Thousands expected at Bell MTS Place Friday for RCMP constable’s funeral

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This article was published 17/12/2019 (2139 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Organizers are expecting mourners numbering in the thousands to attend RCMP Const. Allan Poapst’s funeral Friday morning.

The 49-year-old father of three teen girls was killed Friday afternoon in a collision with a pickup truck that jumped the median at the Perimeter Highway just east of Route 90. He was a few days short of marking 13 years as an RCMP officer.

The regimental funeral is scheduled to begin at 11 Friday morning at Bell MTS Place and will be open to the public. The main entrance at Portage Avenue and Donald Street will be open at 10 a.m. Mourners will be required to pass through metal detectors and are expected to be seated by 10:45.

“We think it’s really important for the family to see and to know people are honouring his career,” Manitoba RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Julie Courchaine said Tuesday, adding the public response has been “heartwarming.”

Thousands of messages from members of law enforcement, emergency-services personnel, business owners and the general public have been flooding in to RCMP headquarters over the past few days, she said, adding the messages will be shown to Poapst’s family.

And the memorials have included a moment of silence prior to Sunday afternoon’s game between the Winnipeg Jets and Philadelphia Flyers — Poapst was a Jets and Winnipeg Blue Bombers fan — and tributes from other police officers.

On Tuesday, a motorcade of RCMP vehicles paused in front of D Division headquarters on Portage Avenue in a moment of silence as rows of officers lined up outside, saluting as the motorcade passed.

And Winnipeg Police Service officers and cadets in about 50 vehicles lined up outside the headquarters Saturday night near a monument to fallen officers.

Courchaine said more than 500 police officers — including members of Manitoba RCMP and other detachments, the Winnipeg Police Service and municipal forces across Canada — will attend the funeral.

Poapst spent his entire RCMP service in Manitoba. He helped organize numerous police and fire department hockey tournaments, which he also participated in. He also volunteered with the Winnipeg Jets Hockey Academy, which is part of the True North Youth Foundation.

Condolences to the family can be sent via email to RCMP.Condolences-Condoleances.GRC@rcmp-grc.gc.ca.

— With files from Melissa Martin

gabrielle.piche@freepress.mb.ca