HALIFAX COP WALKS THE BEAT IN HAITIAN CAMP
(Metro Halifax) - By Jennifer Taplin
- Over 150 Canadian police officers in Haiti on United Nations mission
- Officer’s older brother is former NHL enforcer Georges Laraque
It’s an odd beat for a Halifax Regional Police officer: patrolling a Haitian tent city.
But four HRP officers (and one RCMP member) from Halifax are in Haiti right now, including Const. Jules Laraque.
“Domestic violence is one of the most common things that happen there. There are also fights between Haitian people over money and anything,” Laraque said in a phone interview yesterday.
Laraque - a former star with the Halifax Mooseheads - is part of a UN contingent working with Haitian police to keep the peace in Camp Corail, home to over 7,000 displaced people.
“There was one murder-suicide and I think that’s the most serious case we’ve had," he said.
There are cases of rape too but it’s about once or twice a month.”
The country of his parents’ birth is far from being restored. A devastating earthquake rocked Haiti on Jan. 12, 2010.
There are still many demolished buildings yet to be cleaned up, Laraque said.
“When things were starting to slowly move forward, there was a cholera outbreak that hit the city, and the election and that caused some troubles.”
And while there is plenty of crime in Camp Corail, there are fewer convictions. Penniless victims have a hard time getting transportation into Port-au-Prince to make court dates so the accused usually goes free.
But Laraque will take home many happy memories when his nine-month mission ends on March 22.
One of them will be talking hockey with Haitians.
“They don’t see me as a hockey player because physically I’m bigger and they think of me as a weightlifter," he said. "It’s kind of funny.”
Special delivery makes officer queasy, leaving partner with naming honour
Delivering babies is hardly in the job description.
But back in September, Const. Jules Laraque and his partner from Montreal were leaving a hospital when a pregnant woman arrived on the back of a motorcycle. She was in labour and needed to go to another hospital which was better equipped.
They put her in a UN vehicle but didn’t get very far because her pains increased substantially.
They laid her down on a blanket on the side of the road near a sewage area.
“She ended up giving birth on the street with our help,” Laraque said.
“I wasn’t actually looking because I don’t like looking at that stuff so my partner was hands on and helping the baby come out.”Too bad, because the mother named the baby girl Guylaine after his partner Const. Guy Allard.
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