More than $10,000 raised in slain N.S. man’s name to help fight addiction: ‘Ben would forgive the guy’
Family and friends of the 27-year-old man stabbed to death in downtown Dartmouth last week are raising money for an organization that aims to help Nova Scotia men with addictions.
Jamie Duckenfield, 33, the homeless man charged with second-degree murder in Benjamin Ward Clattenburg’s death, is addicted to crack cocaine and opioids. Clattenburg also had addiction problems.
“Ben made many attempts over the years to conquer his personal battles. We know that Ben would want others with similar struggles to have the help they need to turn a new chapter in life,” says the note accompanying the fundraising effort on the crowd-sourcing site GoFundMe.
“With his desire to help others in mind, we ask that in lieu of flowers, cards or gifts, you express condolences to our family and honour our beloved Ben with donations to the Freedom Foundation of Nova Scotia – a non-profit helping men recover from addiction.”
By the time Clattenburg’s funeral in Mooseland began at 2 p.m. Tuesday, the plea had already raised more than $10,000.
‘A senseless thing’
“It’s a senseless thing that happened,” Clattenburg’s grandfather, Dugal Prest, said Monday in an interview.
“Ben had some addiction problems, and he was taking counselling.”
In February of 2021, Clattenburg pleaded guilty to assaulting a woman in Lower Sackville, threatening to kill her cat and have someone break her door down. The two had been in an on-again, off-again relationship when they got into a verbal argument on Feb. 16, 2020, that led to the threats. The assault happened on Oct. 22, 2019, during an argument, when he punched her once in the leg after she’d kicked him in the neck.
The court heard Clattenburg had issues with alcohol and drug use, but that he wasn’t under the influence of either when he punched the woman and made the threats. It also heard Clattenburg was planning to see a counsellor to help with anxiety, depression, and anger management.
“It’s clear that he does have some insight into the issues that he needs to address going forward,” Crown attorney Katie Lovett told then Dartmouth provincial court Judge Frank Hoskins, who has since been appointed to the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia.
‘I learned from this’
Hoskins gave Clattenburg a conditional discharge with 18 months of probation.
“I just want to say that I learned from this and I think that the counselling is going to really help me out,” Clattenburg told the court.
The judge was clearly impressed. “That’s a very mature and inciteful attitude to have Mr. Clattenburg, because you don’t want to come back before the courts,” Hoskins said. “Good for you.”
The judge noted Clattenburg’s mother suggested the events that landed him in court were out of character for her son. “She said that he’s never known to be aggressive or having issues controlling his anger,” Hoskins said.
The judge told Clattenburg he had an opportunity to put the incidents behind him in a positive way.
‘Walk away quickly’
“Mr. Clattenburg, what you’ve learned from this situation, no doubt, is sometimes you’ve just got to walk away quickly before it escalates,” Hoskins said. “That’s all you can really do.”
Clattenburg’s parents are taking the young man’s death hard.
“His father and mother are devastated,” Prest said.
The family still isn’t clear what happened before Clattenburg was stabbed Oct. 16 on Portland Street. Police say they responded to an altercation between him and Duckenfield at about 1:15 p.m.
“We have no idea what happened because the police will not give anybody any information,” Prest said.
‘Never seen Ben pick a fight’
Clattenburg was in good shape and trained hard for martial arts competitions, said his cousin, Garrett Josey.
“I’ve never seen Ben pick a fight,” Josey said.
Clattenburg wasn’t one to look for trouble, added his grandfather.
“There was nothing violent about Ben,” Prest said.
“He could control his temper.”
Clattenburg had Thanksgiving dinner with his family in Mooseland, said his grandfather.
“Ben was just a good kid that worked, and he was compassionate. He was kind to other kids,” Prest said.
“He’d do anything for you.”
‘We still can’t believe it’
The family went into shock when they heard he’d been killed. “We still can’t believe it happened,” said Prest, who turns 87 next month.
He blamed the explosion of homeless people tenting around Halifax due to the lack of affordable housing squarely on the municipal and provincial governments.
