say “officers were involved in terminating the threat.”
He also confirmed that Nova Scotia’s Serious Incident Response Team — which investigates serious incidents involving police — is investigating the man’s death.
Witnesses heard gunshots, saw body on the ground
A truck driver from Ontario told CTV News he had stopped at the Irving for a shower and breakfast when he heard an employee shouting.
“She goes, ‘Oh my God, lock the doors, he’s here! And I peek out of the window and I saw some RCMP vehicles and there was four or five uniforms with guns,” said Tom Nurani.
Witnesses told CTV News they saw RCMP vehicles on scene, heard multiple gunshots, and saw a body on the ground.
“All I could hear was gunshots and my wife, I thought I was going to call 911, because she was going into panic, it scared her so bad,” said Glen Hines, who was driving by the Irving when he saw the Emergency Response Team arrive.
“There was multiple, like probably between five or 10 (gunshots). It was steady,” recalled Deon Wells, who lives nearby.
VICTIM IDENTIFIED
The Nova Scotia Teachers Union issued a statement Sunday that said a teacher at Debert Elementary, Lisa McCully, was among the dead.
She was known by colleagues and students “not only as a passionate teacher but as a shining love in their lives.”
The statement, signed by president Paul Wozney, also said that Dean Stevenson, husband to the RCMP officer who was killed, teaches at Cole Harbour District High School.
“We know that there are many others who died last night whose families are struggling to process what has happened,” Wozney wrote. “Their lives are no less precious. They are our neighbours and friends. Their children are our students. We hurt with you all too.”
THE SUSPECT
A Gabriel Wortman is listed as a denturist in Dartmouth, according to the Denturist Society of Nova Scotia website. A suspect photo issued by the RCMP matches video footage of a man being interviewed about dentures by CTV Atlantic in 2014.
Some Portapique residents who spoke with the The Canadian Press said they knew him in passing as a part-time resident who divided time between the Halifax area and his properties in the community. Portapique’s population numbers about 100 in the summer months, but swells to about 250 during summer cottage season.
David George Crockett, who lives a three-minute drive from Portapique Beach Road, the area where the first 911 calls originated, said Wortman once fixed his teeth at his home in Portapique.
“I’m very surprised,” Crockett said in a brief interview outside his rural home. “I never thought he would do something like that.”
“From what I knew of him, he was quiet, gentle and very easy to talk to …. He was very nice. He kidded around a little bit. He seemed normal, not like someone who would do something like this.”
A little farther down the rural road, another neighbour said he and Wortman were friends until the two had a falling out over a piece of nearby property.
The neighbour, who declined to give his name, said Wortman had burned an old shed that contained some property that belonged to the neighbour. The man said he was too overcome with emotion to say more about his relationship with Wortman or what might have motivated his rampage.
Christine Mills, another resident, said it had been a frightening night for the community, which was suddenly filled with armed officers patrolling the streets. In the morning, helicopters flew overhead searching for the suspect.
She said she was fearful the shooter might have gone through the woods and attempted to enter her home.
“It’s nerve-wracking because you don’t know if somebody has lost their mind and is going to beat in your front door,” she said.
Tom Taggart, a councillor who represents the Portapique area in the Municipality of Colchester, said the quiet community is in shock.
“This is just an absolutely wonderful, peaceful quiet community, and the idea that this could happen in our community is unbelievable,” Taggart said by phone from his home in Bass River, about three kilometres away from Portapique.
Taggart said he didn’t know Wortman well, but spoke to him a few times when he telephoned about municipal issues, and described knowing Wortman’s “lovely big home” on Portapique Beach Road.
With files from Holly McKenzie-Sutter, Michael Tutton and Jim Bronskill.
WINNIPEG – Some 250 coloured tacks pepper a large-scale world map among bookshelves at Whodunit Mystery Bookstore.
Estonia, Finland, Japan and even Fenwick, Ont., have pins representing places outside Winnipeg where someone has ordered a page-turner from the independent bookstore that specializes in mystery and crime fiction novels.
For 30 years, the store has been offering fans of Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot or Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes a place to get lost in whodunits both old and new.
Jack and Wendy Bumsted bought the shop in the Crescentwood neighbourhood in 2007 from another pair of mystery lovers.
The married couple had been longtime customers of the store. Wendy Bumsted grew up reading Perry Mason novels while her husband was a historian with vast knowledge of the crime fiction genre.
