Mr. Speaker, today, we mourn the senseless death of Odette Pinard, an officer in the Montreal Urban Community police department.
A mother of three young children, Mrs. Pinard had worked as a police officer for nearly 10 years. She could have looked forward to a successful career in the Montreal Urban Community police department.
I would like to offer our sincere condolences to her family, her friends and all her colleagues in Montreal. Her death reminds us of both the fragility of life and the difficult work done every day by police officers, particularly those in our major centres.
When we ask the police to help us and protect our communities, our homes and our lives, we are in fact asking policemen and women to do a job, sometimes at the cost of their lives. Odette Pinard's death reminds us of their courage and dedication, for which we are all grateful.