Inquest into slain Quebec officer examines lack of oversight of mental health cases

The last psychiatrist to talk to a mentally ill Quebec man before he fatally stabbed a provincial police sergeant last March had a distressing phone call with him days before the killing, a coroner's inquest heard Wednesday.

Dr. Hélène Poirier was appointed in February 2022 to take over the case of Isaac Brouillard Lessard. Testifying on the third day of the inquest, Poirier said that on March 22, 2023, during a telephone conversation, Brouillard Lessard became angry, insulted and yelled at her. where did he put the phone.

“I was more upset than worried because it was news I hadn't heard before … for me it was the Isaac I knew,” she told the inquiry.

The call came five days ago from provincial police Sgt. Maureen Breault and her colleagues were killed in Louisville, Que., about 100 kilometers northeast of Montreal, while trying to arrest Brouillard Lessard.

Brouillard Lessard, 35, stabbed Bro with a kitchen knife and seriously injured his colleague before being shot dead by police.

Poirier was one of several psychiatrists to testify this week about Brouillard Lessard's treatment a decade ago. He noted that the day after the conversation, a calm Brouillard Lessard called and they were able to set up an appointment for April.

On Monday, police Brouillard, a member of Quebec's independent police watchdog, said they visited Lessard three days before Brou's murder, when his parents expressed concern about his deteriorating mental state. They did not arrest him.

Poirier Brouillard described Lessard as stable with no signs of psychosis during the year he was a patient. Although it was difficult to deal with him, Brouillard noted that Lessard agreed to several increases in the dose of antipsychotic medication and skipped several jobs.

He said that between April and October 2022, Brouillard Lessard was working, so it was difficult to reach him. Coroner Gehan Kamel Brouillard raised questions about the months-long gap, given that Lessard had been under the supervision of the province's mental health board since 2014 after he was found not criminally responsible for five offences.

“It would be good to have meetings,” Poirier admitted.

Brouillard Lessard's erratic behavior led a group of workers who had been stalking him for a year to close his file in December 2022. The team decided to stop him because Brouillard Lessard was uncooperative, difficult to deal with and frequent. refused the services offered to him.

Although he refused caseworker services, Brouillard Lessard remained stable in 2022 with no documented psychotic relapses or criminal events, according to Marie-Maud Beaulieu, a caseworker for the group. “When we close the file, don't worry about Isaac, we didn't have him,” Beaulieu said.

Kamel expressed concern that Brouillard has no safety net for Lessard, other than his parents, who monitor his mental health from afar and call authorities with their concerns.

“We can't keep up with everyone who has a criminal record,” Beaulieu said, adding, “It's utopian to think that caseworkers can always make a difference. This is a big burden on the backs of those workers.