PROVINCE APOLOGIZES TO FAMILY OF SOLDIER IN MURDER-SUICIDE

A senior Nova Scotia health bureaucrat has apologized to the family of a former soldier who killed himself and three family members almost six months ago, saying miscommunication has led to a delay in getting key information to Lionel Desmond’s immediate relatives. Colin Stevenson, vice-president of quality at the Nova Scotia Health Authority, confirmed Friday that a quality review of Desmond’s interaction with the health-care system was completed in March but he has been unable to set up a meeting with relatives because of confusion over who would be represented. Two of Desmond’s sisters, Cassandra and Chantel Desmond, say they have been asking for records and reports to help them understand why the former infantryman fatally shot their mother, his wife and the couple’s daughter before killing himself in his family’s rural Nova Scotia home. However, the twin sisters say their efforts have been in vain, which is why they came forward this week to demand the province’s medical examiner order a judicial fatality inquiry.