In the nine months since former Nova Scotia justice minister Brad Johns told a pool of reporters that he didn’t consider domestic violence to be an epidemic, 10 women have been killed in the province. In nine of those deaths, the accused killers are the women’s husbands, boyfriends or sons.
Last week’s grisly discovery of a 22-year-old woman found dead in a burning home on the outskirts of Centreville marked the most recent death in Nova Scotia linked to intimate-partner violence, according to police investigators. And while the province officially declared domestic violence an epidemic last September, adopting Dartmouth South MLA Claudia Chender’s Intimate Partner Violence Epidemic Act, advocates have consistently called on legislators to do more.
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Breaking the silence on a Nova Scotia epidemic
Here’s a look back at Johns’ comments from last April and what we know about every woman killed in the province since then.
“Bigger issues” than domestic violence, Johns said on Portapique anniversary
Four years after the worst mass killing in Nova Scotia’s history, when a 51-year-old denturist killed 22 people and injured three others after first attacking his partner, Nova Scotia’s then-justice minister, Brad Johns, was asked about the Mass Casualty Commission’s final report, which recommended that the province treat domestic violence as an epidemic.
Johns took issue with the phrasing. Speaking in front of a room of reporters last April on the anniversary of the Portapique shootings, the then-justice minister said he felt there were “bigger issues” for the province to address, including guns and drugs. “Because I think that an epidemic… you’re seeing it everywhere, all the time,” he said. As for domestic violence as an epidemic, Johns added that he “[doesn’t] think that’s the case.”
The backlash against the minister was swift and resounding. Within minutes, premier Tim Houston told reporters that Johns would issue an apology. “Domestic violence is an issue our government takes very seriously,” Houston said. Johns resigned from his cabinet position a day later, stating in a press release that he “made comments that were wrong and have caused pain.”
But despite Houston’s quick rebuttal of Johns’ initial comments, advocates and family members of women killed by gender-based violence say the province has plenty more to do to protect women from harm. The Coast has compiled a record of every woman’s death in the province with suspicions of gender-based violence since then. The first happened in Cole Harbour, less than two months after Johns resigned.
Judith Organ (Cole Harbour, June 9, 2024)
Police arrived on Agincourt Crescent on the afternoon of June 9, 2024, after they’d received an unusual phone call. A man had contacted the RCMP’s Halifax branch to report that he’d murdered a woman inside his home. Mounties found 74-year-old Judith Anne Organ dead from a shotgun blast inside the Agincourt Crescent bungalow when they arrived. After what they described as “several attempts” to have him exit the home, police arrested 76-year-old Edmund Joseph Organ and charged him with first-degree murder in the death of his wife.
A psychiatric assessment found that Organ was fit to stand trial and was not suffering from a mental disorder that would impair his judgment, CBC News reported in August. Organ was released on bail on August 23 under several conditions, including that he was to live with his son. He awaits a trial in Nova Scotia’s Supreme Court.
An obituary for Judith shares that she worked as a certified nursing assistant “for many years,” at both the Rehabilitation Centre and the Dartmouth General Hospital. She loved camping and “spending time with her family and friends.”
Shaylene Johnson Paul (Membertou, July 24, 2024)
Shaylene Johnson “sang for everybody,” her father, Clifford Paul, told the Cape Breton Post after her death. The 42-year-old mother of four taught herself how to play piano and would sing traditional Mi’kmaq songs she’d learned from her elders. She was the eldest of five siblings. Johnson’s younger sister Sherilyn told the paper she always remembered “feeling comfortable and safe” with her older sister.
Cape Breton Regional Police found Johnson dead inside an apartment unit on MacAulay’s Lane on July 24. Police had been called to the building after reports of a disturbance, CBC News reported last July. CBRP spokesperson Desiree Magnus told the Crown broadcaster that Johnson appeared to be a “victim of an assault.”
Officers arrested 34-year-old Leonard Anthony Tenass and charged him with second-degree murder. Police say Tenass and Johnson knew one another.
Delina “Lana” Pinsky (Halifax, October 10, 2024)
Halifax Regional Police arrived at Quinpool Road’s Quingate Place apartment complex on the morning of October 10. According to police reports, officers were there for a well-being check and found 71-year-old Lana Pinsky dead in an apartment unit.
