Weapons charges against gunman’s spouse, others withdrawn in case linked to N.S. mass shooting-صحيفة الصوت

Three people who supplied ammunition to the gunman who killed 22 Nova Scotians two years ago have had their criminal charges withdrawn.

Lawyers for all three — Lisa Banfield, James Banfield and Brian Brewster — appeared in Nova Scotia provincial courts Tuesday morning to complete the process.

All three had been charged with weapons offences, and all three opted to have their charges dealt with through restorative justice, meaning they didn’t face a trial and have no criminal record.

Lisa Banfield was the long-time partner of the gunman. James Banfield is her brother. Brian Brewster is her brother-in-law.

Lisa Banfield asked the two men to use their firearms certificates to purchase bullets. The gunman was not legally allowed to possess weapons or bullets.

Police said when the trio was charged that none of them knew what the ammunition was to be used for.

“It’s a big relief that they’re over, for her,” Lisa Banfield’s lawyer, James Lockyer, said outside court Tuesday. “For me, too.”

But Lockyer said he still has misgivings.

“I will go as far to say I was always disturbed by the fact the RCMP charged Lisa,” Lockyer said.

He said he hopes the commission investigating the murders looks at the decision to charge his client.

Tom Singleton, who represented Brian Brewster, also has questions.

“I have serious misgivings about the fact the charges were laid in the first place and what type of investigation was carried on by the RCMP that actually justified laying the charge,” Singleton said following court.

While Singleton said Brewster realizes that by going the restorative justice route he’s unlikely to get the answers he wants, avoiding the stress of a trial was worth it to his client.

During the restorative justice process, Singleton said that Brewster and his wife had what he described as some rather informal meetings with counsellors from the restorative justice program.

James Banfield and his lawyer initially had misgivings about the process because they worried representatives of 21 of the families would get directly involved and it would become unwieldy. That didn’t happen.

Neither Brewster nor James Banfield appeared in court in person Tuesday. Lisa Banfield was flanked by her two sisters, just as she was when she testified before the inquiry last week.

The inquiry has heard that the people in the United States who played a role in helping the gunman Gabriel Wortman obtain three guns from Maine have not been charged, and investigations into the firearm issue on that side of the border have closed.