At the time, Jack Bumsted was retiring from teaching at the University of Manitoba when he was looking for his next venture.
“The bookstore came up and we bought it, I think, within a week,” Wendy Bumsted said in an interview.
“It never didn’t seem like a good idea.”
In the years since the Bumsteds took ownership, the family has witnessed the decline in mail-order books, the introduction of online retailers, a relocation to a new space next to the original, a pandemic and the death of beloved co-owner Jack Bumsted in 2020.
But with all the changes that come with owning a small business, customers continue to trust their next mystery fix will come from one of the shelves at Whodunit.
Many still request to be called about books from specific authors, or want to be notified if a new book follows their favourite format. Some arrive at the shop like clockwork each week hoping to get suggestions from Wendy Bumsted or her son on the next big hit.
“She has really excellent instincts on what we should be getting and what we should be promoting,” Micheal Bumsted said of his mother.
Wendy Bumsted suggested the store stock “Thursday Murder Club,” the debut novel from British television host Richard Osman, before it became a bestseller. They ordered more copies than other bookstores in Canada knowing it had the potential to be a hit, said Michael Bumsted.
The store houses more than 18,000 new and used novels. That’s not including the boxes of books that sit in Wendy Bumsted’s tiny office, or the packages that take up space on some of the only available seating there, waiting to be added to the inventory.
Just as the genre has evolved, so has the Bumsteds’ willingness to welcome other subjects on their shelves — despite some pushback from loyal customers and initially the Bumsted patriarch.
For years, Jack Bumsted refused to sell anything outside the crime fiction genre, including his own published books. Instead, he would send potential buyers to another store, but would offer to sign the books if they came back with them.
Wendy Bumsted said that eventually changed in his later years.
Now, about 15 per cent of the store’s stock is of other genres, such as romance or children’s books.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced them to look at expanding their selection, as some customers turned to buying books through the store’s website, which is set up to allow purchasers to get anything from the publishers the Bumsteds have contracts with.
In 2019, the store sold fewer than 100 books online. That number jumped to more than 3,000 in 2020, as retailers had to deal with pandemic lockdowns.
After years of running a successful mail-order business, the store was able to quickly adapt when it had to temporarily shut its doors, said Michael Bumsted.
“We were not a store…that had to figure out how to get books to people when they weren’t here.”
He added being a community bookstore with a niche has helped the family stay in business when other retailers have struggled. Part of that has included building lasting relationships.
“Some people have put it in their wills that their books will come to us,” said Wendy Bumsted.
Some of those collections have included tips on traveling through Asia in the early 2000s or the history of Australian cricket.
Micheal Bumsted said they’ve had to learn to be patient with selling some of these more obscure titles, but eventually the time comes for them to find a new home.
“One of the great things about physical books is that they can be there for you when you are ready for them.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on Sept. 15, 2024.
MONTREAL – Canada’s labour minister is praising both Air Canada and the union representing about 5,200 of its pilots for averting a work stoppage that would have disrupted travel for hundreds of thousands of passengers.
Steven MacKinnon’s comments came in a statement shared to social media shortly after Canada’s largest air carrier announced it had reached a tentative labour deal with the Air Line Pilots Association.
MacKinnon thanked both sides and federal mediators, saying the airline and its pilots approached negotiations with “seriousness and a resolve to get a deal.”
The tentative agreement averts a strike or lockout that could have begun as early as Wednesday for Air Canada and Air Canada Rouge, with flight cancellations expected before then.
The airline now says flights will continue as normal while union members vote on the tentative four-year contract.
Air Canada had called on the federal government to intervene in the dispute, but Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Friday that would only happen if it became clear no negotiated agreement was possible.
This report from The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
When it comes to plant-based alternatives, Canadians have never had so many options — and nowhere is that choice more abundantly clear than in the milk section of the dairy aisle.
To meet growing demand, companies are investing in new products and technology to keep up with consumer tastes and differentiate themselves from all the other players on the shelf.
“The product mix has just expanded so fast,” said Liza Amlani, co-founder of the Retail Strategy Group.
She said younger generations in particular are driving growth in the plant-based market as they are consuming less dairy and meat.
Commercial sales of dairy milk have been weakening for years, according to research firm Mintel, likely in part because of the rise of plant-based alternatives — even though many Canadians still drink dairy.
