Thread by @Tim_Bousquet

I'm at today's proceedings of the Mass Casualty Commission. Today's discussion WILL include graphic details involving intimate partner violence. To avoid this, you can mute the hashtag #MCC

We're starting early today because we're hearing from 2 Australian academic, Judy McCulloch and JaneMaree Maher, who will discuss their report, "Understanding the Links between Gender-Based Violence and Mass Casualty Attacks: Private Violence and Misogyny as a Public Risk" #MCC

It's 10:30pm in Melbourne, and the drains cycle counter-clockwise you flush giant toads #MCC

I have an article about Lisa Banfield's life with the killer ready to publish, and will as soon as today's foundational document, "Perpetrator’s Violence Towards Common-Law Spouse," is tabled. #MCC

Additionally, in October 2020, Lisa Banfield returned to Portapique with a police investigator, and walked through the crime scene, explaining what she did and saw the night of April 18 and into the next morning. We will publish video of that day... #MCC

I see that some bad-faith actors have already commented on the videos, before the public has seen them. imo, those comments mischaracterize the videos, but don't take my word for it, watch them yourself and draw your own conclusions #MCC

The panelists are making a distinction between "private violence" and "public violence," but both sorts of overwhelmingly perpetrated by men #MCC

McCulloch: including familicide, the TYPICAL mass casualty attack starts with an attack on a woman. #MCC

McCulloch: one study found that 34% of public mass shootings (ie., not strictly familicides), start with an attack on a woman, usually a specific woman who was an intimate partner or former intimate partner #MCC

McCulloch criticizes the notion that the particular woman targeted was the "trigger" of the attack, because it obscures the victim status of the woman.

Oh, that never happens
/snark
#MCC

Panelists summarized: intervening into domestic violence helps those (mostly) women being attacked "privately," but additionally may lead to a reduction of "public" mass casualties #MCC

The panelists looked at the Lindt Café Siege in Sydney en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lindt_Caf… in which the attacker was long known to have a history of domestic violence #MCC

We're on a 15-minute break #MCC

We'll return at about 11:15 for the foundational document about Lisa Banfield, and I'll have a bunch of material then #MCC

TW: ‘Just complementary and just sweet’: Lisa Banfield’s 19 years of abuse halifaxexaminer.ca/featured/just-… by me

To reiterate: today's proceedings are extremely graphic, dealing with detailed descriptions of violence against at woman. To avoid this, you can mute the hashtag #MCC

#MCC lawyer @gillianhnatiw Gillian Hnatiw is explaining how LB met GW at the Thirsty Duck in 2000.

Hnatiw is playing audio clips of LB's interviews with the #MCC She discussed this:

It's not in the foundational document, but I reported this, er, disturbing bit #MCC

Hnatiw discusses LB's car. She owned it in her marriage, and still had it, and this irritated GW, and he insisted she get a new car #MCC

LB began working at the denturist clinic full-time #MCC

LB was solely responsible for cooking, shopping & maintaining the apartment. “The way I was brought up is my mom waited on my dad hand in foot & I did that with whoever I was with, but it wasn’t because I felt that I had to, I wanted to & I didn’t have a problem with it.” #MCC

Here are the videos of Lisa Banfield's re-enactment of the crime scene in Portapique, in three parts..
#1 (scroll down): masscasualtycommission.ca/fd-source-vide… #MCC

#2 (scroll down): masscasualtycommission.ca/fd-source-vide… #MCC

#3 (scroll down): masscasualtycommission.ca/fd-source-vide… #MCC

Hnatiw: Immediately after the murders, Banfield was asked how many times GW physically abused her, and she said, "10, maybe" and that years would go back without violence. HOWEVER #MCC

Banfield always kept journals, and in the months after the murders, she went and re-read her journals, and realized she had been abused many, many times, far more than 10 #MCC

In an audio clip, Banfield recounts how GW would hit her in the face, and she'd place her hands up #MCC She basically explains this:

GW would tell her, "I now where your family lives," an implied threat should she leave him #MCC

Hnatiw is now relating the "Sutherland Lake" incident, which I recount as follows #MCC

The #MCC has not been able to locate police records related to police officers driving GW back to Portapique

The account continues: #MCC

Hnatiw recounts another incident, in Portapique, after Tom Evans died. GW was punching LB. She escaped, and there were 4 men (workers employed by GW) who watched him chase her around the car and grab her hair, pulling her back inside. The men did nothing #MCC

At least a couple of times, GW pointed guns at LB. He said, "If I didn't love you, I wouldn't do this" #MCC

There was another choking incident at the cottage in Portapique, probably when Glynn Wortman sold his place to Lisa McCully. Glynn saw GW straddling her, "choking the shit out of her." This was probably the incident Brenda Forbes testified about #MCC

Hnatiw is explaining in detail other varied shithead behaviour on the part of GW #MCC

I won't get into it here because it's too complex, but today's foundational document basically calls bullshit on the RCMP's claim that Brenda Forbes didn't report domestic violence related to LB. We'll write an article about it later #MCC

