Pierre Rousseau is safe and well!

Pierre Rousseau was the chief commander of LaSalle’s police station 13 for three years (2006-2009) and was appointed to go to Haiti, along with 42 other police officers from the City of Montreal Police Service. They have been there since April 2009. Fortunately, Rousseau was not a victim of the earthquake that rocked the country on January 12.

On the day of the earthquake, he was able to contact his family to assure them that he was safe; he also contacted LaSalle police officers. He told that when the earthquake struck, he was giving training sessions outdoors. Suddenly, he felt like there were “waves” underneath his feet and then noticed that buildings and vehicles were moving more and more. On that day, he had two weeks’ worth of supplies and had gas for three to four weeks but he no longer had electricity. Since his arrival in Haiti – called the “pearl of the Antilles” – Pierre Rousseau had been based in an area about 150 kilometres south west of Port-au-Prince and was on training sessions with Haitian police.

The police officers in mission were spread out across Port-au-Prince for re-deployment so they could provide rescue efforts to people who were affected by the catastrophe. These agents and their colleagues from the Sûreté du Québec and the RCMP have been participating in an assistance program for the last 20 years. Officer Rousseau initially was coming back to Canada on January 21 but he had asked to stay until next April.

To carry out his mission in Haiti, Pierre Rousseau had to make several sacrifices, the greatest of which was to leave behind his wife and three children (two sons and a daughter) in Canada.