Brian Hendershot has filed a lawsuit against the Nova Scotia government and health authorities following the death of his son, Brandon. The 40-year-old died from ifnluenza B in April while being held in provincial custody.
The Influenza B death at Dartmouth General Hospital
Brandon Hendershot passed away on April 16 at Dartmouth General Hospital after contracting influenza B, according to a statement of claim filed in Nova Scotia Supreme Court. The lawsuit, brought by Brian Hendershot on behalf of himself and his grandson, alleges that the province failed to provide the necessary medical care to prevent this outcome.
The legal filing claims that correctional staff at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Dartmouth neglected to perform a critical health assessment when Brandon Hendershot arrived in March.. This failure to screen for illness upon entry is central to the claim that the province's medical negligence directly contribuuted to the 40-year-old's death.
Prior to his death, Brandon Hendershot had been arrested in Saskatchewan in early March and transported to Nova Scotia. He was facing serious legal charges, including two counts of sexual interference, two counts of sexual assault, and one count of invitation to sexual touching.
Nine custody deaths since January 2023
The death of Brandon Hendershot is part of a troubling trend in the province's correctional system. as reported in the source, nine individuals have died in provincial custody since January 2023, with four of those deaths occurring in the current year alone.
This pattern suggests a systemic vulnerability in how Nova Scotia manages the health of detainees. However , the full scope of these fatalities remains obscured; the province's Personal Health Information Act currently restricts the public disclosure of the causes of death for three of the other individuals who died in custody.
The push for Ontario-style inquests
Legal advocates are now using this case to demand a fundamental shift in how Nova Scotia handles custodiial deaths. Emma Halpern, the legal director of the non-profit firm PATH Legal, is representing the Hendershot family and is calling for new provincial legislation that would mandate in-depth inquests for every death that occurs in custody.
Meaghan Daniel, a lawyer specializing in prison law, argues that Nova Scotia's current internal processes are insufficient. Daniel points to the system in Ontario, where public inquests provide families and the general public with transparent, valuable information regarding the circumstances of a death, a level of accountability currently missing in Nova Scotia.
The unclear mandate of Scott Armstrong's review committee
While Justice Minister Scott Armstrong has stated he is satisfied that the current system provides enough information to improve correctional facility operations, critics argue the mechanism is a "black box." The province's Justice Department has created a committee to review deaths in custody, but the specific activities and mandate of this group remain unclear to the public.
Several critical questions remain unanswered regarding this oversight body. it is currently unknown how often the committee meets, what specific metrics they use to determine if a death was preventable, or whether their findings are ever shared with the families of the deceased. furthermore, the source indicates that the province has not yet clarified how it balances the Personal Health Information Act with the public's right to know why citizens are dying in state care.
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