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Spouse of Nova Scotia mass shooter reveals grim new details about their life together

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2 years ago

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HALIFAX — For 19 years, Lisa Banfield lived with a man described as a controlling, abusive psychopath who repeatedly beat her.

This long-term pattern of gender-based violence is described in detail in a document released Wednesday by the inquiry investigating why Gabriel Wortman fatally shot 22 people in Nova Scotia on April 18-19, 2020 — the worst mass shooting in modern Canadian history.

Part of the inquiry’s mandate is to examine the role of intimate partner violence, as it formulates recommendations aimed at preventing this kind of tragedy from happening again.

In her own words, Banfield told inquiry investigators about the physical abuse she endured as the killer’s common-law wife.

“The things Gabriel would do to me included: grabbing me sexually … (and) physically push me around (out of the way, on the bed, or to the ground/floor),” she said in a written statement provided to the inquiry June 22.

“(He would) pull me up by my hair to get me off the ground until my scalp felt like it was going to rip off — punch me (body, face, neck), and kick me. Though I remember he only raped me once. I felt that I was his wife and what could I do?”

Aside from the physical abuse, there was also plenty of psychological harm, the statement says.

“He pulled a gun on me and came after me a couple of times, saying that we are ‘done.’ And I don’t even know how I talked him down,” she said.

“He would even beat me in front of his friends. They would watch and not do anything about it. I knew no one could help me. They were all scared of him, too.”

Banfield, now 53 years old, is expected to testify at a public hearing on Friday.

In a series of interviews this year, she told inquiry investigators she first met Wortman at a bar in Halifax in May 2001. Both had left previous marriages, and three months later, they moved in together.

Within a year, he pressured her to sign a document aimed at protecting his ownership of properties and other assets.

In previously released interviews with the RCMP, Banfield had said the first two and a half years of their relationship were positive, and she described her spouse as “loving, kind and generous.”

But she told inquiry investigators that his violent behaviour began much earlier. In particular, she described an assault she endured in 2001 or 2002 outside a cottage near Sutherland Lake, north of their summer home in Portapique, N.S. Banfield said Wortman threw punches at her when she climbed into their Jeep and insisted on leaving.

“I jumped out and I just ran through the woods,” she said. “And then he caught me. I had blood all over me and he was dragging me back to the Jeep.”

There were witnesses to the assault. Police were called, but no action was taken. When she returned home, she found Wortman removing the wheels from her car in a bid to keep her from leaving.

“Ms. Banfield told the commission that throughout her relationship with the perpetrator, she had to focus on what was in front of her at that moment, rather than what happened in the past … as a means of coping,” the 100-page summary of evidence says.

“It was only when Ms. Banfield went back and read some of the journals she kept during their relationship that she recognized the frequency of the violence and how early on … the mistreatment started.”

The inquiry’s latest report goes on to describe Wortman’s frequent infidelity, his chronic alcoholism and his persistent efforts to control Banfield through manipulation, intimidation, threats and financial coercion.

For years, she worked as his assistant in his Dartmouth, N.S., denture clinic, which provided her only source of income. Her family was worried she was becoming too dependent on him.

“I’m close to my siblings and I talk to them every day, but he didn’t like that,” Banfield told the RCMP. “He wanted all of my attention, and if I didn’t give it to him, he was like a little boy … that needed a constant build-me-up kinda thing …. Throughout our relationship, he’d be very controlling.”

She initially told the RCMP that she could recall about 10 times when she suffered abuse at the hands of her partner. But she later told inquiry investigators that the number was higher, based on what she had written in her journals.

At one point, in 2003 or 2004, a neighbour confronted Wortman at his Portapique home and demanded that he allow Banfield to collect her things and leave, the document says. “No one’s coming in this house,” he is quoted as responding. “And I’m just letting you know, I’ve got guns in here.”

Banfield confirmed that she never told police about her dangerous living situation, despite encouragement from some of her siblings. At one point, they took photos of her injuries, but those pictures have since disappeared.

“Where am I going to go even if I left,” she told the inquiry investigators. “He knows where (my relatives) all live and I didn’t know what he would do.”

Banfield also said that while she was aware Wortman had illegal guns, she was “scared” to report them. She also said when police came to the couple’s door in 2010, after Wortman had threatened to kill his parents, she lied to them, saying there were no guns in the house — fearing a possible gun battle between police and her spouse.

Inquiry lawyer Gillian Hnatiw asked Banfield: “And so, when they asked you about the presence of firearms in the house, you told them ‘no’ as part of wanting to keep them out of it?” Banfield replied, “(I was) afraid they (the police) would get hurt.”

Banfield said she eventually stopped talking to her siblings about the violence, but they knew Wortman’s controlling, abusive behaviour had not stopped.

“He’s a psychopath or a sociopath, he’s a narcissist,” Banfield’s sister, Janice, told the inquiry, adding that he was a “ticking time bomb.”

Meanwhile, the inquiry released a series of four videos Wednesday that show Banfield in Portapique on Oct. 23, 2020, where she re-enacted for the RCMP what happened on the first night of the rampage after she and Wortman got into an argument over their anniversary plans.

In the video, Banfield’s voice is shaky and she sobs as she explains how Wortman attacked her in their Portapique home before setting it on fire. He then dragged her to a nearby warehouse, where he pushed her into the back seat of his replica RCMP cruiser.

“Looking at his eyes, there was nothing there,” she said. “It was just so cold.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 13, 2022.

— With files from Michael Tutton in Halifax.

