Suspect in Fatal Stabbing of Quebec Police Officer Was on Parole

Deemed threat to public safety five times by mental health review board

A Sûreté du Québec police car is seen in Montreal, Que., on July 22, 2020. Paul Chiasson/The Canadian Press

The man who allegedly fatally stabbed a Quebec police officer was on probation and had a history of mental health issues. Isaac Brouillard Lessard, age 35, had been previously accused of crimes on at least five instances and was later found not criminally responsible, due to reasons of mental illness.

Brouillard Lessard fatally stabbed Maureen Breau, a sergeant with Sûreté du Québec and mother of two. The man also wounded her partner on March 17, while the officers were arresting him at his home in Louiseville, Quebec, on accusations of uttering threats. He was killed by police officers who arrived as backup on the scene.

He was scheduled to appear in May before Quebec’s mental health board, Commission d’examen des troubles mentaux du Québec, according to the lawyer who represented him at the last hearing in 2022.

Yanick Péloquin was the alleged killer’s legal counsel when the review board ruled, in March 2022, that Brouillard Lessard posed a “significant risk to public safety.” The board made the same determination each of the five times the man was reviewed by the board, but decided that the risk could be controlled if the man was under appropriate monitoring.

Brouillard Lessard’s history with the mental health board began in 2014, which is when he was found not criminally responsible following accusations he harassed and threatened relatives.

Not Criminally Responsible

Brouillard Lessard was found not criminally responsible by the mental health review board a total of five times, for charges including assault, assault with a weapon, and uttering threats against a doctor and other health workers. Despite being institutionalized in hospital from 2018 to 2019 and then detained at a residential centre, the mental health board allowed him to be released in November 2020 if he remained under proper supervision.

The review board said at the time, “The accused continues to represent, due to his mental state, a significant risk to public safety.”

The board decided again in 2022 to allow him to be free, despite the fact that he had schizoaffective disorder, a condition that presents symptoms like hallucinations or delusions. The review noted the man was in remission from amphetamine use disorder and partial remission from cannabis use disorder.

At the 2022 hearing, the mental health board stated, “Over the long term, the accused has a long history of psychotic illness which resulted in delusions that remained present for long periods and a history of violent acts in psychosis involving even members of the treatment team and the defendant’s psychiatrist.”

The board noted that the man would “not admit to having any mental illness” and displayed a “blatant lack of self-criticism.”

Even with the statement that he was not likely to obtain treatment without supervision, he was still released from care.

At the time the Quebec police officer was killed, Brouillard Lessard was under probation after entering a guilty plea to a 2021 assault. He was sentenced to 200 years of community service and two years of probation, and given a conditional discharge for the crime in April 2022.

Police have said the sergeant was stabbed while Brouillard Lessard was being read his rights. The officer killed was scheduled for a promotion in four days, and her husband was also a serving police officer with Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force, which has jurisdiction over all of Quebec.

Repeat Offenders

A spate of recent violent attacks have been at the hands of suspects who are either out on bail or on parole.

Rookie Ontario Provincial Police Constable Grzegorz Pierzchala was shot and killed on Dec. 27, 2022, while responding to a routine call about a vehicle in a ditch near Hagersville, Ontario.

Randall McKenzie, the suspect charged with first-degree murder in the death of the constable, is a repeat, violent offender convicted of violent weapons-related offenses, according to police.

McKenzie was on bail while awaiting trial for additional violent weapons-related charges, including assaulting three victims, one of which was a peace officer. He had a warrant out for his arrest at the time of Pierzchala’s murder and was being pursued by two different police jurisdictions.

In September 2022 in Saskatchewan, two men stabbed and killed 11 people, injuring 18 more, in the James Smith Cree Nation and the town of Weldon, Saskatchewan.

One of the two suspects, Myles Sanderson, who later died possibly due to self-inflicted stab wounds, was on parole after being jailed almost five years for assault, robbery, mischief, and uttering threats. Police had been looking for him since May 2022, when he violated parole by not showing up to a meeting with his parole officer.

On March 29, the federal Conservatives introduced a bill to reform the Canadian Criminal Code and create new offences for criminals who violate parole conditions.

Conservative Party Leader Pierre Poilievre referenced a number of violent crimes that have recently been reported across the country, many of which he said were perpetrated by repeat offenders out on bail or parole.

Poilievre said the increase in violent crime is “the direct result of Justin Trudeau and the NDP allowing repeat violent offenders onto the street again.”

“It’s time to bring some common sense back to our justice system,” he said, adding, “We’ve already proposed an end to the catch-and-release bail system, and today we propose an end to the catch-and-release parole system.”

The Canadian Press and Peter Wilson contributed to this report.