Desmond inquiry: focus of hearings shifts to examination of domestic violence
PORT HAWKESBURY, N.S. — A Nova Scotia inquiry investigating why a former soldier killed his family and himself in 2017 turned its attention today to the issue of domestic violence.
The executive director of the Nova Scotia Advisory Council on the Status of Women, Stephanie MacInnis-Langley, told the inquiry that those facing intimate partner violence are most at risk when they are about to leave an abusive relationship.
The inquiry has heard Lionel Desmond, who served in Afghanistan in 2007 and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2011, fatally shot his wife, mother and 10-year-old daughter after his wife Shanna made it clear she wanted a divorce.
One of the key mandates of the provincial fatality inquiry, which started hearings in January 2020, is to determine if Desmond and his family had access to domestic violence prevention services.