Today represented the first opportunity at the Mass Casualty Commission for the non-Commission participants to be heard in a substantive manner. After four days of sitting and listening, the Commission finally allowed the participants to make submissions regarding any gaps they feel may be relevant with respect to the factual record, and any recommendations they may have for further witnesses and evidence that might fill in those gaps. This was their first real opportunity to openly challenge the Commission’s work, and they did so to various degrees.  Some of the tension that has been taking place (mainly) behind the scenes was exposed in the first presentation from Patterson Law lawyer Sandra McCulloch. In her submission on behalf of the many family members that firm represents, she said that the families were disappointed with the proposed procedure, that they expected they would be speaking about any relevant gaps the had identified in the evidence presented to date (as per Justice McDonald’s opening comments), but were told by Commission Counsel that they would be limited to proposing individual witnesses and giving reasons for those individual proposals.  Ms. McCulloch stated that the draft Foundational Documents that they had been provided by the Commission were significantly different from what was entered as exhibits this week. She said two of the three doubled in size while the other was reduced by half, and that they do not endorse these Documents as presented. At some stage (which they had hoped would be today) they want to be heard about their disputes with the narrative as presented so far. Chief Justice MacDonald said that time would come at the end of phase one of the MCC, which Ms. McCulloch correctly noted will mean the existing, apparently problematic, narrative will become unduly 'settled' within the minds of the public.  The other major question of the day was whether any police officers below the rank of Staff Sergeant might be testifying. Nasha Nijhawan represents the National Police Federation, which is an organization representing all officers below the level of Staff Sergeant. That includes most of the officers involved in the MCC. Whether any officers would be testifying was the question that was to occupy most of the afternoon, but instead an issue arose regarding a potential expert report, and so the MCC adjourned until tomorrow to allow matters to proceed in a more logical order.  All of this will really challenge the MCC to define more specifically what they mean by ‘trauma-informed’. It seems clear that Commission counsel will be advising against any meaningful witnesses, and there is disagreement among the other participants, so it will be up to the Commissioners to make a ruling that gives the parties, and the public, some clarity. This will go a long way to determining whether the public will have faith in the process.  There will be submissions on the police witnesses tomorrow, and then the Commission will hopefully outline what we can expect for evidence next week.