Honourable senators, many of you will be visited this week by representatives of Canada’s police associations who are in Ottawa as part of their annual visit to parliamentarians, to remind us of certain issues on which we have the power to intervene.

I had a meeting in my office this morning with the president and board of directors of the Association des policières et policiers provinciaux du Québec, who are here with us this afternoon.

We discussed the safety issues facing our police forces, especially the issue of mental health, which I see as the scourge of our time, something that must be addressed in order to protect not only our peace officers, but all of our communities, which are increasingly being threatened by people displaying unpredictable, dangerous and sometimes deadly behaviour.

As I’m sure you can appreciate, I’m particularly sensitive to these issues and the demands of the association, having chaired it myself for several years.

I’ve been looking forward to today because I want to pay tribute in this chamber to Sergeant Maureen Breau of the Sûreté du Québec, who was murdered on March 27, 2023, in the municipality of Louiseville, Quebec.

This 20-year veteran of the force and mother of two was murdered in cold blood during a simple police operation to apprehend an individual who should never have been released because he was known to be dangerous.

The murder of Maureen Breau triggered a number of investigations: a police investigation; another by the Quebec bureau of independent inquiries, because the murderer was killed by police when they responded to the call; an investigation by the Commission des normes, de l’équité, de la santé et de la sécurité au travail because a person died on the job; and a coroner’s inquest.

That is a lot of investigations because there are glaring and dangerous flaws in our system that public, prison and medical officials are well aware of. However, unfortunately, over the years, those officials have chosen to release individuals whose mental health status poses a high risk for those around them.

Coroner Géhane Kamel heard from 67 witnesses with regard to the death of police officer Maureen Breau and she will publish her report next fall. Those witnesses include a number of police officers, but also the parents of the murderer, who unsuccessfully called for the incarceration of their dangerous son.

Her preliminary observations during the investigation suggest that she will make robust recommendations to improve our police officers’ working conditions and to make the health care system more accountable when patients represent obvious risks to society. Let’s just hope this long-awaited coroner’s report doesn’t end up gathering dust like so many others because our politicians are more interested in decarceration, deinstitutionalization and dehospitalization. Public safety must come first. Any delay in taking concrete action is unacceptable to me. In short, I’ve had it with hearing that people knew what was going on but couldn’t do anything about it.

In closing, my thoughts are once again with Sergeant Maureen Breau’s two children and her partner, who is also a Sûreté du Québec officer. Let’s hope that Sergeant Breau’s tragic death can lead to positive change.