Family of murdered Quebec police sergeant pleased with coroner’s investigation

The family of a murdered Quebec provincial police sergeant says it welcomes the recommendations of a coroner’s report into her death.

Maureen Breau’s relatives watched today’s news conference with coroner Géhane Kamel remotely, with a family spokesman saying they’re ready to turn the page.

Dominic Roberge, a provincial police officer and longtime friend of Breau and her husband, says the family’s major concern is that Kamel’s 38 recommendations will be shelved rather than dutifully considered by authorities.

Isaac Brouillard Lessard, a 35-year-old mentally ill man who was not taking his medication, stabbed Breau to death with a kitchen knife on March 27, 2023, before he was shot dead by police in his apartment building northeast of Montreal. 

Kamel, who released her report into the deaths on Monday, said they could have been avoided had health-care workers communicated more closely with police and other colleagues in the health network.

At a press conference Tuesday morning at the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) headquarters, Kamel said “there were a lot of red flags present that weren’t considered.”

Brouillard Lessard had been found not criminally responsible because of mental illness five times for offences in 2014 and 2018 and had been followed by the mental health board.

The coroner’s inquest heard of numerous failings in the assessment and supervision of Brouillard Lessard.

“We had multiple missed occasions to be able to give treatment to this young man,” Kamel said Tuesday.

One of the recommendations was for the SQ to train its police officers as soon as possible in police intervention skills and in responding to a calls where an individual has a disturbed mental state. 

“What we hope is for police to ask the question before carrying out an intervention with someone with a criminal past and mental health issues, on the way in which they’re going to proceed and the risks they’re exposed to,” she said.

#WATCH: Avoidable is the conclusion of Quebec coroner Géhane Kamel’s report, which includes 38 recommendations for various health, public security and law enforcement groups in connection with the death of SQ Sgt. Maureen Breau.

READ: https://t.co/iBWf8roy1N pic.twitter.com/fPmgdysVxK

— CityNews Montreal (@CityNewsMTL) September 10, 2024

The SQ says they’ve already implemented changes to respond to the recommendations, adding that training for mental health response is now offered to new police officers.

They say 63 per cent of the members of the Great Territorial Surveillance Function (GFST) have been trained.

“I’m a police officer for more than 25 years and every day, the zero-risk doesn’t exist for us,” said Chief Inspector Patrice Cardinal, Director of Communications and International Relations at the SQ. “The SQ gives to police officers the best training, the best equipment, the best situations to make it happen the [safest] possible.”

Roberge told reporters after Kamel’s news conference at provincial police headquarters in Montreal that the Breau family is pleased with the work of the coroner and felt she listened to their concerns throughout the inquest.

This all comes as consultations on the “Maureen Breau” bill begin on Tuesday at the National Assembly.

Bill 66 seeks to tighten the follow-up of people like Brouillard Lessard. It allows for the deployment of 20 new “liaison officers” to provide better follow-up for people found not criminally responsible on account of a mental disorder.

“With the creation of liaison officers, they themselves will take care of the follow-up of the conditions of these people, I think we will respond positively,” said Quebec Public Security Minister François Bonnardel at the National Assembly.

Kamel says she hopes all 38 of her recommendations will be implemented quickly.

“Our duty to remember must be accompanied by serious reflection,” she said. “Two people lost their lives and each, in their own way, leaving an unfinished story for their loved ones.”

-With files from The Canadian Press