Desmond’s family encouraged by meeting

A relative of a former Canadian soldier who killed three members of his family and himself six months ago says based on an internal review, he feels Nova Scotia’s health authority dealt with Lionel Desmond’s case “to the best of their ability.”

Members of Lionel Desmond’s family heard the findings and recommendations of a review Wednesday of how the province’s health-care system dealt with his case before the killings in January.

Speaking to media after the meeting at a hospital in Antigonish, N.S., Desmond’s relative Albert MacLellan would not reveal the contents of the confidential review.

But MacLellan did say that Desmond was not turned away from St. Martha’s Regional Hospital’s mental health unit in the days before the shootings, and could not say why Desmond would have told his sisters that.

MacLellan says the family is also meeting today with the province’s medical examiner Dr. Matt Bowes.

Desmond, a veteran of the war in Afghanistan who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder, took his own life after shooting his 52-year-old mother Brenda, his 31-year-old wife Shanna, and their 10-year-daughter Aaliyah.