2020 Nova Scotia attacks

The official list of victims can be found in the Statement by Premier Tim Houston, read in the House of Assembly on April 14, 2022.

After the attacks, the decorative signs on Wortman's denture clinic on Portland Street in Dartmouth, portraying a large smile and a set of dentures, were the subject of complaints from the public. In response, Halifax Regional Police removed the signs on April 22. The building was demolished in January 2022.

The independent public inquiry was created to examine the mass casualty in Nova Scotia and to provide meaningful recommendations to keep communities safe in the future. The list of the Commission Team, information on its Mandate, the Research Advisory Board, and the other Foundational Documents and Commissioned Reports were published on the Commission's site. The inquiry included mandates on probing the RCMP response and the role gender-based violence played, and was expected to deliver an interim report by May 1, 2022, followed by a final report six months later. In May 2022, the Interim Report of the Commission on Mass Victims was published by the Joint Federal-Provincial Commission of Inquiry into Nova Scotia Mass Casualty.

On April 18, 2022, the Honourable Marco Mendicino, Minister of Public Safety issued his statement on this tragedy.

Relatives of the victims filed a lawsuit against Wortman's estate for damages caused by the rampage. Another lawsuit was filed by victims' families against the RCMP and Nova Scotia, citing the former's "disrespectful manner" to victims and their families and its handling of the attacks, both during and after the event. In June, Wortman's partner renounced her status as his executor and eventually filed her own lawsuit against his estate on August 13. In February 2021, the lawsuit filed by the victims' families added the names of Wortman's partner, her brother, and her brother-in-law.

On April 18 and 19, 2020, Gabriel Wortman committed multiple shootings and set fires at 16 locations in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, killing 22 people and injuring three others before he was shot and killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield.

On December 4, Wortman's spouse, her older brother, and a brother-in-law were charged with providing Wortman ammunition that he used in the attacks. The spouse was believed to have transferred .223 Remington and .40 Smith & Wesson cartridges, all of them purchased in Nova Scotia, between March 17 and April 18, 2020. However, the RCMP acknowledged that the three cooperated in the investigation and had "no prior knowledge" of Wortman's actions. Their arraignment was scheduled for January 27, 2021. On that day, the cases were adjourned until March 9, 2021.

On July 28, 2020, federal Public Safety Minister Bill Blair announced a public inquiry. The federal and provincial governments had previously considered a more narrow "joint review," but, following public outcry and protests held by victims' families, they agreed to hold a more expansive public inquiry. The public inquiry does not have the power to compel testimony, and the RCMP Operations Manual authorizes the police force to lie to a public inquiry to protect the identity of informants and police assets.

Formally titled the Joint Federal/Provincial Commission into the April 2020 Nova Scotia Mass Casualty (or the Mass Casualty Commission), it was officially established on October 21 via an Order in Council issued by the Government of Canada and Province of Nova Scotia. The terms of the Order in Council of the Government of Canada (PC Number: 2020-0822 dated October 21, 2020), in English and French, were published on the website of the Government of Canada. The full text of a certified copy of an Order in Council of the Province of Nova Scotia (Number 2020-293) can be found on the provincial Government's platform. The federal and provincial governments jointly selected three commissioners to conduct the inquiry: J. Michael MacDonald (former chief justice of Nova Scotia), Leanne J. Fitch (retired police chief), and Dr. Kim Stanton.

On April 19, 2020, the prime minister, Justin Trudeau, issued a statement on the shooting in Portapique, Nova Scotia, saying:

Starting April 22, 2020, the RCMP began providing updates on the investigation into the incidents on April 18-19 and launched a condolence platform on its official website.

Wortman is believed to have worked on refurbishing the decommissioned police vehicle used in the attacks over the course of nine months. The RCMP determined the decals used for the vehicle came from a supplier, but that they were made without the business owner's permission. The Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre of Canada, a Canadian money-laundering watchdog agency, found that Wortman purchased police-themed vehicle accessories via PayPal, and that PayPal flagged a number of these transactions as suspicious between March 22 and December 5, 2019. Wortman's spouse said that he purchased police gear in both Canada and the U.S. According to records from the Canada Border Services Agency, Wortman crossed the Canada–United States border through Woodstock, New Brunswick, fifteen times within the previous two years with his most recent return to Canada being on March 6.

