Desmond Inquiry gets one more day of hearings; no date yet on report

Six years and eight months after Lionel Desmond killed his daughter, wife and mother in Upper Big Tracadie, those left to grieve still don’t have the report into what led up to that awful night.

On Tuesday, the Desmond Fatality Inquiry will hold one more day of hearings at the Port Hawkesbury Justice Centre. The lawyers representing the affected families and institutions who had dealings with the Afghan war veteran can make presentations to Judge Paul Scoville.

So far, the only lawyer to register to make a comment is Adam Rodgers, who represents the Desmond family.

“I want to talk about the change (of judges), what it means to families and how it might impact the final report,” said Rodgers on Tuesday.

“I’ll invite Judge Scoville to give his perspective on it to give the families some idea of what might be coming and when.”

The fatality inquiry began May 21, 2019 in Guysborough. Some 58,999 documents were collected, and there were 56 days of hearings where doctors, police, Department of Veterans Affairs staffers, fellow Afghan war veterans, family and community members who interacted with Lionel Desmond testified.

Those hearings wrapped up in the spring of 2022.

On June 30, the Department of Justice ended Judge Warren Zimmer’s term, citing delays in his completion of the final report. Scoville was appointed as his replacement.

“The families wonder whether this change at the top really undermines the report,” said Rodgers.

“They had developed a lot of trust in Judge Zimmer. They are very disappointed overall and upset with the government for what’s been done.”

In a letter sent to lawyers involved in the inquiry expressing his own frustration with the Department of Justice after his term was ended, Zimmer attributed delays to the pandemic, the immense amount of documents and that, unlike the Mass Casualty Commission, he did not have a large staff to assist him.

Zimmer said it was his intention to have a copy of the report available by August.

One of the updates Rodgers is hoping for is when the families can now expect to get that report and whether Scoville will work with Zimmer to utilize the approximately 200 pages of the report that had already been written or start from scratch.

“If we’d have stuck with Zimmer we’d have the report by now,” said Rodgers.