Hard lessons from Lemaitre tragedy

Pierre Lemaitre’s job was never easy. As the officer in charge of speaking to the news media on behalf of the RCMP in B.C., he had to answer tough questions about a number of cases that didn’t reflect well on the force or on his fellow members. When Clay Willey died in police custody in Prince George in 2003, 16 hours after being shot with a Taser and forcibly restrained, Lemaitre answered the questions.

When Ian Bush was shot and killed by a gunshot to the back of the head in the Houston RCMP detachment in 2005, Lemaitre answered the questions.

When the missing and murdered women on the Highway of Tears added up over the years to a number police could no longer ignore, Lemaitre answered the questions.

And when Robert Dziekanski died at the Vancouver airport on Oct. 14, 2007, after a Taser takedown by officers that was captured on video by horrified onlookers, Lemaitre answered the questions.

He told reporters Dziekanski had been combative. He told reporters the Polish immigrant was Tasered twice.

Both statements were wrong, as the video revealed when it became public a month later.

While clearly frustrated, Dziekanski was not violent towards the police officers before they Tasered him five times.

After being accused of misleading the public, Lematire wanted to set the record straight but he was ordered not to, his widow Sheila, a former RCMP officer, testified Monday at the coronor’s inquest into his suicide on July 29, 2013.

“It appeared our outfit didn’t give him all the right information,” retired Prince George RCMP officer and former media liason Gary Godwin told The Citizen in reaction to the news of Lemaitre’s death.

“He was a straightforward guy. He never would have told an untruth, and that was unfortunate.”

Godwin would know, having served with both Sheila and Pierre Lemaitre in the Prince George detachment during the 1990s.

What Godwin likely didn’t know was that Lemaitre was already fighting anxiety and depression. Lemaitre was first prescribed medication to deal with his conditions in 1993, nine years after first joining the force, his widow told the inquest Monday.

He kept his internal demons at bay for more than a decade after first taking antidepressants, continuing to rise through the ranks after postings that included Kamloops, Langley, Cranbrook and Bella Coola.

The Braidwood inquiry into Dziekanski’s death largely exonerated Lemaitre, laying the blame on higher-ranking officers for not allowing him to correct his initial comments after the video became public.

Yet, in the immediate aftermath of the Dziekanski tragedy, Lemaitre was transferred to traffic, which his widow recalled him saying was like “being put out with the trash.”

His descent started there, Sheila Lemaitre recalled to the inquest, continuing through several stress leaves, changes in behaviour that included racking up credit cards, rage and abuse.

“It’s a whole other issue when... you don’t have that internal support, when the people you work with are the source of that pressure and pain,” she said. “That’s when Pierre could no longer pick himself up.”

That’s the tragedy of Lemaitre in a nutshell but the same phrase could also be used to describe so many other first responders and military veterans in Canada who have taken their own lives as the result of mental illness triggered by trauma suffered while on the job.

When things are going well, the sense of belonging, of being part of a team, of making a difference in the community, fills everyone who serves in uniform and puts themselves in harm’s way with purpose and pride. When they are physically wounded on duty, they are honoured for their heroism. When they are mentally wounded on duty, they are cast aside for their weakness.

At the moment when they need the support of their brothers and sisters in arms the most, it is snatched away.

This is the culture, not just of our armed and police forces and our first responders, but throughout our society, running through our families and our workplaces.

Evolutionary psychologists have determined that this cruel and cold-hearted recoil response to suffering in our immediate vicinity has been a constant across cultures and times, a basic human fear of contracting whatever unseen illness plaguing those in our midst.

That’s no excuse, however. That merely explains why we have to work so hard to consciously override our default primitive response and care more for those in need, particularly those in organizations that must project confidence and strength as part of their mission. Health professionals and first responders are able to override this response as part of their daily duties to aid others but are often found lacking when it comes to helping their colleagues cope with the mental toll of their essential work.

Lemaitre did his duty and served with honour. Sadly, the RCMP did not treat him with the respect he had earned.

If nothing changes, both within the RCMP and within the culture at large, his death will be in vain.