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Retired Canadian Police Officer Shot and Killed By Gunmen in Haiti

Posted on: Tuesday, 20 December 2005, 21:00 CST

OTTAWA (CP) - A retired Mountie assigned to help with election security in Haiti was shot and killed Tuesday by gunmen in Port-au-Prince. Mark Bourque of Stoneham, Que., was one of 25 retired Canadian police officers who went to Haiti as part of a special elections team in October.

Bourque, 57, had been driving with a colleague on a road near the highly volatile slum of Cite Soleil when their car came under heavy fire, the UN said in a statement.

He was seriously wounded in the leg, and later died from his injuries.

In a statement, the Canadian embassy said it "demands that the Haitian government does everything to shed light on the circumstances of the attack and to bring the authors of this crime to justice."

Prime Minister Paul Martin offered his condolences to Bourque's family.

"He died while serving his country and he will be greatly missed by all those whose lives he touched and helped make better," Martin said in a written statement.

The prime minister condemned the killing as a senseless act of violence, saying Bourque was in Haiti to promote democracy.

"His work there exemplified to the world the finest of Canada's values."

In addition to the special contingent of retired officers, 100 regular and about 25 retired Canadian police officers are working with the UN in the troubled island.

The UN police force there, made up of about 1,600 officers from 33 countries, is commanded by Chief Supt. R. Graham Muir of the RCMP.

The UN has pledged to reclaim the Cite Soleil slum, in which Bourque sustained his fatal wound, before the Jan. 8 national elections. The slum is beset by daily gunbattles between peacekeepers and armed gangs.

Five UN peacekeepers have died in action since June 2004.

Source: Canadian Press

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