PORT HAWKESBURY: Judge Paul Scovil’s final report and recommendations from the Desmond Fatality Inquiry will be released to the public on Jan. 31.
The fatality inquiry, which saw testimony from 70 witnesses over 56 days, and spanned 26 months, is investigating what caused Ret. Cpl. Lionel Desmond to kill his 52-year-old mother Brenda, his 31-year-old wife Shanna, and his 10-year-old daughter Aaliyah, before turning the gun on himself, in the family’s Upper Big Tracadie home on Jan. 3, 2017.
The inquiry’s mandate was to determine the circumstances under which these deaths occurred, as well as specific issues including whether Desmond should have been able to retain or acquire a license enabling him to obtain or purchase a firearm.
More than five years after the tragedy that rocked the small, tight-knit Black community, the inquiry heard from its final witness, before taking a 680-day hiatus before the final report is released.
“There’s a lot of anticipation for this report,” Adam Rodgers, who is representing Cassanda Desmond, the personal representative of the estate of her bother, told The Reporter. “It’s been seven years since the incident; there’s been a lot of data gathered from the inquiry so were hoping that will be reflective in the report and there will be some important recommendations coming.”
The provincial fatality inquiry that started witness testimony in Guysborough on Jan. 27, 2020, had to deal with numerous delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, including long adjournments due to public health restrictions and a change in venue to Port Hawkesbury Provincial Court.
While provincial court Judge Warren Zimmer, who conducted the inquiry, final report with recommendations wasn’t expected until sometime in the fall of 2023, he was replaced in July 2023 when Premier Tim Houston said his government decided to replace him because his final report was taking too long to complete.
“The bigger question is going to be the quality of the report,” Rodgers said. “Because it would be difficult for any judge to come in when they hadn’t heard the information first-hand and hadn’t been immersed in it to see all the different angles to make recommendations to the court, so there’s a little apprehension there.”
The proceedings in Port Hawkesbury will begin at 11 a.m. and will be livestreamed on the Inquiry website at https://desmondinquiry.ca/webcast.html.