Chelsey St. Pierre – The Suburban LJI Reporter

The family of 77-year old Jacques Blais, a retired police officer who served with the Quebec provincial police (SQ) is suing a psychiatrist as well as the West Island health authority collectively for $310,000, claiming that they failed to prevent his death.

The family also claims that a “cover up” took place following the officer’s death, which happened in the Lakeshore General Hospital’s ER in 2019.

According to coroner Marie-Pierre Charland’s report, a psychiatrist at the Lakeshore knew without a doubt that the officer suffered from suicidal tendencies because at one point during his stay, Blais attempted to hang himself in the ER. The family only discovered the circumstances surrounding his death nine months later when they accessed the coroner’s report.

The psychiatrist who met with Blais on April 20, 2019 following the initial attempt that occurred in the ER noted that Blais posed a danger to himself and potentially to others. Despite these findings, Blais was left unattended in the ER for more than half a day.

Blais was then returned to the same cubical where he had attempted to commit suicide just 14 hours earlier.There, he finally did kill himself.

Seeing as the case is an active lawsuit, Hélène Bergeron-Gamache, a spokesperson for the CIUSSS wrote in a statement issued last week, that it cannot comment, however, condolences to the family were expressed. n