Decision to fire judge in Desmond investigation was the wrong move, family member says

The Nova Scotia government should not have fired the judge who led the Lionel Desmond investigation, a close relative of the former soldier at the center of the high-profile investigation said Thursday.

Desmond’s sister Chantel said she and other family members wanted county court judge Warren Zimmer to finish the work he started more than five years ago.

“I honestly don’t know what I think other than disappointment,” Chantel Desmond said in a Facebook post, responding to comments made earlier in the day by Prime Minister Tim Houston and Attorney General Brad Johns. “I don’t understand why they couldn’t just let Zimmer finish as he was there all along.”

Zimmer was appointed in July 2018 to lead a fatality investigation that investigated why Lionel Desmond, a war veteran from Afghanistan, killed three family members and himself in their rural home in Nova Scotia in 2017. On June 30 this year, Johns fired the judge, saying his final report was taking too long to complete.

Last week, Houston cited the families affected by the tragedy as he explained the government’s decision, saying, “Look, we’re aligned with the families, we’re aligned with Nova Scotians and Canadians and all people at this point.”

On Thursday, Houston said Zimmer was fired in part because the families involved waited too long. He said that despite several extensions given to the judge, it was unclear when the final report would be finalized.

“How many times can you do that to the families?” he said after a cabinet meeting in Halifax.

Johns also mentioned family members on Thursday and said his priority was to “get results for the families.”

“I’m sorry they feel that way,” said the prime minister

Chantel and her twin sister Cassandra Desmond waged a year-long campaign to push the state and federal governments to conduct some sort of investigation to determine what happened to their brother and his family, and to propose changes to prevent a recurrence to avoid such a tragedy.

Chantel Desmond stressed on Thursday that the government’s decision to replace the now-retired judge did not reflect the family’s wishes.

“Houston hasn’t responded to us,” she said. “If he did, he would know that we want Zimmer to finish what he started… And this newly appointed judge wouldn’t be as familiar with the situation, let alone experience the emotions of everyone in the courtroom who had to speak to make a well.” – informed report.”

When asked about Chantel Desmond’s criticism, Houston said: “I’m sorry they feel that way, certainly. It was not the intention to add additional stress or emotional pain. Our interest is to give them the report and to deliver the recommendations so that we can move forward.”

Johns said much the same: “I’m sorry if they feel they should have been consulted more,” he said. “Those families and all Nova Scotians deserve a conclusion here. I didn’t see a conclusion coming any time soon.’

Zimmer has yet to respond to requests for an interview.

The judge planned to report in August

The government has said it cannot impose a deadline on Zimmer due to the independence of the judiciary and, by extension, the investigation of fatalities. However, the county’s Fatal Victims Investigation Act allows the appointment of a new judge when an investigating judge retires. That’s what happened on June 30 when the administration decided not to renew Zimmer’s term.

On July 6, Zimmer wrote to investigative lawyers that he had told the government he planned to file his report in August. He said the decision to fire him was based on misinformation and ignorance.

In the letter, Zimmer said he had already written 200 pages of the final report. He also pointed out the large amount of material that he had to review alone. The investigation heard from 70 witnesses over 56 days of hearings, which yielded 10,447 pages of transcripts.

The investigation, which concluded in April 2022, was delayed several times by events beyond Zimmer’s control, including the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to an 11-month hiatus.

During the hearings, the investigation learned that Lionel Desmond served as a gunner in Afghanistan in 2007 and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and major depression in 2011.

Despite four years of treatment while in the military, he needed more help when he was medically discharged in 2015. He entered a residential treatment program in Montreal in 2016, but a summary of the discharge revealed that he was still a desperately ill man.

During the last four months of his life, Desmond was deprived of therapeutic treatment, mainly because provincial health officials could not access his federal medical records.

On January 3, 2017, Desmond legally purchased a semi-automatic rifle and later that day used it 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 at the family’s home, in Upper Big Tracadie, NS