Neighbour Ralph Payawal told Global News there was a “bad smell” in the building that morning and he noticed blood in the hallway outside her unit. Neighbours told the broadcaster that Pinsky shared the apartment with her son.
The Nova Scotia Medical Examiner Service ruled Pinsky’s death a homicide. One week after her death, the HRP charged Pinsky’s 41-year-old son, Jonathan William Pinsky, with second-degree murder. Investigators allege the incident happened nine days before Pinsky’s body was found, on October 1.
According to Lana’s obituary, she had “impeccable” style and “lit up every room she entered, especially on the dance floor,” but her “true passion” came from her work as a reading support coordinator at the North End Public Library, which she did for more than 30 years.
Jonathan Pinsky has not applied for bail, the Chronicle-Herald reports. A hearing is set for early December 2025.
Brenda Tatlock-Burke (Enfield, October 18, 2024)
Two days before Mike Burke killed his wife, Brenda Tatlock-Burke, and then took his own life, she told her daughters she was planning to leave him. Brenda’s daughter Tara Graham told a House of Commons committee that her mother had been in a relationship with her stepfather for more than 30 years, during which time Burke had been “manipulative, controlling and full of narcissistic behaviour,” and he was “getting worse.” Graham and her sister, Ashley Whitten, told CBC News that Tatlock-Burke had flown to Alberta in August and spent nearly two months with them, during which time they helped her to change her social media name to “Brenda Tatlock.” Whitten dropped her mother off at the airport on October 16 and asked if she thought Burke would ever hurt her. Brenda assured her she felt safe.
Graham told the Crown broadcaster that her brother, who lives in Nova Scotia, got a text from Mike Burke the morning of October 18. In that text message, Burke told Graham’s brother to call the police.
Mounties arrived at the Burkes’ Enfield home that evening and found both Burke and Tatlock-Burke dead. An RCMP release from four days after Tatlock-Burke’s death described her killing as a “homicide” and Burke’s death as “self-inflicted,” but Brenda’s daughters took issue that the report hadn’t described the incident as one of intimate-partner violence. Speaking with Global News, the daughters also felt the RCMP had taken pains to omit that Burke himself was a retired Mountie and wondered if their mother had felt safe enough to go to the police. In Graham’s House of Commons speech, she told the committee that Burke owned “six or seven guns.” (RCMP eventually confirmed Burke’s prior employment as a Mountie on November 7.)
An obituary for Tatlock-Burke describes her as a “gifted hobbyist” with “an undeniable zest for life” who “found immense joy in her crafts, from quilting and glass art to clothing design and baking.”
Nicole Murphy (Yarmouth, November 1, 2024)
According to a police news release, Yarmouth Town RCMP responded to “the sudden deaths of two adults who were known to each other” on November 1. Officers found a 58-year-old man and 49-year-old woman dead inside a home on Placid Court in an apparent murder-suicide. Investigators described the incident as one of intimate-partner violence.
Family members identified the woman to CBC News as Nicole Murphy. An obituary for Murphy describes her as a mother with a “heart of gold” who was “taken from us far too soon.” It adds the Yarmouth-born Murphy was “an avid lover of cars, especially her beloved Mustang.”
Unnamed woman (Cole Harbour, November 4, 2024)
Halifax District RCMP say they were called to a home on Cole Harbour’s Poplar Drive on November 4 to respond to a “report of sudden deaths.” Officers found a 72-year-old man and 71-year-old woman dead in an apparent murder-suicide. RCMP say the two “were known to one another” and that an investigation “shows this to be an incident of intimate partner violence.” Police did not disclose the names of either deceased.
Keleana “Kelly” Trask (Greenhill, November 9, 2024)
On November 9, Pictou County RCMP got a call about an “abandoned and burned” car on MacLean Road, a quiet gravel road that weaves through about two kilometres of farmland and forest north of Greenhill. Officers arrived and found human remains in the car.
Five days later, 32-year-old Keleana Trask was reported missing to police. In a news release, Colchester County RCMP said she was last seen in Truro on the evening of November 5. Police identified her in early December as one of the bodies found in the car, along with 34-year-old Tyler Meagher. Investigators are treating their deaths as homicides. Police have not disclosed whether Trask and Meagher had a relationship of any kind, nor have investigators labelled it thus far as a case of intimate-partner violence.
