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Blatchford: Fallen Mounties were epitome of law enforcement.
MONCTON, N.B. — Marlene Snowman should be excited and eagerly looking forward — the superintendent of the Codiac RCMP detachment here recently was promoted and given a big new job.
She is soon slated to take over as chief superintendent in charge of all of the force’s criminal operations in Nova Scotia.
Instead, the 27-year veteran is stricken at the prospect of leaving her wounded staff, her head full of memories of the three slain officers whose regimental funeral will be held in Moncton Tuesday.
“I can still see him,” she said of Const. Dave Ross, the 32-year-old dog handler who for a time was in “my office almost every day to make sure” his training as a handler was going ahead as planned.
“When the decision was made that not only would he go, but he would also come back to Codiac, he was just ecstatic.” Ross became “a dog man,” as handlers are called, only last year.
Dog men are always on call, so the dog, Danny, lived with Ross and his family, and whenever they were needed, “Dave and Danny jumped in the truck.”
Speaking in an exclusive interview with Postmedia Sunday in her third-floor office, the 49-year-old had equally poignant memories of constables Fabrice Gevaudan, who was originally from France, and Doug Larche.
“Fabrice was the same” — passionate — about his specialty as Ross was about his dog. Gevaudan, 45, was an RCMP diver, and wherever he was needed in the Atlantic region, Snowman said, “He was gone — no questions asked.”
And of Larche, who was 40, she sighed and said, “Doug was a gentleman; he truly was.” She recently met his father Dan, himself a former career Mountie who served in New Brunswick and is fondly remembered by retired officers.
All three of the fallen men “exemplified the best a police officer could be, and the best friend, colleague and family person (one) could be at the same time.”
The detachment is more intimate than the imposing building on Main Street downtown suggests from the outside.
It has 141 police officers, a civilian staff, but also the detachment’s specialized resources, such as identification, a dog section and the
“ALL THREE OF THE FALLEN MEN EXEMPLIFIED THE BEST A POLICE OFFICER COULD BE, AND THE BEST FRIEND, COLLEAGUE AND FAMILY PERSON (ONE) COULD BE AT THE SAME TIME.”
MARLENE SNOWMAN
like.
“It’s a beautiful detachment,” said Snowman, who is originally from the small town of Gaspé, Que., about 650 kilometres from Quebec City. “It’s in probably the best location in the province of New Brunswick, and it’s in a community where support has always been phenomenal.
“The workload is interesting, it’s an urban environment ... it’s a mini-division all on its own.
“It’s probably the best place to work in Atlantic Canada,” she said, eyes damp. “And the employees are top notch, I have nothing but praise for them — their abilities, their morale, their attitude.”
Serving here for the past three years has been “my fortune,” she said.
Snowman had as much praise for the citizens of Moncton, and cited, as but one illustration, how when the 24-year-old charged in the slayings, Justin Bourque, was still at large in the city’s north end as darkness fell, the police asked people to turn on their porch lights to help the Mounties see.
“I don’t think it was just in Moncton that the lights went on,” she said, but all over, in a gesture of support for the police. “And how do you say thank you for that?”
The detachment has been almost overwhelmed by its grateful citizenry.
Outside, almost 24-7, people line up out in front of the building, where a mound of flowers, candles and messages for the slain officers grows daily. The crowds are occasionally so great that traffic control officers have had to come out to divert traffic.
And those officers, in turn, are swarmed by wellwishers wanting to shake hands, hug them or at the least, thank them.
Inside, in the reception area, are more bouquets, plants and cards, and often a lineup of people to sign the memorial books on display.
Since she got the first call — she’d just arrived home and got out of her uniform — Snowman’s lone preoccupation has been the welfare of the slain officers’ families, those of the two wounded officers (both constables Eric Dubois and Marie Darlene Goguen, who is from a neighbouring detachment, are recovering at home) and, more broadly, with how her people are doing.
“It was a tragedy, a nightmare that I never would have thought I would experience,” she said. “I know that I would have never wanted anyone to have this type of experience and certainly, none of our members.”
Snowman said police officers can’t indulge in what-ifs. “You can’t be worried about what might happen,” she said. “It’s the same way you can’t be worried when you get in a car, that you may have a collision, or get on a plane and you may have a crash.”
She was adamant the conversation not be about her, but Nick LeBlanc, head of the Codiac Regional Policing Authority and a former police officer himself, said “I’ve never seen a police person who can think any better on their feet” than Snowman.
He fondly calls her “the little girl from the Gaspésie.”
“I’ve always wanted the members to be safe, whether at work, emotionally or physically ... I don’t think anyone could have foreseen it would have occurred. But it has.”
And with that, Snowman was off in her nice black suit — more meetings, more arrangements to make, more people to thank. She may have had a figurative foot out the door a week ago, but she’s pulled it back into Codiac for the duration.