NS Attorney General requests new judge to supplement Desmond report

Nova Scotia Attorney General and Justice Minister Brad Johns has asked the Chief Justice of the Provincial Court to appoint a new judge to complete the work that retired Judge Warren Zimmer has begun on the Desmond investigation.

Zimmer’s term ended on June 30.

The Fatality Investigations Act allows the chief judge to appoint a new judge when the presiding judge retires or is unable to complete an investigation.

In the past 18 months, four separate extensions have been made to extend Zimmer’s term so he had time to complete his report.

The last extension expired last week. Zimmer had collected a subsistence allowance of $1,083 per day.

Judge Zimmer’s term has ended. I wish him well in his retirement,” Johns said in a press release Tuesday.

“The Desmond family and loved ones, their community and all residents of Nova Scotia have been waiting for answers for more than five years. I have requested the chief judge of the provincial court to appoint another judge to complete the report in a timely manner.”

Judge Zimmer was a retired part-time judge, appointed in July 2018 to preside over the investigation into the January 2017 deaths of Lionel Desmond and his family members.

Desmond, an Afghanistan war veteran, killed his mother, wife, daughter and himself.

A fatality inquiry was ordered a year later; formal hearings began in May 2019 and ended in April last year.