The No. 1 reason people opt for plant-based milk is because they see it as healthier than dairy, said Joel Gregoire, Mintel’s associate director for food and drink.
“Plant-based milk, the one thing about it — it’s not new. It’s been around for quite some time. It’s pretty established,” said Gregoire.
Because of that, it serves as an “entry point” for many consumers interested in plant-based alternatives to animal products, he said.
Plant-based milk consumption is expected to continue growing in the coming years, according to Mintel research, with more options available than ever and more consumers opting for a diet that includes both dairy and non-dairy milk.
A 2023 report by Ernst & Young for Protein Industries Canada projected that the plant-based dairy market will reach US$51.3 billion in 2035, at a compound annual growth rate of 9.5 per cent.
Because of this growth opportunity, even well-established dairy or plant-based companies are stepping up their game.
It’s been more than three decades since Saint-Hyacinthe, Que.-based Natura first launched a line of soy beverages. Over the years, the company has rolled out new products to meet rising demand, and earlier this year launched a line of oat beverages that it says are the only ones with a stamp of approval from Celiac Canada.
Competition is tough, said owner and founder Nick Feldman — especially from large American brands, which have the money to ensure their products hit shelves across the country.
Natura has kept growing, though, with a focus on using organic ingredients and localized production from raw materials.
“We’re maybe not appealing to the mass market, but we’re appealing to the natural consumer, to the organic consumer,” Feldman said.
Amlani said brands are increasingly advertising the simplicity of their ingredient lists. She’s also noticing more companies offering different kinds of products, such as coffee creamers.
Companies are also looking to stand out through eye-catching packaging and marketing, added Amlani, and by competing on price.
Besides all the companies competing for shelf space, there are many different kinds of plant-based milk consumers can choose from, such as almond, soy, oat, rice, hazelnut, macadamia, pea, coconut and hemp.
However, one alternative in particular has enjoyed a recent, rapid ascendance in popularity.
“I would say oat is the big up-and-coming product,” said Feldman.
Mintel’s report found the share of Canadians who say they buy oat milk has quadrupled between 2019 and 2023 (though almond is still the most popular).
“There seems to be a very nice marriage of coffee and oat milk,” said Feldman. “The flavour combination is excellent, better than any other non-dairy alternative.”
The beverage’s surge in popularity in cafés is a big part of why it’s ascending so quickly, said Gregoire — its texture and ability to froth makes it a good alternative for lattes and cappuccinos.
It’s also a good example of companies making a strong “use case” for yet another new entrant in a competitive market, he said.
Amid the long-standing brands and new entrants, there’s another — perhaps unexpected — group of players that has been increasingly investing in plant-based milk alternatives: dairy companies.
For example, Danone has owned the Silk and So Delicious brands since an acquisition in 2014, and long-standing U.S. dairy company HP Hood LLC launched Planet Oat in 2018.
Lactalis Canada also recently converted its facility in Sudbury, Ont., to manufacture its new plant-based Enjoy! brand, with beverages made from oats, almonds and hazelnuts.
“As an organization, we obviously follow consumer trends, and have seen the amount of interest in plant-based products, particularly fluid beverages,” said Mark Taylor, president and CEO of Lactalis Canada, whose parent company Lactalis is the largest dairy products company in the world.
The facility was a milk processing plant for six decades, until Lactalis Canada began renovating it in 2022. It now manufactures not only the new brand, but also the company’s existing Sensational Soy brand, and is the company’s first dedicated plant-based facility.
“We’re predominantly a dairy company, and we’ll always predominantly be a dairy company, but we see these products as complementary,” said Taylor.
It makes sense that major dairy companies want to get in on plant-based milk, said Gregoire. The dairy business is large — a “cash cow,” if you will — but not really growing, while plant-based products are seeing a boom.
“If I’m looking for avenues of growth, I don’t want to be left behind,” he said.
Gregoire said there’s a potential for consumers to get confused with so many options, which is why it’s so important for brands to find a way to differentiate themselves, whether it’s with taste, health, or how well the drink froths for a latte.
Competition in a more crowded market is challenging, but Taylor believes it results in better products for consumers.
“It keeps you sharp, and it forces you to be really good at what you’re doing. It drives innovation,” he said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 15, 2024.
