Desmond Inquiry judge recommends improved support for veterans and families, expanded health-care access for African Nova Scotians

The Desmond Fatality Inquiry was held at the Guysborough Municipal building in Guysborough, N.S. on November 18, 2019. Lionel Desmond, a 33-year-old former infantryman from rural Nova Scotia, killed his mother, wife and 10-year-old daughter before turning a military-style rifle on himself in January 2017. (Source: THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan)

More than seven years after an Afghanistan war veteran shot three family members and himself in Nova Scotia, a judge has made more than two dozen recommendations aiming to improve support services for Canadian veterans and their families and expand health-care access for African Nova Scotians

At a hearing on Wednesday morning, Judge Paul Scovil read the final report and recommendations for the Desmond Fatality Inquiry. In total the judge made 25 recommendations.

“This has been an arduous and emotional process for everyone involved, but hopefully also a worthwhile one,” Scovil said.

Scovil’s recommendations include:

• Nova Scotia should advocate the federal government for case managers to be assigned to veterans
• the Nova Scotia Health Authority should continue to update its suicide risk assessment and intervention policy and tool
• the provincial department of health and wellness should recruit and provide educational scholarships for Black registered nurses and nurse practitioners
• the province should ensure continued funding for the Men’s Helpline
• the provincial departments of justice and community services should review the high-risk case coordination protocol to deal with cases with concerning behaviour but are not criminal offences
• an applicant for a firearms licence should be required to give consent to the Office of the Chief Firearms Officer to allow a follow-up with a medical practitioner at any time the licence is valid
• the Office of the Chief Firearms Officer place certain licences under review and seek additional medical information in appropriate cases
• Nova Scotia should liaise with other provinces and the federal government to improve the transfer of health records

On Jan. 3, 2017, Lionel Desmond killed his 10-year-old daughter, his wife, his mother, and himself in Upper Big Tracadie.

The inquiry was ordered in 2018 to determine the circumstances of the deaths as well as Desmond’s access to the mental health services and his family’s access to appropriate domestic violence intervention services, among other matters.

The inquiry sat for more than 56 days over several years — suffering delays due to the COVID-19 pandemic — and learned Desmond was diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression in 2011 after experiencing intense combat in Afghanistan in 2007.

While Desmond received four years of treatment during his time in the military, the inquiry learned his mental health was poor when he was medically released from the Armed Forces in 2015.

“It is striking to me once Corporal Desmond transferred to Nova Scotia, it took many months to ramp up the care he needed,” Scovil said.

In total the inquiry heard from 70 witnesses and received 377 documents as exhibits.

The inquiry cannot find fault in terms of civil liability or criminality, nor are its recommendations binding.

-With files from The Canadian Press

 

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