EvanL
12-22-2005, 03:03 PM
TU THANH HA AND MARINA JIMÉNEZ
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
He was supposed to fly home yesterday to visit his family for the holidays. Instead, a government jet brought the body of Mark Bourque, a veteran crime fighter who died on duty with the United Nations in Haiti, back to Canada last night.
Mr. Bourque, a retired RCMP officer, was not a household name, but he made crucial contributions to law enforcement during his career, and was a tenacious detective who took on a major Mafia cartel.
He was one of 25 retired officers Canada assigned to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti to provide security before an election in January, joining 100 Canadian police officers already in the troubled country as advisers and trainers.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew called yesterday for an investigation into Mr. Bourque's death. "We need to identify the perpetrators of that crime and, of course, they need to be taken to justice through the courts," he said.
Mr. Bourque was shot near the capital, Port-au-Prince, as he drove an unmarked UN vehicle from the coastal city of Les Cayes where he was stationed.
He was taking the car to be repaired when he stopped near a checkpoint operated by Jordanian peacekeepers on the edge of Cité Soleil, a notoriously violent slum. It is unclear whether Mr. Bourque was hit by a stray bullet or whether he was caught in a shootout.
UN officials have suggested he could have been the victim of a botched kidnapping.
Before he went to Haiti, Mr. Bourque was instrumental in uncovering the financial operations of the powerful ****rera-Caruana clan, Mafia money launderers.
And another case Mr. Bourque handled went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and was a factor in nudging Parliament into adopting legislation to fight money laundering, said retired Crown attorney Yves Berthiaume.
Mr. Bourque leaves a large legacy, Mr. Berthiaume said. "He was quite a character, a special man."
He had an idealistic side, said one former colleague, Sergeant Mike Roussy. He had the habit, when he arrested drug dealers, of trying to reason with them in an attempt to lure them back to an honest life.
Sgt. Roussy witnessed several occasions when the drug squad had arrested dealers and left them handcuffed to search their houses. Mr. Bourque would be in the kitchen, debating with the suspects.
"They looked kind of surprised, amazed," Sgt. Roussy recalled. "For most of us, it was business as usual. Mark, he was like a social worker."
Sgt. Roussy said Mr. Bourque also was skilled at the little-known, but essential, art of writing unimpeachable, persuasive affidavits. These documents are used to persuade judges to grant search warrants and wiretap authorizations, key tools when fighting the mob.
But it was with his investigation of the ****rera-Caruana clan that Mr. Bourque made his most significant contribution.
"He was the first to recognize the importance of this group on this side of the Atlantic," said Antonio Nicaso, the author of a book about the ****rera-Caruanas.
The case began after police intercepted 58 kilos of heroin hidden in furniture shipped to Montreal. One of the suspects arrested was Gerlando Caruana, whose luxurious home in a Montreal suburb tweaked Mr. Bourque's suspicions.
Checking Mr. Caruana's bank, Mr. Bourque was told by a teller that he should also look into the suspect's brother, Alfonso, who had an account through which millions of dollars were frequently transferred to Switzerland. For years, Mr. Bourque investigated, poring over thousands of pages of financial documents and visiting banks from Cyprus to Switzerland to Milan. He discovered that Montreal was a major money-laundering hub.
But Canadian laws against money laundering were non-existent, and prosecutors were reluctant to indict the Caruanas on drug charges. "They just said they wouldn't do it, so it was thrown in the garbage," Mr. Bourque said years later in an interview with CTV.
However, what he uncovered has been extensively used in Italian courts, Mr. Nicaso said. "Mark's work was more appreciated abroad than in Canada."
A francophone from Saskatchewan, Mr. Bourque spent his entire career in Quebec. His wife, Lise, was a civilian RCMP employee; they settled after his retirement in Stoneham, near Quebec City.
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
He was supposed to fly home yesterday to visit his family for the holidays. Instead, a government jet brought the body of Mark Bourque, a veteran crime fighter who died on duty with the United Nations in Haiti, back to Canada last night.
Mr. Bourque, a retired RCMP officer, was not a household name, but he made crucial contributions to law enforcement during his career, and was a tenacious detective who took on a major Mafia cartel.
He was one of 25 retired officers Canada assigned to the UN Stabilization Mission in Haiti to provide security before an election in January, joining 100 Canadian police officers already in the troubled country as advisers and trainers.
Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew called yesterday for an investigation into Mr. Bourque's death. "We need to identify the perpetrators of that crime and, of course, they need to be taken to justice through the courts," he said.
Mr. Bourque was shot near the capital, Port-au-Prince, as he drove an unmarked UN vehicle from the coastal city of Les Cayes where he was stationed.
He was taking the car to be repaired when he stopped near a checkpoint operated by Jordanian peacekeepers on the edge of Cité Soleil, a notoriously violent slum. It is unclear whether Mr. Bourque was hit by a stray bullet or whether he was caught in a shootout.
UN officials have suggested he could have been the victim of a botched kidnapping.
Before he went to Haiti, Mr. Bourque was instrumental in uncovering the financial operations of the powerful ****rera-Caruana clan, Mafia money launderers.
And another case Mr. Bourque handled went all the way to the Supreme Court of Canada and was a factor in nudging Parliament into adopting legislation to fight money laundering, said retired Crown attorney Yves Berthiaume.
Mr. Bourque leaves a large legacy, Mr. Berthiaume said. "He was quite a character, a special man."
He had an idealistic side, said one former colleague, Sergeant Mike Roussy. He had the habit, when he arrested drug dealers, of trying to reason with them in an attempt to lure them back to an honest life.
Sgt. Roussy witnessed several occasions when the drug squad had arrested dealers and left them handcuffed to search their houses. Mr. Bourque would be in the kitchen, debating with the suspects.
"They looked kind of surprised, amazed," Sgt. Roussy recalled. "For most of us, it was business as usual. Mark, he was like a social worker."
Sgt. Roussy said Mr. Bourque also was skilled at the little-known, but essential, art of writing unimpeachable, persuasive affidavits. These documents are used to persuade judges to grant search warrants and wiretap authorizations, key tools when fighting the mob.
But it was with his investigation of the ****rera-Caruana clan that Mr. Bourque made his most significant contribution.
"He was the first to recognize the importance of this group on this side of the Atlantic," said Antonio Nicaso, the author of a book about the ****rera-Caruanas.
The case began after police intercepted 58 kilos of heroin hidden in furniture shipped to Montreal. One of the suspects arrested was Gerlando Caruana, whose luxurious home in a Montreal suburb tweaked Mr. Bourque's suspicions.
Checking Mr. Caruana's bank, Mr. Bourque was told by a teller that he should also look into the suspect's brother, Alfonso, who had an account through which millions of dollars were frequently transferred to Switzerland. For years, Mr. Bourque investigated, poring over thousands of pages of financial documents and visiting banks from Cyprus to Switzerland to Milan. He discovered that Montreal was a major money-laundering hub.
But Canadian laws against money laundering were non-existent, and prosecutors were reluctant to indict the Caruanas on drug charges. "They just said they wouldn't do it, so it was thrown in the garbage," Mr. Bourque said years later in an interview with CTV.
However, what he uncovered has been extensively used in Italian courts, Mr. Nicaso said. "Mark's work was more appreciated abroad than in Canada."
A francophone from Saskatchewan, Mr. Bourque spent his entire career in Quebec. His wife, Lise, was a civilian RCMP employee; they settled after his retirement in Stoneham, near Quebec City.