Corelee “Alisha” Smith (North Preston, December 31, 2024)
It was New Year’s Eve when Corelee “Alisha” Smith’s boyfriend, Matthew Costain, shot and killed her and her father, Bradford “Coy” Downey, on Gottingen Street. They were in their car at the time. Halifax Regional Police say they arrived just after 10:30pm and found Smith dead and Downey “unresponsive.” He died of his injuries in hospital, the HRP shared in a release.
Hours later, officers were tipped off that “a man connected to the victims” was “believed to be” in the area around the Halifax Common. Police found Costain, 39, dead from a gunshot wound. Investigators believe he killed himself. Police describe Smith’s homicide as a case of intimate-partner violence.
An obituary for Smith described her as “the life of the party” and a woman whose “energy could move mountains.” The 40-year-old “adored her two daughters more than life itself,” the obituary reads. Smith worked as a residential councillor with the Our Neighbourhood Living Society, and as a continuing care assistant. She “loved travelling the world” and organizing “girls nights.”
Reverend Jivaro Smith, who pastors at North Preston’s Saint Thomas Baptist Church, told The Canadian Press that he knew both Smith and her father, Downey. He called Downey “an amazing guy who wouldn’t harm a flea” and “one of the nicest men you could ever come to know.”
Global News reports that Costain had a criminal record dating back to an armed robbery at the age of 14, and that in 2019, Toronto police had identified him as a suspect in a nightclub shooting.
Elaine “Lainie” Mosher (Mahone Bay, January 5, 2025)
It was a Sunday afternoon in early January when the RCMP arrived at a home on Long Hill Road. Mounties had received a call earlier that day to check on the wellbeing of 60-year-old Elaine Mosher and her 75-year-old husband. Officers found both dead in the home.
Four days later, police shared in a news release that Mosher’s death was “found to be the result of intimate partner violence,” and that her husband—who “died as a result of self-inflicted wounds”—was the one who killed her.
An obituary for Mosher describes her as a “kind, vibrant and empathetic” sister and aunt, as well as an “avid gardener” with a “deep love for the ocean,” who enjoyed “walking on the beach, dog sitting and driving carefree on her Harley.” She worked as a school bus driver and custodian at Rissers Beach.
The Elizabeth Fry Society of Mainland Nova Scotia shared on its Facebook page that Mosher was a “beloved member” of its community who “will forever be loved and missed by her family, friends and community.” Mosher’s niece, who works for the non-profit organization to help women, girls and gender-diverse people escape abuse, “carries on Elaine’s legacy of selflessness, empathy and kindness,” the statement adds.
Paiyton Pick (Centreville, January 11, 2025)
The house was ablaze when first responders arrived on Anthony Avenue early in the morning on January 11. Officers found a 22-year-old woman dead inside the burning home. An obituary has since identified her as Paiyton Pick. Nova Scotia RCMP said in a release that investigators deemed “both the death and fire” as “suspicious in nature.” Days later, Nova Scotia’s Medical Examiner’s Office ruled the Pick’s death a homicide and Mounties called her death “the result of intimate partner violence.” RCMP told the Canadian Press that her fatal injuries—though not disclosed—were not associated with the fire.
Six people escaped the house fire before first responders arrived, police said in a release. Hours after the fire, Mounties arrested 28-year-old Justin Joseph Benjamin on Highway 8 near Lequille, about an hour’s drive away. He’s charged with second-degree murder and arson with disregard for human life. Benjamin remains in custody and will return to court at the end of January, CBC News reports.
An obituary for Pick describes her as a woman who “brought immeasurable joy and light” into the lives of those around her and loved “singing, dancing and relaxing by a bonfire.” She had plans to pursue a nursing career, the obituary says.
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Start by apologizing
We’re still calling it femicide
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Response to violence against women shows how far we still have to go
From day one, advocates knew shooting was linked to domestic violence
Call it by its name: Misogynist violence
Breaking the silence on a Nova Scotia epidemic
It’s time for gender-based violence campaigns to target men
This article appears in Dec 19, 2024 – Jan 31, 2025.
So we officially declared domestic violence to be an epidemic and then have ten homicides. As Dr. Phil would say: “How’s that working for you?”
Yes, intimate partner violence is real (too real), and much more needs to be done. But can we admit that “officially declaring” something is an epidemic, (or getting our pound of flesh by firing the Justice Minister) is just marketing spin and does nothing directly to solve the problem…