Mass Murder, Police Mayhem: The Mass Casualty Commission: The Facts, The Findings, and What Must Be Done

by Dean Beeby

In this book Dean Beeby distills the extensive research of the Mass Casualty Commission into a readable account of exactly what happened during 13 chaotic hours when 22 Nova Scotians were murdered in April 2020.  The commission tracked the perpetrator’s movements and pieced together the actions of all involved RCMP members. The Mounties’ fatal errors – failing to believe citizens reporting that the murderer was driving a replica RCMP car and failing to recognize his back road escape route among many others – are documented in the report and set out in this book. Dean Beeby describes the background to these events, including the numerous times the killer was involved with police and their repeated failures to deal with the danger he represented to his community and the public. The Commission made 130 recommendations for action, two-thirds of them dealing with the RCMP. Dean Beeby offers a plain language description of each of these recommendations, enabling readers to keep track of how the RCMP and other agencies respond to the commission’s demands for major reforms. The Mass Casualty Commission’s exhaustive investigation cost almost $50 million, and yielded a massive final report. The report was published in seven volumes of 3,000 pages in total. This book is intended to give readers access to the key content of this important public record.

Genres: Nonfiction

208 pages, Paperback

Published August 29, 2023

Reviews

[Julia O'Hanley]

A difficult but important read.

[MichaelR]

Appreciate the author’s summary of the events and findings into a concise readable book.

[James Hamblin]

I wasn't living in Nova Scotia at the time this happened. This book opened my eyes to the event and all the insane decisions made in the background. It was nice too that it wasn't too long.

[Barbara Schwarz-mitchell]

This book about the murders in NS in 2020 takes the mass casualty commissions report and condenses it into a very readable and much shorter version. Dean Beeby takes this very sensitive topic and treats it with the utmost respect. It's very enlightening, but also very heartbreaking.

[Thom Gaul]

Stupid cops, frustrating read obviously. Quick and to the point nonetheless.

[Kelly Greenwood]

A good book for those who want a timeline of the awful events, and a sense of the many mistakes made by the RCMP. It was a much faster and easier read than Palago's 22 Murders.