In the early evening hours of January 3, 2017, in remote Upper Big Tracadie, Nova Scotia, Lionel Desmond murdered his wife, Shanna, his daughter, Aaliyah, and his mother, Brenda, then turned the gun on himself. In the wake of such a horrific murder-suicide, two dueling narratives quickly emerged to try to explain the inexplicable. The […]
Black News File
Stories from the Black community in the Maritimes, October 14 to October 24.
1. Laura Daye passes away Laura Daye, the widow of the late Delmore “Buddy” Daye, passed away last Monday in hospital at the age of 90. Daye was a teacher assistant in special education and resource for 27 years. She was the youngest of 17 children. Daye was just a toddler when her own mother […]
Weekend File
The articles we published from October 16 to 22, 2021.
Welcome to Weekend File. Here are links to all the articles you might have missed last week. Jump to sections in this article: Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Sunday, October 17 1. White lawyer Nash Brogan and Black lawyer Lyle Howe are each charged with professional misconduct, but the Barristers Society is […]
Lionel Desmond was a victim of racism, cousin testifies at inquiry
Raymond Sheppard says racism within the Canadian Armed Forces contributed to Desmond's PTSD.
It was two years ago this month that Raymond Sheppard first wrote in the former Nova Scotia Advocate about the role racism played in the case of his younger cousin, Lionel Desmond, who, in 2017, killed his wife, Shanna, mother, Brenda, and 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, before killing himself. Desmond who served in the Canadian Armed […]
“We lost one of the good guys:” Robert Devet’s impact on African Nova Scotian stories
Activists said Devet was "one of the truest allies" and gave voice to the voiceless in the Black community.
Poet and author Angela Bowden said before she ever met Robert Devet or knew his name she saw him at various social justice events in Halifax. “[He had] a tape recorder in one hand, notepad in the other, ready to create space, and provide a platform for every vulnerable and marginalized person, community, or circumstance,” […]
‘The rest is for the seagulls’
We may never know all the complex factors that led Lionel Desmond to murder his wife and family, and then kill himself. But we're learning. It's complicated.
On the evening of Jan. 3, 2017, Lionel Desmond, a 32-year-old former Canadian soldier, murdered his 31-year-old wife, Shanna, their 10-year-old daughter, Aaliyah, and his 52-year-old mother, Brenda, in their home in tiny Upper Big Tracadie, N.S. Then, he turned the rifle on himself. In the immediate aftermath of that horrific quadruple murder-suicide, we as...
Complicated legacies
Was Lionel Desmond a victim of his war demons? Or was he a villain, a perpetrator of domestic violence who murdered his own family? Or both? We may never know.
“Speak not ill of the dead man.” Spartacus “The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones.” Shakespeare Legacies have always been complicated and fraught, of course, but never more so than today. Consider Kobe Bryant. In the first hours after news broke last month that Bryant, “one of the greatest […]
Fifteen years in, Nova Scotia might just fix tax assessment inequities
Morning File, Thursday, January 30, 2020
News 1. Northern Pulp confirms extension to April 30 News 95.7 has reported on a Northern Pulp announcement stating the company has received permission from Nova Scotia’s Minister of the Environment to be able to continue discharging into Boat Harbour until the end of April 2020. New pulp processing waste is still not allowed, but […]
Here’s the best map of Cape Breton
Morning File, Tuesday, January 28, 2020
News 1. Lionel Desmond inquiry “Two days before former soldier Lionel Desmond used a rifle to fatally shoot three members of his family and then kill himself, his wife Shanna told him to leave their home in rural Nova Scotia after a heated argument, a fatality inquiry heard Monday,” reports Michael MacDonald for the Canadian […]
A place with islands to give away
Morning File, Tuesday, November 19, 2019
You can’t be everywhere at once. That’s why I’m thankful for the Halifax Examiner’s Jennifer Henderson. If I’m regretting not being able to go to this public meeting or that important announcement, Henderson has been, and can tell me all about it in the Examiner. Whether it’s the Nova Scotia Health Authority’s pursuit of P3 […]