Nova Scotia to replace judge presiding over Lionel Desmond fatality inquiry

A sign for the Desmond Fatality Inquiry is pictured at the Guysborough Municipal building in Guysborough, N.S. on November 18, 2019. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Andrew Vaughan

HALIFAX -

The Nova Scotia government has dismissed the judge presiding over an inquiry that has spent much of the past five years investigated why Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond killed three family members and himself in 2017.

Brad Johns, Nova Scotia's attorney general, confirmed Tuesday he has asked the chief judge of the provincial court to assign a new judge to finish the work started by provincial court Judge Warren Zimmer, saying the province has waited long enough for Zimmer's final report.

"The family and loved ones of the Desmond family, their community, as well as all Nova Scotians, have been waiting more than five years for answers," Johns said in a statement. He said another judge was needed to "step in and complete the report in a timely manner."

Tara Miller, a lawyer who represents Desmond's sister Chantel, issued a statement saying her client and other Desmond relatives are frustrated with the latest delay.

"While my client understood the process to produce a meaningful final report would take time, the time is well overdue to bring the inquiry to a close," Miller said.

"True healing, meaningful answers and hope for a better system for veterans suffering from PTSD and their families who battle with them on home ground is on hold until the final report is delivered."

Lawyer Adam Rodgers, who represents Desmond's sister Cassandra, said it was inconceivable that another judge could be brought in at this stage, given that they will have to review thousands of documents and 55 days' worth of transcripts.

"It is an untenable position in which to be placed," Rodgers said in a statement. "The provincial government never wanted this inquiry to happen ... (and) now, they are undermining the entire effort."

Rodgers said the volume of material before Zimmer was similar in scale to what was involved in the federal-provincial inquiry that investigated the April 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia that claimed 22 lives. But that inquiry had three commissioners, dozens of staff and a multimillion-dollar budget, Rodgers said.

Zimmer was set to retire as a judge in March 2022 when he turned 75, a month before the inquiry's hearings concluded -- but his term was extended four times over the past 18 months to allow him to complete his final report. After the most recent extension expired on Friday, Johns decided to call in a replacement to get the job done.

The province called for a fatality inquiry in February 2018, more than a year after the killings shocked the province. And it took nearly two years before the first evidence was heard on Jan. 27, 2020. The COVID-19 pandemic caused more delays.

The inquiry heard that Desmond served in Afghanistan as a rifleman during a particularly violent tour of duty in 2007 and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depression and a possible brain disorder in 2011.

Despite four years of treatment while he was still in the military, the inquiry heard he required more help when he was medically discharged in 2015. He later took part in an intensive residential treatment program in Montreal in 2016.

A discharge summary said Desmond was still a desperately ill man, but it did not include key findings about his mental health and risk factors associated with intimate partner violence.

The inquiry heard that health-care professionals at the provincial level were restricted in what they could do because they did not have access to any meaningful federal records about the complexity of Desmond's mental-health challenges. As well, evidence presented by the Health Association of African Canadians showed that African Nova Scotians, like Desmond, face challenges accessing mental health care because of systemic racism in the health-care system.

During the last four months of his life, Desmond received no therapeutic treatment, the inquiry heard.

A Nova Scotia psychiatrist who accepted Desmond as a patient in 2016 told the inquiry that the former soldier appeared to be falling through the cracks in the health-care system as he struggled to find help.

The inquiry was told that on Jan. 3, 2017, Desmond legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle and used it later that day to kill his 31-year-old wife, Shanna; their 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah; and his 52-year-old mother, Brenda. Their bodies were found the next day in the family's home, in rural Upper Big Tracadie, N.S.

The inquiry heard from 70 witnesses and generated 10,447 pages of transcripts. Closing submissions were heard in April 2022. Eight months later, Zimmer issued a statement saying his final report with recommendations would be released sometime in 2023.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 4, 2023.

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