Inquest recommends Mounties make mental health assessments mandatory

The RCMP should make mental health assessments mandatory once every three years, develop measures to evaluate whether their mental health strategy is actually effective, and offer classes to families about what to expect when their loved one becomes a Mountie.

So says the B.C. coroner’s inquest jury tasked with evaluating the circumstances that led to the suicide of Sgt. Pierre Lemaitre, the Mounties’ spokesperson in the tense days after the high-profile death of Robert Dziekanski at the Vancouver airport in 2007.

WATCH: Coroner’s inquest into Mountie suicide underway this week

1:18 Coroner’s inquest into Mountie suicide begins Monday

The three-day inquest featured testimony from former Mounties who worked with Lemaitre, his past supervisors, as well as the doctors and medical professionals who tried to help him. Lemaitre’s widow, Sheila, also testified about the events that led up to her husband’s July 29, 2013, suicide.

She talked about how much her husband 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.”

WATCH: Day two of Coroner’s inquest into the suicide of a B.C. RCMP officer

1:56 Testimony centres on how the RCMP deals with PTSD

Sheila also spoke about how he experienced many on-the-job traumas but it was the Dziekanski Tasering that made it hard to go on. Since that day, the fallout has continued, largely in the form of battles behind courthouse doors. All four Mounties at the scene of Dziekanski’s death were charged with perjury: two were acquitted and two were convicted.

And then, there was Lemaitre.

For three days after Dziekanski’s death, as the story spread and reporters clamored for comment, it was Lemaitre — repeating the information investigators relayed to him — whose face the public saw. Though “anxious to set the public record straight,” once he learned the truth, read his wife’s statement of claim, he was forbidden by his superiors to do so.

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2:31 RCMP faces $1.1B lawsuit over claims of toxic workplace

Two years later, in 2009, the Mounties did publicly apologize for those inaccuracies — but by then, Lemaitre was a traffic cop. As his wife Sheila — herself a former Mountie — would later contend in court documents, Lemaitre had been demoted, transferred and isolated by his peers. She said it wasn’t the first time he’d been similarly punished.

Sometime after his demotion, but before he was medically discharged in February 2013, Lemaitre was granted a pension through Veterans Affairs for PTSD. Then, he killed himself. Six years of being the Mounties’ scapegoat in the high-profile death had undone not only his lengthy career, his wife contended, but also his mental health.

After her husband’s death, Sheila sued the force alleging they’d made him a scapegoat in the high-profile Tasering. Earlier this year, the RCMP settled Sheila’s lawsuit, though her lawyer said the terms are bound by a strict nondisclosure agreement.

The inquest is the scheduled culmination of the legal proceedings surrounding Lemaitre’s death.

In a letter Lemaitre wrote in his Veterans Affairs pension application, he described his struggles.

“My reputation had been ruined and besmirched,” he wrote.

“I am extremely defensive with my co-workers and my wife. I don’t see friends anymore. I have given up my hobbies showing dogs, participating in motorcycle outings with a motorcycle club. I hate to go in public. I hate shopping. I fear that people recognize me and point me out.”