We begin with the final report from a provincial inquiry that has implications across the country Nova Scotia has been examining a murder suicide from seven years ago on January the 3rd of 2017 Afghanistan war veteran Lionel Desmond killed his wife his 10-year-old daughter and his mother before taking his own
Life desmin suffered from severe post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression and in its just released report the inquiry sought to explain what happened and recommend ways to possibly prevent it from happening again the end of the day it is impossible to say with certainty that had these recommendations been in place
When Corporal Desmond left the military no suicide or homicides would have occurred but we can say that we could possibly have helped avert the tragic events of January the 3rd 2017 the report was released at a courthouse in Port hawksbury and that’s where we find the cbc’s Brett Ruskin so
Brett thank you for joining us I know that there are a lot of recommendations here 25 in total hoping that you can highlight some of the key items for us in this report whether it’s interactions between provinces and sharing of documents to intimate partner violence and some different procedures and protocols to
Police in strategies to even how firearm licenses are obtained renewed reviewed uh it’s interesting to see how this judge and the authors and the folks who worked on this report really have to walk a fine line because this is a provincial report but some of the matter and the subjects and the jurisdictions
That it dives into is federal and so uh some of the recommendations are we recommend that the province uh speaks to or encourages or liases with the federal government to make changes on that National level so for example changes to the criminal code or changes to the ways that uh federal agencies share
Information with provinces or with uh provincial officials in charge of uh uh reviewing and sharing and um basically checking the box to uh allow people to have those Federal those Firearms licenses so um kind of the first recommendation number one is is perhaps the most important and that deals with
The transition that military veterans go through when they leave military service uh in this case again leaving because of a medical discharge to go to that from the the mil uh military healthcare service to that provincial healthc care service so as you can hear behind me as
Well middle of the the courthouse the courtroom here there were some interviews that took place just outside the courtroom where the judge spoke just behind me there so again this report very fresh and people still going through it Hillary Brett all of this of course happened seven years ago now can
You remind us about Lionel Desmond’s Story and what kind of supports he was getting in the leadup to this terrible event sure yeah so lonel Desmond Corporal with K Armed Forces Army he had two tours of Duty in Afghanistan in 2007 came back was diagnosed from uh he he
Posted on his social media Pages as well as getting uh medical professionals to say he has been diagnosed with poster stress disorder and depression uh he was getting support from military officials from Veterans Affairs and then again that transition happened to the provincial Health Care system and he had
Difficulty and delays getting his medical records from the military and federal agencies like Veterans Affairs to provincial counterparts to the provincial Healthcare System so even just that simple aspect of that continuity of care aspect was not there kind of creating the first crack perhaps in the system for him to fall through
Now we know that on January 3rd 2017 he purchased a semi-automatic rifle and killed his wife mother and daughter at their home before turning the gun on himself we know that this inquiry has lasted from January 2020 went on for a few weeks then was delayed put on Hiatus
For 11 months due to the pandemic there was also a delay because the province had removed the initial judge the original judge presiding over this inquiry to then a new judge because the delays were too long in that original of overseeing uh position so uh the report
Is now out we’re starting to get uh a representation we’re starting to get um uh kind of reaction to it and we’ll likely hear from the federal side of things as well as the provincial side of things for their reaction in the coming hours Hillary okay Brett thank you for
This the cbc’s Brett rusin for us in Port hawksbury Nova Scotia
An inquiry that investigated why a former soldier in Nova Scotia killed three family members and himself in 2017 says health-care professionals could have done a better job of sharing Lionel Desmond’s complex medical history.
»»» Subscribe to CBC News to watch more videos:
Connect with CBC News Online:
For breaking news, video, audio and in-depth coverage:
Follow CBC News on TikTok:
Follow CBC News on Twitter:
Find CBC News on Facebook:
Follow CBC News on Instagram:
Subscribe to CBC News on Snapchat:
Download the CBC News app for iOS:
Download the CBC News app for Android:
»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»»
For more than 80 years, CBC News has been the source Canadians turn to, to keep them informed about their communities, their country and their world. Through regional and national programming on multiple platforms, including CBC Television, CBC News Network, CBC Radio, CBCNews.ca, mobile and on-demand, CBC News and its internationally recognized team of award-winning journalists deliver the breaking stories, the issues, the analyses and the personalities that matter to Canadians.
