Dery will be “sorely missed,” says Kativik Regional Police Force

Cnst. Steve Dery, who was killed March 2, will be “sorely missed by all,” said Kativik Regional Police Force chief Aileen MacKinnon in a March 5 statement. (FILE PHOTO)

During the evening of March 5, nearly three days after Kativik Regional Police Force constable Steve Dery was killed in Kuujjuaq and his partner, Joshua Boreland, was injured, KRPF police chief Aileen MacKinnon issued a statement, in English, French and Inuttitut, expressing the force’s “deepest condolences to Constable Dery’s family.”

“On Saturday March 2, we, the Kativik Regional Police Force, lost not only a member of our team but a member of our family,” she said.

“All the members of the Kativik Regional Police Force are experiencing a wide range of emotions as we attempt to deal with the aftermath of this very difficult and tragic event. No words can accurately express the emotions we are all feeling as we try to move forward. This event has moreover affected the whole community,” she said.

Dery will be “sorely missed by all,” she said.

MacKinnon said the support received from people in Nunavik and from other regions, as well as from other police organizations, “has been greatly appreciated.”

But in the statement she also asked media “respect the privacy of Constable Dery’s family, as well as that of the members of the Kativik Regional Police Force, as each of us attempts to find a way to cope with our loss.”

On March 4, the Nunavik Police Association, the union which represents police in the KRPF, issued a statement, which also expressed the members’ condolences to Dery’s family.

Dery will receive a police funeral to be held March 9 in Ottawa at 11 a.m. at Notre-Dame Cathedral on Sussex Drive.