The province is launching two expert committees to examine cases of domestic homicides and child deaths in custody but it’s uncertain how much of the groups’ findings will be made public.
"One intimate partner death, or death of a child in our care or custody, is one too many," Justice Minister Mark Furey said on Tuesday before tabling a bill that amends the Fatality Investigation Act to include the Domestic Violence Death Review Committee and Child Death Review Committee. Furey said he intends to have both committees struck by the end of the year or early 2020.
The committees will be headed by Chief Medical Examiner Matthew Bowes and could include community organizations, medical professionals, and representatives from law enforcement, academia and government.
The domestic violence committee will be tasked to investigate homicides and homicide-suicides that result from violence between intimate partners or ex-partners but could also include the death of a child or other family member.
The child death committee will conduct reviews of unexpected deaths of children under 19 who have died in the care or custody of the province. Furey said the committee would also examine trends in deaths of all young people in the province under the age of 25 with a focus on prevention and public health.
He said the purpose of the committees is to to understand the factors that lead to these tragedies and that the findings would be used to identify the gaps in the system so the province can work with its partners to prevent similar deaths in the future.
No death stats covering recent years were disclosed but Furey said in the last decade about 25 domestic homicides have occurred in the province with child custody deaths being slightly less.
The bill does not yet have accompanying regulations that would state, for example, what specific information would be collected by the committees and how much of that information would be made public.
But any committee recommendations would be non-binding, meaning the government wouldn’t be required to adopt any of them. Furey was also unclear about how the the public would be informed once a committee review was triggered but said he didn't see any reason why the department wouldn’t make the public aware when the committee is sitting. Some information would be limited to protect the identity of victims, he said. Questions also remain about what, if any, of the committee findings would be made public, though the minister said there would be a "public education awareness and education element."
Claudia Chender, NDP justice critic, said she supported the province’s decision to launch both committees but added she’s concerned that their findings may never be made public.
"In order to act on whatever recommendations that come out of these committees we need to have a full understanding of what those recommendations are, what those trends are and how to move forward with those recommendations," said Chender.
Chender said she’s also concerned that the minister isn’t considering the same sort of review for adult fatalities in provincial custody, given Gregory Hiles’ death in August. Hiles died after being found hanging by bed sheets in his cell at the East Coast Forensic Hospital in Dartmouth. The Nova Scotia Health Authority resisted public calls for an independent inquiry into the incident and is conducting an internal investigation.
"We haven’t gotten all the answers we needed into this death and if we had a mechanism in place where we properly investigated and the results were made public, that would go a long way to ensuring that doesn’t happen again," said Chender.
Furey said his department would consider further review of adult deaths in custody on a case-by-case basis.
