The widow of the Mountie who served as the force’s media spokesperson in the tense days after the high-profile 2007 death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport says she thought he was getting better.
Sheila Lemaitre took to the stand during the first day of the B.C. coroner’s inquest into the suicide of her husband, Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre. She told the court that Lemaitre, who was depressed and had PTSD, switched medications a month or so before he died.
After that, she said, he seemed to be “up.” Chores that he once seemed reluctant to do — buying cases of spare water, picking up extra bags of dog food for their many furry friends — he did. Usually, he’d grumble at being asked, Sheila said, but before he died, he just asked her how many bags she wanted and went to get them.
WATCH: Inquest begins into suicide of former high-profile RCMP spokesman
“I took that all as a positive sign,” Sheila said, “I actually thought he was getting better.”
On the morning of July 29, 2013, she said Lemaitre was quiet. She turned the sound off the news when he came into the kitchen, but she thought he might have caught the ticker tape at the bottom before she changed the channel: a verdict in the perjury cases of the four Mounties who Tasered Dziekanski was expected that day.
Later that morning, Lemaitre hanged himself.
In retrospect, Sheila said, she realized all the things that seemed to indicate improvement really meant he had made a decision he was going to die and he was doing the heavy chores so she would be taken care of for awhile.
The inquest comes more than five years since that day and just months after the RCMP settled a lawsuit Sheila filed against the force, alleging they made her husband a scapegoat in the aftermath of Dziekanski’s death.
In her statement of claim, Sheila quotes her husband’s own concerns about his mental health: “I don’t want to die.” She underscored that sentiment during her testimony, talking about how Lemaitre was trying anything he could — including medications with many, many side effects — to get better.
The coroner’s inquest is scheduled to run until later in the week. It is meant to serve as a fact-finding initiative rather than a fault-finding one. Because the RCMP is a federal force, B.C. doesn’t have the jurisdiction to force changes upon the force, although they can make recommendations.
Issues arising from work stress and mental health are “real issues for both police officers and civilian employees,” said a spokesperson from the RCMP in a statement on Monday. “The RCMP has made health, safety and resiliency a high priority in its programs and services.”
The RCMP declined to speak specifically to Lemaitre’s case, noting it is “most appropriate to allow all relevant evidence to be brought forward in the proper forum.” A spokesperson for the B.C. Coroner’s Office said Monday the RCMP is not formally participating in the inquest, although some members who knew Lemaitre have received subpoenas and are expected to testify on Tuesday.
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Sheila, who teared up and struggled to get through some of her testimony about the morning Lemaitre died, said her husband of 20 years always wanted to be a Mountie.
“There are old photographs of him standing at careful attention as a little boy next to red serge Mounties. When he finally got to wear that uniform, he was so proud,” she said, crying.
“He worked towards it for so long.”
While there were many on-the-job traumas that made Lemaitre struggle, Sheila said it was the Dziekanski incident that changed him. He was proud of wearing the Mountie uniform before that day, she said — he wasn’t after.
Per numerous media reports from the days after the Tasering, it was Lemaitre who told them only three Mounties were on the scene, when in fact there were four; Lemaitre who said the reason police used Tasers, not pepper spray, was because there were many people nearby, when in reality there were not; Lemaitre who stated the Mounties had only Tasered Dziekanski twice, when in fact they had Tasered him five times.
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Sheila testified at length about the anxiety and turmoil Lemaitre suffered when his superiors refused to allow him to correct the record. Not only were there reports in the media labelling him as an “RCMP spin doctor,” Sheila said, but every time some facet of the Dziekanski aftermath made headlines — and it did frequently in following years — Lemaitre’s face would be splashed all over the news again.
“He changed,” she said.
“He wasn’t at all the same person. He wasn’t my husband.”
The inquest continues.