Constable Verret-Dion Receives Meritorious Service Medal

During a ceremony in Kuujjuaq, the Quebec Government’s Minister of Public Security awarded the Meritorious Service Medal to Constable Mathieu Verret-Dion of the Nunavik Police Service for a 2019 intervention in Salluit which saved a woman’s life.

​Frederik Grenier, who was a constable for the Kativik Regional Police Force at the time, also received a medal for that same intervention, but he was not present to the ceremony since he is now working for the Sûreté du Québec.

The intervention happened in March 2019, around 11 P.M., in Salluit. Police officers received an emergency call from a woman who seemed to be in distress. She was scared and was shouting, and it was hard for them to hear anything. Despite all the officers' questions, all they could hear was "Sarah" and "15".

Despite not knowing the exact location of the victim, they rushed outside the station and began driving around with windows down hoping to hear any shouting. Remembering interventions with someone called Sarah in a house with a number beginning with 15, the officers focused their search to a precise location in the community.

Arriving in front of a home, they heard a woman shouting. The two NPS officers entered the house swiftly and saw a man with a long kitchen knife in his hands. They were able to restrain the man with a Taser in spite of the confined space. The woman was severely wounded by the knife, but she was still conscious. She was losing a lot of blood, and was transferred to a hospital in Montreal, where she received the appropriate care.

The quick response of the two officers and their composure surely saved her life during that traumatic event. Chief Larose underlined during the ceremony the tenacity and the mental alertness of the police officers during the intervention.