Author: Serena Bianchi, Agenfor International
Between the 18th and 19th of April 2020, Gabriel Wortman killed 22 people in the Canadian Province of Nova Scotia, injuring three others and setting 16 locations on fire, before being killed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) in Enfield.
This short analysis aims to: (a) describe the event of the Nova Scotia shooting, based on open source information; (b) check additional facts related to the shooting, as a basis for a more in-depth analysis; (c) identify potential early warnings that could have helped to prevent the attack; (d) analyse prevention from a new perspective, questioning how to better address and prevent cases of violent extremism and social instability.
The analysis is based on open-source information from different newspapers, and on the report published by DSH Consulting on Nova Scotia mass shooting, analysing the facts and events and outlining considerations.
Furthermore, Agenfor International developed in-depth research into preventive measures for violent extremism within the EU-funded project PROPHETS, which serves as point for reflection for this article.
The analysis has been created as part of the EU-project PROPHETS. The H2020 EU-funded project PROPHETS aims to improve the understanding of online behavioural radicalisation and to identify online factors that lead to violent extremism. PROPHETS maps out, cross-validates and examines the processes, mechanisms, and the means in and through which online behavioural radicalisation occurs. The project identifies a number of grounds regarding the interaction of online radicalisation, cyber criminality, and the internet that have yet to be adequately addressed. Additionally, the project will help prevent terrorist cyber criminality by building resilience in people and wider society. The project will achieve its key objectives through developing a number of tools to enhance LEAs’ proactive online investigatory skills concerning the area of behavioural radicalisation linked to terrorist online criminality.