“There’s no planning to anything,” Prest said.
“They just let these disasters happen where there’s people hungry and sleeping homeless under the bridges. They talk about building places for them and doing this and doing that – how long does it take to build buildings if you make decisions and move ahead? They could have moved ahead five years ago.”
Dartmouth provincial court Judge Brad Sarson sentenced Duckenfield, of no fixed address, to about 200 days behind bars last month for assaulting a 65-year-old man on April 25, 2022. That assault began after the victim, who lived near a temporary shelter set up in Starr Park in Dartmouth, complained about the encampment.
‘A big failure’
The Sept. 6 sentence was deemed time served when Sarson factored in Duckenfield’s remand credit.
“They should have never crossed paths,” Josey said of his cousin and Duckenfield.
“I view this as just a big failure of the judicial system – letting him out on time served … He was in there for beating up an elderly man … He should have been locked up.”
He hopes the judiciary learns from Duckenfield’s case.
“Obviously I wish there was something that held people like that accountable,” Josey said. “In every other profession, if you make a decision that turns out to be a bad one, then you’re held accountable. I don’t know how they do that with judges in Nova Scotia. But accountability is key at any profession.”
‘A wild animal’
Duckenfield has been sentenced for 21 crimes in Nova Scotia stretching back to 2016, including theft under $5,000, mischief, both trafficking and possession of illegal drugs, uttering threats to cause death or bodily harm, and possession of property obtained by crime.
“What is this person doing on the street?” Josey said.
“That’s a hell of rap sheet to have someone walking around, … What that judge did is he went and released, basically, a wild animal and this is what happened. And there was no one keeping tabs on him, or just making sure that he’s not harming anyone, … I’m very baffled. I really feel like someone dropped the ball here and it was so preventable.”
Josey lives in Texas, but travelled to Nova Scotia for Clattenburg’s funeral in Mooseland, where their grandfather lives.
“I knew him very well when we were kids,” Josey said of his late cousin. “I grew up with him every summer, playing. We moved down to Texas and I would come up here every summer for the whole summer.”
‘Kid brother’
Josey is seven years older than Clattenburg.
“He was kind of like a kid brother – he tagged along everywhere we went,” Josey said. “We had a lot of fun and a lot of good memories.”
Clattenburg worked as a sandblaster in the Halifax Shipyard for MacKinnon & Olding.
“Whenever things got slow, then he normally would pick up a job roofing,” Josey said.
“That’s what he was doing when the fire started in Tantallon.”
In an interview with The Chronicle Herald at the end of May, Clattenburg described witnessing the start of the Tantallon wildfire that damaged hundreds of buildings and forced thousands of people to evacuate from the area.
Clattenburg was working on a Tattingstone Court roof when he noticed a small fire behind a home on nearby Juneberry Lane that quickly got out of control.
‘Ready to help anybody’
He was part of a five-man roofing crew that went up and down the street warning residents to flee before they had to escape the flames themselves.
“They ran door to door, knocking and getting people to evacuate,” Josey said.
“It’s pretty wild – they were just all in the right place to alert everyone and let them know and get people out of there.”
“Ben was just a good kid that was ready to help anybody,” added his grandfather.
According to his obituary, Clattenburg grew up in Elmsdale and Fall River and then spent his high school years in Qatar, attending Qatar Canadian School.
His father worked in the Middle East as an engineer and his mother taught school, said his grandfather.
“Ben travelled quite a bit with them; he loved it as any kid would,” Prest said, noting Clattenburg would return to Nova Scotia for the summers.
‘Long time behind bars’
He wants to see his grandson’s killer imprisoned for a significant stretch.
“I think the person that did it should spend a long time behind bars,” Prest said. “Because I don’t think that type of person, that you can just rehabilitate them and let them out in seven or eight years and put them out in the public again.”
Clattenburg’s grandfather and cousin both said he would likely forgive the man who took his life last week.
“Ben would forgive the guy, so we have to work at that, too,” Josey said.