Mark Bourque was a

Royal Canadian Mounted Police The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP; , GRC) is the Law enforcement in Canada, national police service of Canada. The RCMP is an agency of the Government of Canada; it also provides police services under contract to 11 Provinces and terri ...

officer killed while working for the

United Nations The United Nations (UN) is the Earth, global intergovernmental organization established by the signing of the Charter of the United Nations, UN Charter on 26 June 1945 with the stated purpose of maintaining international peace and internationa ...

Cité Soleil Cité Soleil (; ; English: ) is an extremely impoverished and densely populated commune located in the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area in Haiti. Cité Soleil originally developed as a shanty town and grew to an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 resi ...

Haiti Haiti, officially the Republic of Haiti, is a country on the island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea, east of Cuba and Jamaica, and south of the Bahamas. It occupies the western three-eighths of the island, which it shares with the Dominican ...

on Tuesday, December 20, 2005.

RCMP career

Prior to his mission in Haiti, Bourque had been an RCMP officer for approximately 35 years. He was stationed in the province of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, where he started work in Granby and

Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu () is a city in eastern Montérégie in the Canadian province of Quebec, about southeast of Montreal, located roughly halfway between Montreal and the Canada–United States border with the state of Vermont. It is sit ...

before moving on to

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

. During his career, he was most noted for his work in

money laundering Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities (often known as dirty money) such as drug trafficking, sex work, terrorism, corruption, and embezzlement, and converting the funds i ...

. In 1986, he became heavily involved in a case involving the alleged

Mafia "Mafia", as an informal or general term, is often used to describe criminal organizations that bear a strong similarity to the Sicilian Mafia, original Mafia in Sicily, to the Italian-American Mafia, or to other Organized crime in Italy, organiz ...

crime family Cuntrera-Caruana, headed by Alfonso Caruana, from

Siculiana Siculiana is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Agrigento, Sicily, southern Italy, west of the provincial capital Agrigento. Geography Siculiana’s long coast line is largely unspoiled; a protected Regional Nature Reserve has been es ...

, which lasted for several years. According to ''CTV News'', "At the time, money-laundering laws were non-existent in Canada. However, Bourque's work pushed the Canadian government to put money-laundering provisions into the Criminal Code." Bourque retired from the RCMP in 2002.

References

External links

"Bourque's murder probably failed kidnap attempt"
''CTV.ca'', December 21, 2005
"UN to probe Bourque's shooting death"
''CTV.ca'', December 22, 2005
Ottawa demands answers in death of Canadian peacekeeper in Haiti
, ''CBC News'', December 21, 2005

Associated Press / ''The Mercury News'', December 21, 2005

, by William Marsden, ''The Gazette'', December 21, 2005 1948 births 2005 deaths Canadian people murdered abroad Deaths by firearm in Haiti People murdered in Haiti Royal Canadian Mounted Police officers {{law-enforcement-bio-stub