The Canadian Press
By RYAN REMIORZ / CP
LAVAL, QUE.–The daughter of a slain Quebec police officer paid an emotional tribute to her father yesterday, telling thousands of mourners of the emptiness at home since his death.
Véronique Tessier said she believes her father, Const. Daniel Tessier, will continue to watch over her family.
“I miss you so much,” the 12-year-old said to her dad, a Laval city police officer shot last week during an early-morning drug raid. “There is an emptiness at home. Someone we adored and loved has gone.”
The young girl said she has found it very hard to deal with her father’s death.
“I could have filled a lake with all the tears that have rolled down my cheeks,” she said to a hushed crowd that she brought to its feet with her touching tribute.
Tessier’s wife, Dominique Lapointe, hugged both her daughters tight in the front pew of the ornate St-Vincent-de-Paul Roman Catholic church in Laval, north of Montreal.
Throughout the rest of the 800-seat church, a sea of blue and black police uniforms and red serge filled every nook and cranny.
Lapointe read from a letter to her husband that she wrote in the hours after she learned of his death.
“Daniel, you are and you will always be in my heart, our hearts,” she said.
Calling him “my love,” she said he left his family unjustly and too quickly.
“Never did I think that one day my heart would break in two under the weight of sorrow, anger and incomprehension,” said Lapointe, a police officer herself in a neighbouring community.
Tessier, 42, was a 17-year veteran of the Laval city police force. He had just returned to the drug squad, a section he had served for six years earlier in his career.
Police Chief Jean-Pierre Gariépy thanked Tessier for his sacrifice and courage.
“We are all at risk in the career we have chosen and we accept that because of who we are and what we are,” Gariépy said. “Daniel Tessier was the finest example of this.”
Tessier was the second member of the Laval police to die in the line of duty in 15 months.
Const. Valérie Gignac was shot to death in December 2005 during a routine noise complaint.
“It’s hard for everybody but with all the support that we’re seeing coming from all over the country and even the States, it’s helping us,” said Nathalie Lorrain of the Laval police force. “We’re a big family, not only in our own police force but, as we can see, almost throughout the world.”
Police officers from British Columbia to New Brunswick and New York lined the route from the church, saluting as Tessier’s funeral procession passed by on a frigid day.
“When these incidents do happen, we show up as a sign of support for the local police force and the family,” said Sgt. Yves Parent, one of about 30 RCMP officers from Ottawa to make the journey.
Prominent politicians, including Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe and Premier Jean Charest, as well as Parti Québécois Leader André Boisclair and Action démocratique du Québec Leader Mario Dumont, also attended the service.
A 41-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder in Tessier’s death.