As I wrote this morning: Dozens of people knew about the abuse. Her family knew about the abuse. The Wortman family knew about the abuse. Her friends knew about the abuse. Her work associates knew about the abuse. Her neighbours knew about the abuse. #MCC

In response to the abuse against her, Lisa went to a counsellor, but GW made her stop going #MCC

People who knew about the abuse, etc, had various reasons for not intervening: it was in the past, etc. #MCC

Hnatiw speaks to what happened in the 5 weeks before the murders, when they isolated in Portapique because of COVID #MCC

“He got so consumed with this COVID thing and he would just listen to Donald Trump and he couldn’t stand Justin Trudeau” said Lisa... "He’s like, ‘no, but he’s right.'” #MCC

GW stocked up on rice and prepared foods, bought hundreds of gallons of gasoline, asked friends and relatives to buy him ammo, withdrew hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. #MCC

GW had Lisa count the cash, and he divvied it up into various amounts and hid these in tins around the cottage. Most of the cash went into a fireproof bag; with Lisa at his side, he buried the bag so only the two of them knew where it was. #MCC

Hnatiw is now reviewing April 18, 2020, via previously recorded interviews — 3 with the RCMP and 5 with the #MCC — but as well, the videos linked to upthread

The 2 went for a drive in the country. They drove by Springhill prison. They went to Sutherland Lake. GW stopped & spoke with denturist Rick Laurie; they spoke for an hour in the driveway, with Lisa staying in the Jeep. #MCC

They drove around the Debert Industrial Park. They stopped and bought frozen pizzas and beer, even though there was “lots and lots of beer” at the warehouse. Then they headed back to Portapique, arriving at around suppertime.#MCC

Contrary to Angel Patterson's claim, Lisa Banfield said there was no brush clearing on April 18 #MCC

There was some history with Angel, which I recount here #MCC

Hnatiw is ending with clips from the videos linked to above #MCC

There's one moment in the videos that struck me. Lisa and the investigator are walking down one of the roads in Portapique, and a resident was driving towards them. Lisa, scared, jumped behind the cop to hide, afraid of how the neighbour would react if he saw her #MCC

I noticed a typo in the notes about Angel Patterson. It was Nov. 11, 2018, not 2008. Mea culpa. #MCC

Hnatiw is going through the attack on Banfield on April 18, 2020. I won't recount all that again because we've reported on it many times. But you can watch the videos upthread, if you want. One comment, however.. #MCC

Immediately after the murders, police investigators discovered Lisa's shoes, which were in the area where Lisa said GW had taken them off her #MCC

As well, a chain she was wearing that had been ripped off her that night was discovered out on the road #MCC

Another gripping moment in the video is when Banfield heard someone say something akin to "hey boy!" and then gunshots. It sounded to me like she was describing the murder of Corrie Ellison. #MCC

Hnatiw is showing a very long clip of Banfield showing the investigator where she hid overnight and how she crawled out of the woods when the sun came up #MCC

When Lisa Banfield showed up at Leon Joudrey's house, he called 911. The operator asked if she was in a condition to talk, and Joudrey said "no." Later he told police she wasn't able to dial 911 herself #MCC

A couple of days later, Joudrey gave a different opinion, saying she wasn't injured, and he called 911 and said "come get this fucking woman out of my house." Guess which version the conspiracy theorists have grabbed on to #MCC

Again, Lisa Banfield was hospitalized for 5 days, with fractured ribs, etc. I've read her highly redacted hospital records, and this was not a case of light injuries #MCC

Some comments...

I entered into this reporting with an open mind. I didn't have any pre-conceived notions of what role, if any, Lisa Banfield had in the murders. If the evidence showed she was somehow complicit, I would report it. But...

I've spent a great deal of time reading thousands of pages of documents related to the murders. This includes in part transcripts of dozens of interviews with people who witnessed the abuse of Banfield, but a lot more as well...

I've found ZERO evidence that she knew in advance about the murders or took any direct role in them. The truth is much more complex..

People want a black and white, connect the dots account, but life is messy. People are nuanced, complex, with varying perspectives, believes, etc.

Lisa Banfield is an abused woman, of that there is no doubt. It's hard to understand this through a conventional lens: why didn't she leave? How could she put up with that? Etc.

The desire for a certain narrative and the difficulty of getting into the head of an abused woman, coupled with, frankly, a society that is deeply misogynistic, has led to a bunch of conspiracy theories, unfounded speculation, and bullshit.

But again: we need evidence, not some bullshit pulled out of someone's ass, not secret recordings of David Caruso wanking, not weak men placing their fears onto woman like some medieval inquisitor.

AFTER the murders, Lisa Banfield has been terribly harmed by a campaign of bullshit. She doesn't deserve this. She's going to have a difficult enough time in the coming years.

Anyway, that's my say....

And, sorry to bring crass financial considerations into this, but I've worked 12-15 hour days for each of the last five days. And this comes at both considerable personal expense, and financial cost to the Examiner as the rest of the crew fills in for me.

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