By Canadian Press

Desmond inquiry: presiding judge hints at key recommendation as testimony concludes

Mar 22, 2022 | 11:38 AM

PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — The inquiry investigating why an Afghanistan war veteran in Nova Scotia killed his family and himself in 2017 heard from its final witness Tuesday — more than two years after the inquiry began.

John Parkin, the province’s chief firearms officer, faced questions related to Lionel Desmond’s legal purchase of the assault-style rifle he used to kill his wife, mother and 10-year-old daughter before he turned the gun on himself on Jan. 3, 2017.

The inquiry has heard the former infantryman’s firearms licence had been suspended in late 2015 after he was arrested in New Brunswick under the provincial Mental Health Act.

At the time, his wife Shanna told RCMP she had received texts indicating the former soldier — who had been diagnosed with severe PTSD in 2011 — was preparing to kill himself in their home in Oromocto, N.B.

Desmond’s firearms licence, however, was reinstated in May 2016 after a New Brunswick doctor signed a medical assessment form that declared Desmond was “non-suicidal and stable.”

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At the time, however, Desmond was also receiving treatment from medical professionals at a stress injury clinic in Fredericton, where they determined his mental state had become so unstable that he required special treatment at a residential facility in Montreal.

The provincial court judge presiding over the inquiry, Warren Zimmer, suggested to Parkin that medical professionals should be required or at least encouraged to update officials when they detect a decline in the mental health of patients with firearms licences.

Zimmer said health professionals in some provinces are already required to alert authorities when patients with a driver’s licence are afflicted with mental or physical conditions that make it unsafe for them to drive.

The judge hinted that his final report, expected this fall, will include a recommendation for legislation that would require medical professionals to provide similar information to firearms officials.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 22, 2022.

The Canadian Press