An alarm expert says Canada has serious problems with its company-led model, which is based on “discriminatory” technology that differs from global warning systems, and needs to build one that puts the federal government in check.
Michael Hallows spoke on Wednesday during the ongoing public inquiry into the mass shooting in Nova Scotia on April 18 and 19, 2020, and said he also presented his concerns to Canada years before the tragedy.
Hallowes is an independent adviser to governments on the design and delivery of public warning systems, and has also helped build and launch Australia’s warning program.
“We’re going back to basics, if I can be so brave, to fix it for the future,” Hallows said.
Ontario-based Pelmorex currently owns and operates Canada’s Alert Ready software system on behalf of the federal government.
Hallowes said that this approach, in which the alert system provider also owns it, gives a lot of power to Pelmorex employees because they can choose how they want to deal with alerts or any system upgrades.
Michael Hallows, Independent Adviser on the Design and Delivery of Public Warning Systems, spoke in a video to the Dartmouth Mass Victims Commission, NS on May 11, 2022 (CBC)
“If it will affect the end result that it requires investment to improve technology to keep up with … the capability requirements, they may choose to say no,” Hallows said.
“In Canada, it’s very strange that you put a commercial supplier in charge.”
In most other jurisdictions around the world, Hallowes said a directive is coming from the government that any upgrade will be a condition of the warning provider’s license.
That means the federal minister and their office can be held accountable for the service, Hallows said. On the next step of the framework will be front-line teams such as emergency services, fire and police – which send signals – and then, Hallows said, “deliberately at the bottom” of this ladder are the supplier and regulator.
In Canada, the system is regulated by the Canadian Commission on Broadcasting and Telecommunications (CRTC), which from 2018 requires the participation of all providers of cordless telephones, radio and television.
Canada’s signals, according to the commission’s documents, are now being broadcast simultaneously on television, radio, the Weather Network application and LTE devices such as smartphones – but only on 4G networks.
Hallowes said this is a significant problem because much older phones do not have access to 4G.
He said signals should be available to 95 percent of the population, but Canada is short of that. When the first Alert Ready tests were done in 2018, Hallowes said only 35% of cell phones received them.
“All my warnings were confirmed by the results of these tests – that they do not reach the vast majority, because the choice of technology in Canada was discriminatory,” he said.
“It did not provide access or reach to the vast majority of mobile phone users. And so it is today.
Instead, most countries use SMS text messages for their signals, Hallows said, which can be sent to any cell phone connected to a network in a particular area.
He said the method also allows users on the other side, such as police or emergency services, to collect a “heat card” at mobile phone points – randomized to protect privacy – so they can track in real time whether citizens are evacuating a danger zone.
The SMS option offers a key advantage in active shooter situations where people can hide from a dangerous person with a gun, Hallows said. If someone’s phone is silent, the alarm will not cancel their settings and make a loud noise.
Canadians cannot silence the signals
He said it was a devastating lesson to be learned after the shooting in Norway in 2011, where dozens of teenagers killed by gunmen on a remote island were sounded by warning sounds on their phones.
Australia and other countries have systems that do not override user settings, Hallows said, but Canada does not. He said at the moment that someone hiding from a shooter in Canada would have to turn off his phone completely and give up the opportunity to call for help to ensure that his whereabouts were not revealed.
In February 2015, Hallows said he attended a warning conference in Alberta, outlining best practices such as SMS. He also spoke about the importance of having guidelines on what a warning system should achieve – and then finding the technology to provide it.
However, he said Canada had done the opposite.
“What I found was that CRTC, Canada’s defense research and development and wireless service providers were dictating that their technology would be sold for broadcast,” Hallows said.
When Hallows said he had asked for any assessment of what was behind the decision, he was “firmly told” that the signals would be upgraded to what the technology could deliver.
The RCMP in Nova Scotia considered issuing a signal on April 19 after numerous calls from the Provincial Emergency Management Agency (EMO), but in the end it did not happen.
During the mass shooting, all agencies had to go through EMO to request a signal, which the provincial agency would then issue. This week, the investigation found that the RCMP and the regional police forces in Halifax and Cape Breton were offered direct access to the warning system in 2016 and 2017, but refused.
Now both the RCMP and the Halifax Regional Police can issue alerts independently, which Hallows said should apply not only to all police forces, but to all first-response teams such as firefighters.
In Australia, he said there were 38 organizations that had direct access to the warning, including eight police forces.
Hallowes also said Australia’s alert system has been streamlined to have a standard of just eight minutes between calling 911 or an emergency and sending an alert.
“I’m always very concerned about something called accuracy paralysis, where you wait and wait for the situation to be perfectly informed and you fail to tell the public what they need to know right now,” Hallows said.
“If I’m wrong, I’ll tell you I made a mistake and I’ll fix it. But in anticipation of this perfection of information, it’s not happening.”
While Hallows said he had heard various concerns in Canada about police wanting to avoid alerts because 911 call centers would be congested or people might get tired of pop-up alerts, he never saw any evidence that it was problem internationally.
This tweet, released at 11:32 p.m., was the only public announcement issued by the Nova Scotia RCMP of the mass shooting on April 18, 2020. The next update would not be until the next morning. (CBC)
Instead of requesting a signal from the EMO, the RCMP tweeted late on April 18 about a complaint about a firearm in Portapik. They turned to Twitter again the next day at about 8 a.m. to report that it was an active shooter incident.
The RCMP did not disclose the fact that shooter Gabriel Wortman was driving a fake police car until 10:17 a.m. on April 19. An image of the vehicle was posted on Twitter.
When asked about the use of social media as an emergency communication, Hallows said he misses “many people” who may not have the right app, follow the right accounts, or actively check their phones at a crucial time.
Sandra McCullough of Patterson Law, whose company represents many of the families of NS victims of mass shootings, reiterated her clients’ longstanding stance that the signal would keep their loved ones “tidy” on April 19 and not cross the road with a shooter.
She said a signal with clear instructions would not only reach more people in Nova Scotia than a social media post, but also correctly reflect the seriousness of the situation.
Twenty-two people died on April 18 and 19, 2020. Top row left: Gina Gulet, Dawn Gulenchin, Jolin Oliver, Frank Gulenchin, Sean McLeod, Alana Jenkins. Second row: John Hall, Lisa McCully, Joey Weber, Heidi Stevenson, Heather O’Brien and Jamie Blair. Third row from the top: Kristen Beaton, Lillian Campbell, Joan Thomas, Peter Bond, Tom Bagley and Greg Blair. Bottom line: Emily Tuck, Joy Bond, Corey Ellison and Aaron Tuck. (CBC)
The signal would allow people on social media to “distinguish this horrific event from all the other content being reviewed and scrolled,” McCulloch said.
The investigation found that the Canadian Police Chiefs Association adopted a resolution in June 2021, addressing many of Hallows’ concerns and calling for a review of the country’s public warning system.
The resolution also calls on the Police Association to take an active part in the review, in order to extend the alerting powers to all public safety agencies that respond first.
He noted that Pelmorex’s license to operate the warning system expires in August 2023 and said Canadian Public Safety must “immediately stop” all pending orders around the system.
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