RCMP memorial honours over 230 members killed in the line of duty

REGINA – Hundreds of family members and friends of the 234 RCMP members killed in the line of duty attended the annual National Memorial Service on Sunday.

“It’s a very somber atmosphere and brings into play all those who have lost their lives since the creation of the Northwest-Mounted Police in 1873,” said Sgt. Pharanae Jaques at the morning event, which took place at RCMP Depot Division.

The only names added to the cenotaph were Constables Fabrice Gevaudan, Douglas Larche, and Dave Ross. The three were killed in June in the Moncton shooting.

“For any one of our comrades to have lost their lives, those families are our families. We’re one in the same,” said Jaques.

The bond stretches beyond police forces and borders.

“Our hearts are broken, our hearts are never mended from those types of losses,” said Dan Harris Jr., a chief patrol agent for the U.S. Border Patrol in Blaine, Wash.

He travelled with six other members of the organization to attend the memorial.

Stretched diagonally over his gold-coloured badge was a black band – “an emblem for the U.S. that we’re in a state of mourning.”

Haris Jr., whose great-grandfather was shot and killed on the job as a Texas Ranger, said there is a sense of kinship among people employed in similar positions.

“In any type of uniform, no matter whether it’s red, green, blue,” he said. “When you lose a member of the RCMP, it’s the same as losing a member of the U.S. Border Patrol.”

RCMP members travelled from across Canada and some paid for their own travel expenses to attend the memorial.

Some family members have attended every year over a decade, such as Chris Ng, who represented the families of the fallen.

“Personally, sometimes it’s very difficult to say, ‘Okay, it’s getting easier or getting over with.’ It can never be over. It’s just a feeling but, still when we share all our grief together, it’s a very nice feeling,” said Ng, whose son, Cst. Jimmy Ng, died in the line of duty in 2002.