Gov. Gen. Michaëlle Jean delivered official condolences to the family of Mark Bourque, a retired RCMP officer who was killed in an ambush in Haiti last week, at his funeral Wednesday.

Hundreds of mourners joined Bourque's family for the the service at the Notre Dame de Québec basilica in Quebec City.

Bourque, 57, was killed in Haiti on Dec. 20. He was working with a UN team helping to prepare for the country's elections in January.

The funeral for Mark Bourque at the Notre Dame de Québec basilica in Quebec City.
The funeral for Mark Bourque at the Notre Dame de Québec basilica in Quebec City.

Bourque will be remembered as a well respected police officer who didn't have to talk loudly or use his authority, said retired RCMP officer Cornell Stanton who worked undercover with Bourque in Montreal.

"His way of talking with people and the way of getting people to work with him was so easy going."

Mourners also described Bourque as courageous, tenacious, calm and giving.

Retired RCMP officer Mark Bourque. (CP Photo/Journal de Montréal)
Retired RCMP officer Mark Bourque. (CP Photo/Journal de Montréal)

"He wasn't a tough cop. He was a good cop," said Laurie Bourque, a retired police officer originally from New Brunswick. The two men trained together in Regina in the 1960s and were distant relatives. Bourque was never rough, either with criminals or law abiding people, he added.

Bourque was driving a colleague to the Port-au-Prince airport when gunmen opened fire on his vehicle as it passed through the city's violent Cité Soleil neighbourhood.

The retired officer was hit in the leg. The bullet severed an artery, causing massive blood loss and a fatal heart attack.

His body was flown back to Canada last Friday.

While Wednesday's funeral service was not a full-dress civic funeral, the RCMP sent a contingent including Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli.

An RCMP honour guard carried his coffin, covered with a Canadian flag. Members of the Quebec provincial police and representatives of law enforcement agencies from across the country also attended the funeral.

Meanwhile, in Haiti, UN officials continue to investigate the attack. They are not sure why Bourque ended up in the violent neighbourhood that local police are reluctant to patrol.

There are no suspects in the shooting.