MP Morrison issues statement at House of Commons on death of Burnaby RCMP Officer

Kootenay-Columbia’s MP has paid tribute to a Burnaby RCMP officer who was killed in the line of duty earlier this week.

Rob Morrison, a former RCMP member with a son who is serving on the force, spoke at the House of Commons about the incident on Wednesday.

“This is a senseless loss,” Morrison says. “Shaelyn Yang [Officer Shaelyn Yang] was a loving wife, a sister and a daughter. Shaelyn’s colleagues describe her as kind and compassionate, embracing her role – with devotion – helping those who struggle with mental health and addiciton.”

On Tuesday, Officer Shaelyn Yang was killed while assisting a bylaw officer at a call at a homeless camp in Burnaby Tuesday, a suspect has been charged with first degree murder.

Find Morrison’s statement, and a video of his House of Commons speech, below:

As a former member with a son serving in the RCMP, my thoughts and prayers are with the family of Constable Shaelyn Yang and RCMP members across Canada. Every day, we ask our sons and daughters, our husbands and wives, to serve, to keep us safe, and we pray that they come home. A cold and devastating quiet spread across our Nation yesterday with the news that one of our own had been killed in the line of duty. Cst. Shaelyn Yang, an RCMP mental health and homeless outreach officer, was killed during an altercation while protecting a city employee at a homeless camp in Burnaby, BC.

This is a senseless loss.

Shaelyn Yang was a loving wife, a sister, and a daughter. Shaelyn’s colleagues describe her as kind and compassionate; embracing her role with devotion, helping those who struggle with mental health and addiction. Our Nation has suffered an immeasurable loss. May her memory be the inspiration for each of us to act on issues important to Cst. Shaelyn Yang.

She will never be forgotten.

– Rob Morrison, Kootenay-Columbia MP (Article contains files and video supplied by Kootenay-Columbia MP Rob Morrison’s office)