According to a businessman in Dieppe, Wortman inquired about buying a decommissioned RCMP cruiser from him in 2017 or 2018, claiming to be a retired officer who wanted to park the vehicle outside his house to deter thieves. For price reasons, he did not buy it. A witness claimed Wortman tended to dress up in a police uniform and role-play.

Leather noted that Wortman's use of a police cruiser and a police uniform allowed him to evade detection for a long time. Owning police vehicles or uniforms is not a crime in Canada, but impersonating a police officer is. CBC News reported that at least one RCMP officer had previously taken note of one of Wortman's replica vehicles and advised him not to drive it on the road. Officials later said Wortman had acquired the specific vehicle he used in the attacks, a 2017 Ford Taurus, at an auction in fall 2019. It was recoloured white and stripped of its police accessories at the time of its purchase, a routine process for any recently decommissioned RCMP vehicle. Police confirmed Wortman had estranged relatives who were retired RCMP officers, but he had not obtained any police uniforms from them. The RCMP looked into the navigation logs of Wortman's vehicles to determine if the route he took during the attacks was predetermined.

Citing eyewitness reports of Wortman's behaviour and ways of controlling his partner, domestic violence experts called for the passage of a coercive control law in Canada, similar to one that had been passed by the United Kingdom in 2015, which they say may "help prevent other abusers from escaping detection".

A former neighbour in Portapique said he reported Wortman to the RCMP in the summer of 2013 for assaulting his spouse and having a cache of illegal firearms, but they declined to take firmer action due to not receiving a complaint from the partner. The former neighbour ended up leaving Portapique after Wortman became more aggressive and threatening to his spouse in response to the complaint. The RCMP confirmed they had received the neighbour's complaint but that the file had since been purged from their records.

In June 2010, Wortman was investigated by Halifax Regional Police for threatening his parents, but no official action was taken due to a lack of evidence. In May 2011, Truro Police received a tip from an unnamed source via email about Wortman's stash of guns and his desire to "kill a cop". The tipster warned about Wortman's recent stress and mental health issues and said he always kept a handgun close by. The tip was transferred to the Nova Scotia RCMP for jurisdictional reasons, but it is unclear what action was taken by them. The tip was ultimately purged from their records as is standard protocol according to an RCMP spokesperson.

Chief Superintendent Chris Leather said that Wortman had no possession and acquisition licence and his weapons were illegally purchased. Superintendent Darren Campbell said five firearms were recovered from the stolen vehicle Wortman was driving in Enfield. Four of them belonged to Wortman: two semiautomatic handguns and two semiautomatic rifles, one of which was described as a "military-style assault rifle". The fifth was Stevenson's stolen service pistol, a 9mm Smith & Wesson. Police also said that while one of Wortman's firearms had originated in Canada, via the estate of a former associate who died in 2009, all of the others likely came from the United States.

The RCMP identified the perpetrator as 51-year-old Gabriel Wortman, a denturist who operated two clinics in Halifax and Dartmouth, and who owned real estate in Halifax, Dartmouth, and Portapique. His estate, which consisted of six properties and three corporations, was valued at CA$2.1 million. Wortman had been normally living above his Dartmouth clinic, but he owned a cottage in Portapique beginning in 2004. He had a close friendship and business association with a former Fredericton lawyer who died in November 2009 and left him all of his possessions, including one of the rifles used in the attacks. Wortman did not have a possession and acquisition licence, which would have been needed to legally possess the rifle.

Wortman was also involved in two civil lawsuits regarding property disputes according to interviews and public records. In 2004, he offered to help a friend who had financial difficulties and was about to lose his house. Wortman then discreetly took ownership of the house, evicted the man, and sold the property. In 2015, Wortman's uncle lent him a house that he purchased in Portapique while selling his Edmonton condominium. Wortman refused to release the property back to him, claiming he was owed money, until the uncle eventually sold it; one of the buyers later became a victim in the killings.

Wortman had previously pleaded guilty to assault in 2002 and was sentenced to nine months of probation, in which he was prohibited from possessing weapons and ordered to undergo anger management counselling.

On at least four occasions police were alerted to the gunman's behaviour. In 2001, he reportedly assaulted a 15-year-old boy.

The attacks are the deadliest rampage in Canadian history, exceeding the 1989 École Polytechnique massacre in Montreal, where 14 women were killed. On May 1, in the wake of the attacks, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, following through on a 2019 campaign promise, announced an immediate ban on some 1,500 makes and models of so-called "military-grade assault-style" weapons, including the types used in the attacks.