And the winner is... Fireamx!

The Ebrake shoe was literally stuck to the drum, and stuck like glue. It took some considerable effort to pull the drum/disc assemble off. The culprit apparently was having driven trough a torrential rain and then parking the car in the garage for a week or so. The resulting corrosion was enough to seize the shoe and the drum together like epoxy. This was a first for me having driven plenty of cars through plenty of rainstorms. Weird.

Thanks to all for your help. I will be off to buy a service manual now that I can get out of the garage.