Coroner’s inquest into suicide of RCMP officer Pierre Lemaitre starts Monday

BURNABY (NEWS 1130) – A long-awaited inquest into the suicide of a prominent Burnaby RCMP officer starts Monday.

Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre, a member of the traffic services division was 55 when he killed himself at his Abbotsford home in July 2013.

A lawsuit filed by the veteran’s widow in 2015 suggests he was driven to kill himself, partly because of mental abuse he suffered when, as a media liaison for the RCMP, he tried to tell the public the truth about what happened to Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.

RELATED: Wife of dead officer says RCMP made her husband ‘scapegoat’ in Dziekanski death

Dziekanski died in 2007 after being tasered by police at the Vancouver Airport. Lemaitre initially told reporters he had to be subdued after police spent several minutes trying to calm him down. However, video evidence later contradicted those claims, showing he was stunned within seconds of their arrival.

Now the inquest will try to determine what could have been done to prevent his suicide. It is slated to last five days.

RELATED: Coroner’s inquest called into death of B.C. RCMP officer in Taser case

In July, Coroners Service spokesman Andy Watson said the issues of post-traumatic stress disorder and mental health in the workplace have become a topic of public discussion.

“I think in this case after reviewing the information from the coroner’s investigation, the chief coroner directed this inquest so there is an opportunity to review the circumstances of Mr. Lemaitre’s death and to explore whether there are opportunities for a fact finding jury to make recommendations that might prevent deaths in similar circumstances,” he said.

– With files from the Canadian Press

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