HALIFAX — Nova Scotia’s premier is calling a horrific murder-suicide involving a former Canadian soldier almost six months ago “a tragic event,” but the province is still not prepared to call a public inquiry — yet.
Stephen McNeil said any steps to investigate the deaths further wouldn’t be taken until family members and the province’s medical examiner are briefed on the findings of an internal health-care system review in the Lionel Desmond case.
“The family is being briefed and it is, in my view, the right place to start,” he told reporters Thursday. “The family deserves the accounting first.”
Nova Scotia Health Authority officials will meet with Desmond’s family next week to share the findings of the confidential review into how the province’s health system dealt with the former soldier before he killed his family and himself in January.
Desmond’s sisters have said their brother told them he was turned away from a hospital when he sought help from its mental-health unit in the days before the shootings, although a hospital spokesman has denied similar claims from other family members.
McNeil didn’t rule out a public inquiry Thursday, but he said the province needs to “let the process happen.”
“This has been a tragic event in that community. The health authority has gone through the process and they will inform the family of their findings,” he said, adding that “the decision (on whether to hold an inquiry) will be made from there.”
Justice Minister Mark Furey said that while he does have the authority to call a fatality inquiry, the province’s medical examiner, Dr. Matthew Bowes, would be in a “better position” to make such a call.
“Dr. Bowes, with his expertise as the medical examiner for the province, will have an opportunity to be informed of the findings as well as have inclusions with the family,” he said. “He then would be in a better position to make a decision about whether or not he chooses to call an inquiry.”
Furey said “the public should be informed on these circumstances” of the murder-suicide.
Bowes told The Canadian Press this week that he’s reluctant to call public inquiries if there are other means to examine the issues — even if they’re behind closed doors.
He also said when he came to the province 14 years ago, senior bureaucrats told him that judicial reviews “ought to be more of a decision on the part of the minister.”