‘Muzzle and constrain’: Lawyer challenges limits on inquiry into Desmond deaths
HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s Justice Department is trying to muzzle the inquiry into the death of an Afghan war veteran who killed his family and himself more than two years ago, a senior lawyer says.
Adam Rodgers, who represents the family of former soldier Lionel Desmond and his estate, says the department has imposed unrealistic restrictions on legal fees and preparation time.
“Unfairly stifling access to justice by imposing limited preparation time at junior counsel rates … is tantamount to impeding access to justice,” Rodgers says in a legal brief presented to the commissioner of the pending fatality inquiry, provincial court Judge Warren Zimmer.
Rodgers says he wants assurances from Zimmer the inquiry will have enough judicial independence to ensure its investigation “is not bureaucratically or financially constrained by those who may be in a conflict of interest.”