At the coroner’s inquest into the death of Sgt. Maureen Breau, lawyer Yanick Péloquin testified that Isaac Brouillard Lessard gave no indication of violence in their final text exchange just prior to the stabbing attack that resulted in the officer’s death. Brouillard Lessard was shot and killed by police after the attack. Péloquin, Brouillard Lessard’s lawyer in 2022, stated that he did not see any indication of intense or violent behavior in their conversation.
The inquest also revealed that police had visited Brouillard Lessard three days prior to the attack and had received reports of his troubling behavior from his parents. His mother had reported receiving numerous threatening messages from her son. Despite this, Péloquin testified that he never saw any signs of delirium, anger, or threatening behavior in his client.
During his interactions with Brouillard Lessard, Péloquin noted that Brouillard Lessard expressed fears of police officers coming to his home to force him into care. However, Péloquin clarified that his client didn’t harbor any anger toward police but feared them because he viewed them as acting on behalf of psychiatrists.
Mr. Péloquin testified that he felt guilty after the killing, as he couldn’t have known about the impending violence. He also mentioned that he likely was Brouillard Lessard’s only friend during the final year of his life and that Brouillard Lessard felt isolated in Louiseville. Brouillard Lessard had been found not criminally responsible for offences multiple times and had been followed by the mental-health review board since 2014.
Jean-Marc Poirier, speaking on behalf of Quebec’s prosecutors office, reported that new directives have been implemented to increase awareness of the decisions made by the mental-health board. He also stated that when conditions imposed by the review board are not respected by a patient, it’s the supervising hospital’s responsibility to call the police, yet this rarely happens.