Lionel Desmond inquiry: Premier explains why his government dismissed head of inquiry

Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says his government decided to replace the judge overseeing the Lionel Desmond inquiry because Warren Zimmer’s final report was taking too long to complete.

“Look, we’re aligned with the families, we’re aligned with Nova Scotians and Canadians and all human beings on this,” the premier told reporters Wednesday after an unrelated announcement in the Halifax area. “The reason the department took the action it took is because it wasn’t clear to them a report was forthcoming.”

The provincial fatality inquiry, which was created five years ago, investigated why the Afghanistan war veteran killed three family members and himself in their rural Nova Scotia home in January 2017.

Zimmer was set to retire as a provincial court judge in March 2022, a month before the inquiry’s hearings concluded, but his term was extended four times over the past 18 months to allow him to complete the report.

After the most recent extension expired on Friday, provincial Attorney General Brad Johns decided to call in a replacement judge.

The premier said the government could not go on extending deadlines.

“How many times do you say, ‘another extension, another extension, another extension,’ before you accept the reality maybe you need to take another course to get it finished,” Houston said. “We wish Justice Zimmer well, but our interest is getting a completed report and that’s why we took the action we took.”

The premier said Zimmer’s work will be incorporated in the final report, which will be submitted to the provincial court before it is released to the public.

Johns said Tuesday he has asked the chief judge of the provincial court to assign a new judge to finish the work started by Zimmer.

The inquiry heard from 70 witnesses during 56 days of testimony and generated 10,447 pages of transcripts.

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This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 5, 2023.