CTV NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Former spouse of Canada’s worst mass shooter reveals what fuelled his paranoia

Lisa Banfield’s life with a spouse who would become Canada’s deadliest mass killer.

Content Warning: This story contains graphic imagery and descriptions. Reader discretion is advised

It started with a smile.

That’s how Lisa Banfield says she responded when a man waved at her from across a bar. As she was getting ready to leave, he approached her, and that was the moment she met Gabriel Wortman, who would carry out Canada’s deadliest mass shooting.

“He was tall, handsome … turtleneck, black leather jacket, black dress pants,” she said. “He had a nice, kind looking smile … I gave him my phone number.”

Banfield was Wortman’s common-law spouse for 19 years, in a relationship that began with hope and ended in horror. In April 2020, as she hid in the woods, he carried out a 13-hour rampage in Nova Scotia, at times driving a fake police cruiser.

• A look at the Nova Scotians killed in Canada’s worst mass shooting

According to the Mass Casualty Commission, Wortman killed 22 people, including a pregnant health-care worker, a police officer with two young children and a 17-year-old girl.

Now more than five years later, Banfield is sharing her story the first time in an exclusive interview with CTV National News’ Chief News Anchor and Senior Editor Omar Sachedina. Banfield also describes her experience in her memoir The First Survivor, which will be released on Jan. 20.

‘Is he going to freak out?’

Banfield says in the early days of their relationship, there were no warning signs.

After meeting at the bar, he called her that night and they spoke until 3 a.m. Wortman, who ran a denture clinic, asked her out the next day. She says he kept his temper in check on their first date, even when his BMW was hit by another car.

“We were at an intersection and this girl from behind in the van rear-ended us,” Banfield said. “And in my head, I’m thinking, ‘OK, this is a good test. Is he going to freak out?’”

Banfield recounts that Wortman went up to the van and told them “It’s OK,” which impressed her.

“(He) was just so gentle and kind with them, it was impressive to me,” she said.

Six months later, they moved in together, but in the months that followed, Banfield says Wortman started to become more controlling and tried to cut her off from her family. The first time she was physically assaulted came after a street party where he was drinking, even though he was supposed to drive them home.

Banfield says she told him: “If you want to stay, you stay, but I’m leaving.” She then got into their jeep when he struck her.

“All of a sudden, I get this whack in the face, and I’m stunned, because I’ve never been hit before,” she said. “And then he hit me again, and I jumped out and I started running across the road into the woods, and he grabbed me by my hair.”

She says she tried to protect herself as he was hitting her in the face.

“He got me out to the road and he was hitting me and hitting me, and at this point I just started screaming.”

Police were called, but no one – including Banfield – pressed charges. She says she didn’t want him to get in trouble, nor did she want how people perceived him to change.

“I know what he did was wrong and there’s no excuse for it. But I didn’t want other people looking at him like that, like a monster,” she said.

‘I know where your family lives’

The latest numbers from Statistics Canada show that in 2024, more than a quarter (28 per cent) of victims of violent crime were victimized by an intimate partner. Of those, nearly half (47 per cent) were living with the accused at the time of the violent incident.

Banfield says after that first assault, Wortman was so heartfelt in his apology that she thought it might be an isolated incident, but the violence continued, and he threatened her loved ones multiple times, saying things like “I know where your family lives, Lisa.”

Banfield’s sisters, Maureen and Janice, felt helpless as Wortman tried to cut them off. Maureen says they even believed Wortman would kill Lisa.

“But it didn’t change anything,” said Maureen. “But it didn’t change anything because she was going to stay with him.”

For years, Banfield lived as a victim of intimate partner violence, but at a moment when much of the world was thrown into upheaval, it turned her personal torment into full-fledged terror.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced Wortman to shut down his denture clinic in Dartmouth, N.S., and the couple moved into their remote cottage in Portapique.

“That just totally changed who he was,” Banfield said of Wortman, adding that he thought the world was going to end up like an apocalyptic movie, where the masses break into stores and people’s houses, looting whatever they can to survive.

Banfield says Wortman had shown signs of paranoia throughout their relationship, but it was amplified by the pandemic. He even took hundreds of thousands of dollars out of his bank account, with security footage from the Brinks compound in Halifax showing him leaving with a bag stuffed with $100 bills.

While the pandemic may have changed Wortman, Banfield says life with him was never normal and that she had to adapt to his “extreme” behaviour over the years to survive.

“I thought if I can just love him enough and show him what love is, then maybe that would help him and he would, you know, become normal,” she said. “A fool to think that I could, but I wanted to be that person for him.”

Part 2 of this interview will be shared Thursday, where Lisa Banfield details how she escaped before Wortman went on his killing spree.

“Victim 1: The Survivor” will air Sunday night on CTV following the NFL Divisional Round matchup between the Los Angeles Rams and Chicago Bears, as well as on Crave.

If you or someone you know is struggling with intimate partner violence, sexual assault or trauma, the following resources are available to support people in crisis:

• Call 911 if you are in immediate danger or fear for your safety.
• The Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centres' website has a comprehensive list of sexual assault centres in Canada that offer information, advocacy and counselling.
• The Ending Violence Association of Canada‘s website has links to helplines, support services and locations across Canada that offer sexual assault kits.
• Indian Residential School Survivors Society crisis lines: [phone] or [phone] (24/7)
• Toronto Rape Crisis Centre crisis line: [phone] (24/7)
• Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: [phone] (24/7)
• Trans Lifeline: [phone]
• Suicide Crisis Helpline: call or text 988 (24/7)
• Sexual Misconduct Support and Resource Centre for current and former Canadian Armed Forces members: [phone]