The ripple effect from a Nova Scotia mass shooting in 2020, which claimed the lives of 22 people, continues to be felt more than six years later.
A survivor of the Portapique, N.S., shooting has died by suicide, prompting calls for better mental health supports.
Family say Clinton Ellison struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder ever since the events of April 18, 2020. Last month, he died by suicide in Fredericton.
“He just lived in fear because there were demons in his life that were just haunting him to no end,” his stepfather, Wayne Smith, said.
On April 18 to 19 in 2020, a gunman — at times disguised as an RCMP officer — murdered 22 people in Nova Scotia during a rampage that began in the Colchester County community of Portapique. The victims included a pregnant woman and an RCMP officer.
Clinton and his brother, Corrie, were visiting family in Portapique when they heard a gunshot and saw fire in the distance.
Corrie went to investigate, but when he didn’t return, Clinton went looking for him.
Corrie had been shot and killed by the gunman. Clinton spent hours hiding in the woods while the rampage continued.
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“He needed help and he suffered all those years. Six years from that death because he found Corrie on the side of the road that night,” said Smith.
“He spent three to four hours in the woods, you know? Hearing all the gunfire and screams.”
Clinton may have emerged from the woods safe, but experts say trauma can become overwhelming without the necessary mental health supports and a rigorous professional assessment.
“I think it’s a stark reminder that the death count from something like a mass shooting doesn’t end on the day that the shooting happens,” said Dr. Norman Farb, a University of Toronto psychology professor.
“Trauma-related deaths like Clinton’s are still part of the true toll.”
Leon Joudrey also survived the 2020 mass shooting and died by suicide in 2022 after struggling with his own mental health.
He told Global News in December 2020 that 13 of his neighbours died.
“I lost my friends,” Joudrey said at the time. “I woke up to a horror show. I’ll never get over it.”
Farb says long-term support is vital in traumatic instances
“Just some sort of check-in follow-up process would be the first step, so you at least know what’s going on in the face of trauma with people affected and next of kin,” he said.
Clinton’s stepfather agrees.
“There were people that jumped on the bandwagon to help out, do this and that, but as time went on, they forgot, but you can’t forget about those people,” said Smith.
In 2023, the Mass Casualty Commission released a wide-ranging report that made a number of recommendations around improving mental health access in the province.
Among those recommendations was to increase the availability of mainstream mental health services, enhance literacy around grief, bereavement, trauma and resiliency, and implement a national policy to provide support services for those affected by a mass casualty.
But there was also concern in the months and years after, with some saying the mental health resources were still lacking.
Funding for some mental health programs tied to the 2020 mass shooting and the commission’s report were part of the cuts in this year’s provincial budget tabled in February.
Smith believes it’s important to speak out about mental health supports, and says he’ll do so now because he believes Clinton would have wanted him to take up the mantle.
“Corrie and Clinton now are both gone, their memory is still with me,” he said.
“But you have to live for the living, I mean, you have to show some compassion and care. Hopefully, another tragedy like that will never happen again.”
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