This story deals with the topic of suicide. Discretion is advised.

A Canadian police advocacy group is calling for more awareness and consideration of officer mental health after three officers across the country died by suicide last week.

In the span of three days, officers from the Hamilton Police Service, Durham Regional Police Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police all died by suicide.

Dilnaz Garda is the president of Canada Beyond the Blue, a community support group for officers with chapters in most of the country’s major cities.

She says the recent officer deaths did not come as a shock.

“It was not surprising, and that’s really awful to say,” Garda said. “I really wish it was shocking. It has not been. Our police members are definitely suffering.”

Garda knows personally what it’s like to lose a serving family member because of the line of duty. Her brother, Toronto police Const. Darius Garda, died by suicide after being involved in the fatal shooting of a man.

Garda said the average officer sees between 800 and 1,000 traumatic incidents in their career.

“If that is their job and what they’re constantly being exposed to, and we don’t discuss their mental health, then we can’t make any change,” she said.

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Durham Regional Police mourning loss of member

When William Woodstock learned of the recent death of a Durham Regional Police officer, it failed to come as a surprise.

A former member of the force himself, Woodstock knows of the trauma officers constantly deal with in the line of duty. He was the first officer to respond to a 2020 mass shooting in Oshawa that left four family members dead.

“When I left that scene, I went back to the station, did my report, went into the supervisor’s office and said ‘I’m not coming in tomorrow’ and I left that station and I never thought that I was going to return,” Woodstock said.

“Thirty days later I was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Suicide was definitely something I had considered at times because of the things we had seen at that call. Those are images that will stick with me for the rest of my life.”

Woodstock said there were no organizational supports in place to help. He went out on his own and found his own treatment plan that worked for him. He’s now advocating for better supports for officers who witness traumatic events.

“Using the ‘S’ word, the suicide word is something that dampens the mood, it brings down morale, and so I think it’s hidden by organizations because they just don’t want to talk about it,” Woodstock said.

“I think there’s a perception that if we talk about it, it’ll create more people dying by suicide, when in reality it’s creating stigma and preventing people from actually talking about it if they’re feeling that way.

“This isn’t a regional issue, this isn’t an Ontario issue, this isn’t even a Canada issue. This is something that’s happening all over, where we’re afraid to talk about first responder suicides. We’re afraid to talk about our own mental health. We’re afraid to actually follow through with support.”

‘Suicide can’t be whispered anymore’

Garda says that officers who die because of the line of duty deserve more recognition. “It gets whispered, instead of giving it the dignity it deserves,” Garda said.

“There’s so much formal remembrance for in-line-of-duty deaths, and I think we need to start to move to recognize because-of-the-line-of-duty deaths as well. When we start to make these changes, families will come out of the shadows and not feel so alone and so stigmatized.”

If you or someone you know is in crisis and needs help, resources are available. In case of an emergency, please call 911 for immediate help.

For immediate mental health support, call 988. For a directory of support services in your area, visit the Canadian Association for Suicide Prevention at suicideprevention.ca.

Learn more about preventing suicide with these warning signs and tips on how to help.

–with files from Germain Ma