The system failed Lionel Desmond and his family. These changes may prevent another tragedy

Though Lionel Desmond finished his tour of Afghanistan in August 2007, the trauma of the war would rage inside him — and inside his home — for the next decade.

It culminated on Jan. 3, 2017, when he fatally shot his wife, his mother and his daughter before taking his own life.

A Nova Scotia fatality inquiry has spent the last two years examining what led up to that evening. All of those involved in the hearings hope to close the gaps they uncovered — and prevent a similar tragedy from happening to another military family.

There are many such families in this country.

Roughly 400 soldiers are medically released from the Canadian Forces each year due to mental illness, and upwards of 70 per cent of them have partners and children, according to federal figures.

The evidence heard over 53 days may help those families by answering the questions guiding the inquiry: 

The short answer is no. 

But the nuances present an overarching question the lawyers will answer in their final submissions to Judge Warren Zimmer on April 19: What must be changed?  

By all accounts, Desmond was known as a helpful, happy-go-lucky young man.

That side of him shone through in military training and before his tour of Afghanistan in early 2007, his friend and fellow soldier, Cpl. Orlando Trotter told the inquiry. Desmond wanted to be a good partner and father.

But the seven-month tour was "like going to hell," Trotter testified in February 2021. Desmond's job there involved navigating landmines in order to retrieve bodies, creating memories that would repeat in his mind for years.

"You take somebody like him and put him in a war zone and [say], 'Take this rifle, and that guy over there, shoot him.' I would say it destroyed him," Trotter testified. "You have to have a certain type of personality to go into battle, and he just wasn't one of those guys." 

What they saw overseas destroyed the lives of many serving with 2nd Battalion Royal Canadian Regiment at the time. 

Desmond's battalion arrived at a point of high Canadian casualties. It replaced a regiment in the months following Operation Medusa, a deadly offensive that saw 12 Canadian soldiers killed.