 

Michael MacDonald, The Canadian Press

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Canadian Hockey League boosts border rivalry by launching series vs. USA Hockey’s development team

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14 mins ago

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September 17, 2024

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The Canadian Hockey League is looking to capitalize on the sport’s cross-border rivalry by having its top draft-eligible prospects face USA Hockey’s National Development team in an annual two-game series starting in November.

Unveiled on Tuesday by the CHL, the series is being billed as the CHL-USA Prospects Challenge with this year’s games played at two Ontario cities — London and Oshawa — on Nov. 26-27. The CHL reached a three-year deal to host the series, with sites rotating between the group’s three members — the Ontario, Quebec Maritime, and Western hockey leagues.

Aside from the world junior championships, the series will feature many of both nation’s top 17- and 18-year-olds in head-to-head competition, something CHL President Dan MacKenzie noted has been previously lacking for two countries who produce a majority of NHL talent.

“We think we’ve got the recipe for something really special here,” MacKenzie said. “And we think it’s really going to deliver for fans of junior hockey who want to see the best payers of their age group play against each other with something on the line.”

A majority of the CHL’s roster will be selected by the NHL’s Central Scouting Bureau.

The Michigan-based NTDP, established by USA Hockey in 1996, is a development program for America’s top juniors, with the team spending its season competing in the USHL, while rounding out its schedule playing in international tournaments and against U.S. colleges. NTDP alumni include NHL No. 1 draft picks such as Patrick Kane, Auston Matthews and Jack Hughes.

For the CHL, the series replaces its annual top-prospects game which was established in 1992 and ran through last season. The CHL also hosted a Canada-Russia Challenge, which began in 2003 and was last held in 2019, before being postponed as a result of the COVID pandemic and then canceled following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“The success of USA Hockey’s program has really evolved and sort of gets them in a position where they’re going to be competitive in games like this,” MacKenzie said. “We’re still the No. 1 development league in the world by a wide margin. But we welcome the growth of the game and what that brings to the competition level.”

The challenge series is being launched at a time when North America’s junior hockey landscape could be shifting with the potential of NCAA Division 1 programs lifting their longstanding ban against CHL players.

On Friday, Western Hockey League player Braxton Whitehead announced on social media he has a verbal commitment to play at Arizona State next season. Whitehead’s announcement comes on the heels of a class-action lawsuit filed last month, challenging the NCAA’s eligibility ban of CHL players.

A lifting of the ban could lead to a number of CHL players making the jump to the U.S. college ranks after finishing high school.

MacKenzie called it difficult for him to comment due to the litigation and because the CHL is considered an observer in the case because it was not named in the lawsuit.

“My only comment would be that we continue to be a great option for 16- to 20-year-old players to develop their skills and move on to academic or athletic pursuits by being drafted in the NHL, where we’re the No. 1 source of talent,” MacKenzie said. “And we’re going to continue to focus on that.”

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Boston Marathon lowers qualifying times for most prospective runners for 2026 race

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15 mins ago

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September 17, 2024

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BOSTON (AP) — Runners hoping to qualify for the 2026 Boston Marathon are going to have to pick up the pace.

The Boston Athletic Association has updated its qualifying times for the world’s oldest annual marathon, asking most prospective competitors to run a 26.2-mile race five minutes faster than in recent years to earn a starting number.

“Every time the BAA has adjusted qualifying standards — most recently in 2019 — we’ve seen athletes continue to raise the bar and elevate to new levels,” Jack Fleming, president and CEO of the BAA, said in a statement posted Monday. “In recent years we’ve turned away athletes in this age range (18-59) at the highest rate, and the adjustment reflects both the depth of participation and speed at which athletes are running.”

The BAA introduced qualifying times in 1970 and has expanded and adjusted the requirements through the decades. Runners participating in the event to raise money for charity do not have to meet the qualifying standards.

The latest change means men between the ages of 18 and 34 will have to run a marathon during the qualification window in 2 hours, 55 minutes or faster to earn a spot in the 2026 race — five minutes faster than for this year’s edition.

Women and nonbinary applicants need to complete the distance in 3:25.

The slowest competitors that can earn qualification are in the 80 and over age group. The men in that category must complete a marathon in 4:50, while women and nonbinary competitors have 5:20 to finish. Those numbers were not changed in the most recent adjustment.

The BAA said it had 36,406 qualifier entry applications for next year’s race, more than ever before.

“The record number of applicants indicates the growing trend of our sport and shows that athletes are continuously getting faster and faster,” Fleming said.

The qualifying window for the 2026 race began on Sept. 1 and will run through the conclusion of the registration period of that race next September.

Next year’s Boston Marathon will take place on April 21.

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Former Canadiens, Senators defenceman Chris Wideman retires after six NHL seasons

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15 mins ago

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September 17, 2024

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MONTREAL – Former Montreal Canadiens and Ottawa Senators defenceman Chris Wideman announced he’s retiring after six NHL seasons on Tuesday.

Wideman spent his last three seasons under contract with the Canadiens, but did not play during the 2023-24 campaign due to a back injury.

The 34-year-old said in a letter released by the Canadiens that he made several attempts at rehabilitation and sought a variety of treatments before deciding to hang up his skates. He finishes his career with 20 goals and 58 assists in 291 games.

Wideman, a five-foot-10, 180-pound blueliner, started his NHL career with the Senators in 2015-16. He played parts of four seasons in the nation’s capital before he was traded in 2018-19 to the Edmonton Oilers, playing five games in Alberta before moving on to the Florida Panthers, Pittsburgh Penguins and Anaheim Ducks organizations.

During the 2020-21 season, he played in Russia’s Kontinental Hockey League and was named the league’s defenceman of the year.

Wideman returned to the NHL the following season and produced a career-best 27 points (four goals, 23 assists) in 64 games with the Canadiens.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 17, 2024.

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