To say last year’s mass shootings in Nova Scotia left a bad taste in Kevin Le Blanc’s mouth would be a massive understatement.
The 65-year-old central Halifax resident, like most in this province, was horrified to hear a Dartmouth denturist had murdered 22 people last April. On top of that, the killer made Le Blanc’s dentures.
“Just the feeling that he had his hands in my mouth and did what he did … it really plays on my mind,” Le Blanc said Wednesday.
“Since that happened there hasn’t been a day I haven’t thought about just smashing the hell out of them and just gumming everything I eat to death until I can afford another pair.”
He’s not alone.
“Any time I have to take out my dentures, for whatever reason, he comes into my brain. It’s a constant reminder,” a 36-year-old Halifax woman said of the mass killer, who also made her dentures.
“Even just the fact that I was pretty friendly with him just makes me sick to my stomach.”
While she has insurance that will help defray the cost of replacement, Le Blanc is on a fixed income and can’t afford new dentures.
He gets by on his old age pension and runs a rooming house on Cherry Street.
Le Blanc used to work in construction and demolition, but for the last decade he’s been off work for health reasons.
“I have an aneurysm, PTSD and high blood pressure — you name it, I got it,” he said.
Helping with the cost
Joachim Stroink lives near Le Blanc. When the former Halifax Chebucto MLA heard about how his neighbour wants to be rid of the tainted dentures, Stroink set up an online fundraiser to help with the cost.
“The impact that it had on everybody in Nova Scotia is all very different,” Stroink said of the mass murders.
He heard from an Upper Tantallon dentist Wednesday afternoon who is offering to do the work to replace Le Blanc’s dentures for free.
“I can do my small part to help this gentleman out,” said Dr. Ian MacAskill.
“There’s a lot of psychology around that. That’s got to be a pretty tough situation for him.”
MacAskill suggested the money raised in Le Blanc’s name could go toward helping someone else in a similar situation. “Dentistry is not an inexpensive thing by any means.”
'Became good friends'
Le Blanc’s teeth rotted while he was living on social assistance. Because the province covered the cost of dentures for people on welfare, and a friend recommended the man who would later become Nova Scotia’s mass killer, Le Blanc went to see the denturist at his Novalea Drive office in Halifax.
“We became good friends after that. I thought he was a pretty decent guy,” Le Blanc said.
“I had a second set made with him and then a couple of years down the road he goes and done what he did last year.”
SaltWire is not naming the killer who, dressed in a Mountie uniform and driving a fake police car, eluded police for 13 hours until an RCMP dog handler shot him dead April 19, 2020 in Enfield.
“I never had any trouble with him,” Le Blanc said. “When I worked with Maritime Demolition, he was one of my best customers buying used products for his place up in Portapique.”
He bought used cupboards for his home, cottage and offices, Le Blanc said. “I’ve known him probably 14 years.”
He never seemed like a violent person, Le Blanc said. “Every time he had customers in the office or on the phone, he was polite. The only time I seen a little anger with him was when I charged him too much for something that he bought.”
That flare of anger came when Le Blanc asked for too much for a set of cupboards that were almost new. “Just the glare I got from him was enough to frighten you … He got it for his price. I wasn’t going to argue.”
But after that, the denturist became pleasant again, Le Blanc said.
'Everybody seemed to love him'
“I used to pop in and have a coffee with him up on Novalea Drive and he had customers — everybody seemed to love him.”
Maureen Hope, registrar of the Denturists Licensing Board of Nova Scotia, said Wednesday she hasn’t heard from people who want to replace false teeth made by the mass killer.
“I’m sure there are a lot that feel terrible, but the only calls that I did get from some of (his) patients were people that had them in various stages of being completed,” Hope said.
The killer would have had somewhere between 500 and 800 patients, she said.
Hope said she’s still shocked that he turned out to be a mass murderer.
“I would never in your wildest dreams suspected — never,” she said.
