“You’ve turned your back on women in this province”

On December 27, 2005—still in the warm glow of Christmas and one week from her daughter Anna’s first birthday—36-year-old Paula Gallant was violently murdered. Her lifeless body was put in the trunk of her car and driven to the parking lot of the elementary school where she taught Grade 3.

The crime shocked the community as we all wondered how this could have happened to a mother, teacher, sister. She could have been any of ours.

Her body was found by her family, who had hoped she was in the school working on an art project and maybe (hopefully) had an accident in the building. When the RCMP arrived and the trunk of the car was opened, loved ones gathered at the scene noticed her husband didn’t run to her or even reach out for her; he didn’t seem surprised by the discovery at all.

From the outside, you’d think that her husband would be the perfect place for the investigation to start. But the protocol 20 years ago was to put the husband on the periphery, to prevent the RCMP from jumping to any conclusions.

For four and a half years, the RCMP looked at everyone else in Paula’s immediate circle while her husband watched on. They even investigated the young children in the family, focusing on her 13-year-old nephew whose fingerprints were found on a pop bottle in his aunt’s car. Of course they were.

1,642 days. That’s how long it took for the RCMP to exhaust every other avenue and finally arrest Paula’s husband. That’s how long her sisters had to stand by and play nice in the press because they didn’t want to disrupt the investigation or lose access to baby Anna.

What we know now is that on December 27, 2005, Paula Gallant was murdered by her husband, who eventually admitted to strangling her in an argument over a $700 gambling debt.

The husband did it, of course. It seems the husband always does it.

In her new book For the Love of My Sister, Paula Gallant’s oldest sister Lynn recalls in poignant and vivid detail the weeks and months leading up to and after her sister’s murder. She relayed those details in a phone interview with The Coast.

“It’s amazing the details that you remember. I went to see Walk The Line that day and everyone laughed at me because I don’t even like Johnny Cash,” says Lynn. “And I remember we were driving home and I told my husband to take the exit 4 off-ramp so that we could go check on Paula. But then we changed our minds because we didn’t want our sons coming home to an empty house.”

When she got a phone call later that night that Paula had gone shopping in Bayers Lake and never came home, she was floored by the casualness with which the news was delivered to her by Paula’s husband.

“I said ‘what do you mean she never came home? Did you guys have a fight?’” says Lynn. “One hundred percent of the time when this man needed something—a light bulb changed, air in his tires—he called us to come help, and now Paula is missing and he didn’t call us immediately?”

A million thoughts and questions ran through her mind as the family flung into action. Could Paula have hit black ice on the highway and ended up in a ditch? Was she abducted by someone while shopping? And finally, could she be at the school working on an art project?

The school. That’s where she was. Lynn knew it.

“I looked at him and said ‘could she have gone to the school?’ and there was something that changed in him at that moment,” says Lynn. “And I knew in my heart that we would find her there.”

What happened to Paula has been extensively studied because it’s rare. It’s called an “out of the blue” incident of violence because there was no evidence that there was any kind of risk in the home. There were no triggers, which means that Paula had no skills or tools to help her de-escalate the situation.

But calling it “out of the blue” is somewhat misleading, because in her husband’s statement of facts at the trial, he says that he had been planning the murder for three weeks leading up to Christmas. He had made the plan, but he was biding his time, waiting for the right moment to present itself.

“On the 27th, she could have looked at him the wrong way, she could have asked him to pick up the dishes, she could have asked him to change the baby,” says Lynn. “Whatever happened, he didn’t like it and he decided to execute on his well-thought-out plan.”

While Lynn says it’s true that there was no known history of abuse in the home, in hindsight she believes there was something amiss. There was a passive-aggressive energy and arguments about finances, but nothing that she would necessarily label at the time as overtly abusive behaviour.

“Sadly, a lot of people that live in abusive relationships learn to understand the triggers and how to de-escalate potentially violent situations, and you hope that they can deescalate enough to be able to leave the relationship safely,” says Lynn.

A preview of Lynn’s new book reads: “Lynn channeled her pain and made tremendous improvement to support programs offered to murder victims’ families…and was instrumental in developing a rewards program for unsolved major crimes in Nova Scotia. It is a testament to perseverance, what you can accomplish when you have love fueling your fire.”

And that’s what Lynn’s mission is all about: keeping Paula’s legacy alive while advocating for change. The fight has been long and the battle rages on as policy-makers and police continue to turn their backs on the epidemic of gender-based violence in Nova Scotia.

“There’s still a lot of change to be done, and when I look at the recommendations that I made 17 years ago, they are still recommendations that are being made today,” says Lynn. “I really had hoped that the Mass Casualty Commission report would draw enough attention that our politicians would finally care.”

She’s angry that not only has that not happened, but if you come to Nova Scotia, the risk of being killed or trafficked by a man is the highest in the country. It’s statistically the least safe place in Canada for women to live. And with four murders of women (three by intimate partners and one by someone known to the victim) in the last six weeks, things seem to only be getting worse.

The time for action is now.

The “not so silent” vigil will honour he National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women

Tonight—Friday Dec 6—a number of gender-based violence organizations and survivors are holding a “not so silent” vigil in downtown Halifax to honour the National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women. The event will start outside of the Cathedral Church of All Saints (1333 Cathedral Lane) at 4pm, before crossing the street to join up with Avalon and The Transition House Association of Nova Scotia at the Public Gardens for a candlelight march.

The event will then move inside, where gender-based advocates and survivors will speak about their work and experiences, and communicate their calls to action to end the epidemic of gender-based violence.

One of those speakers will be Lynn, who is hoping that she can use Paula’s legacy to fuel change, and her message is crystal-clear.

“Here’s what I want to say to the premier: you’ve turned your back on women in this province. You have a wife and a daughter, and don’t tell me this could never happen to your daughter because it has no boundaries,” says Lynn. “You turn your back for one minute and she could be taken or she could marry the wrong person. Why don’t you realize that you have the power to change the system—of our perceptions and the reality—just do the job you need to do.”

You can purchase a copy of For the Love of My Sister HERE. Part of the proceed from the book will go towards protecting women.