ABSTRACT
Before turning the gun on himself, Lionel Desmond killed his wife Shanna, his ten-year-old daughter Aaliya, and his mother Brenda. Desmond was a Canadian veteran of the Afghan war. The media’s coverage of this murder-suicide in January 2017 quickly focused on the lack of adequate services for veterans suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Desmond had reportedly struggled to receive help for his mental health condition, and his acts of violence toward his family were explained in this context. However, this focus on the struggles of (male) veterans sidelined the stories of the female victims and of gendered family violence (Renzetti 2017). Nowhere in the public conversation did commentators question the ripple effects of violence that can occur when soldiers return home from war, or Canada’s participation in the war in Afghanistan itself. Gendered militarism informed the dominant framing of the story in a way that diminished those parts of the story that did not fit with the image of militarized men as protectors of women and children.
