Constable Keith McCready

McCREADY, Keith Mark ~ it is with great sorrow that we announce the sudden passing of Constable Keith McCready at the Ottawa Civic Hospital on Saturday March 22, 2025, at the age of 52 years. Keith was a dedicated and proud police officer who served with honour in the Peel Region, the City of Cornwall, and R.C.M.P. His service extended to the Governor General and the Prime Minister’s Protective Detail, reflecting his unwavering commitment to duty and country. Loving and devoted husband for twenty-seven unforgettable years to Susan Snape. Loving and dedicated dad of Erin McCready (Leif Steele) of Oshawa, Lauren McCready and Ryan McCready (Ava McIntosh) both of Bainsville. Cherished son of Doreen (née Richter) McCready and the late Kevin McCready. Dear son-in-law of the late Kenneth Snape and the late Bernice (née Turton) Snape. Keith will be deeply missed by his Aunt Cheryl Pierson (Emmett), his cousin John Kerrin (Lise) their children Alexandra, Ashley, and cousin Kelly Mawhinney (Scott) and their daughter Keira. He will also be deeply missed by his two beloved goldendoodles Bear and Guinness. Resting at Lahaie & Sullivan Cornwall Funeral Homes 20 Seventh Street West Cornwall Ont. (613-932-8482) from 1 p.m. to 4 pm. and 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday April 4th and Saturday April 5th from 9 a.m. until the time of Funeral. A Celebration of Life will be held Saturday April 5, 2025, in St. Columban Catholic Church, 36 Fourth Street West Cornwall at 11 a.m. A reception will immediately follow at the Ramada Inn & Conference Center, and the family sincerely hopes that friends and loved ones will join them. As April 5th is also Keith’s birthday, they wish to honour his memory with a final celebration of his life amongst those who knew and cherished him. As expressions of sympathy donations to the Canadian Heart & Stroke Foundation would be appreciated by the family. Messages of condolence may be left at www.lahaiesullivan.ca.

John's Eulogy

Good morning everyone,

My name is John and I am Keith’s cousin. Since childhood, Keith and I have simply been known to each other as “Cous”; but for our entire lives, Keith and I were more like brothers. I have the honor of sharing today’s family eulogy & representing our entire Clan as we remember Keith, and celebrate him today, on what would have been his 53rd Birthday.

A heart felt welcome to former Prime Minister Trudeau, RCMP Commissioner Duheme, Inspector Karla George…and all distinguished dignitaries. To Keith's law enforcement family both past & present; and most importantly, to our family & friends from near & far. Keith would be honored to have so many people here today to pay their respects.

How do we as a family best describe Keith??? A loving Son to my Auntie Doreen and late Uncle Kevin, a devoted husband to Susan, and the proudest father to Erin, Lauren and Ryan. If you asked his Aunt and Uncle, Cheryl and Emmet, and our cousins Kelly, Kim, Karen, Lea Anne, Shannon & Erin as well as extended family; they would describe Keith as an amazing man, a remarkable person, the joker, an angel, a man with a great big smile who loved to make people laugh, a proud Irishman, a close friend to many, including the two he made during BBQ’s and social gatherings (props) Mr. Rum and Mr. Coke.

The many Shenanigan’s Keith and I got into as kids usually ended with us being yelled at by my mom, or with my Auntie Doreen telling my Uncle Kevin to just go deal with us. A big part of our childhood were annual trips to New York to visit our cousins, epic monthly trips to Plattsburgh & Massena with our Nan McCready, Auntie Loretta and Uncle Freddie. These trips were a pilgrimage, otherwise known as“Butter Runs” to the senior half of our group. To Keith and I, it would mean hitting up the toy isle at KMART for the latest & greatest GIJOE figures, and knowing our day would end up with pancakes at Howard Johnson. At probably way too young of an age, Our Grandfather, Pa McCready, taught Keith and I the art of how to sneak sips of beer when our parents weren’t looking, which we became quite good at. Another time, My Father & Uncle Kevin had pleasure of hoisting us by the ears when we got caught playing with the holy water during a family funeral. Growing up, the two of us were the typical Dynamic Duo.

As you all know, Keith had an unwavering dedication to policing, however his true passion was his family. I was honoured to be in his wedding party the day Keith married the love of his life, Susan, and I will never forget the excitement when I received multiple calls with the famous opening line of “Hey Cous, guess what” each time he found out he was going to become a father to Erin, Lauren and Ryan. Watching eachothers children grow up and sharing our adventures as husbands and fathers was a big part of the adult chapter of our lives, with daily texts, exchanging jokes and weekly touch base conversations always ending in laughter. Nothing brought more excitement to Keith than talking about his family, unless it was when he got to take down a bad guy.

Keith will always be remembered fondly for “telling it like it was” and never pulliing punches with his words or actions. There was usually no grey area with him, which, let’s be real, was sometimes a handful not only for family but i'm sure for his colleagues & his CO’s as well. Keith will be remembered for building strong friendships; I mean…how could anyone resist that welcoming smile as he would strike up a conversation with literally anyone in his travels? As my Grandparents would say, "Keith had the gift of gab as the family social butterfly." I, along with our cousins appreciated him being the life of the party at all family gatherings to celebrate special occasions and holidays, especially those celebrating St.Patrick's Day.

Keith was a second generation police officer, that lived larger than life and backed up everything he did with confidence…a quality trait passed down through our family, and I know has already been passed on to his.

May the road rise to meet you, May the wind be always at your back.

May the sun shine warm upon your face, The rains fall soft upon your fields.

And until we meet again, May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

”Go Raibh Maith, Agat as an Saol a Chaith Tu Linn”/ “Guh-rev mah-a-gut as an shool a-khee too lin”

Gaelic Passage: Which translates to: “Thank you for the life you shared with us”…

To our Proud Irish Canadian, Loving Son, Nephew, Cousin, Friend, Husband, Father & my Best Bud…You will be forever missed. Happy Birthday Cous…

Love John John

Peter's Eulogy

My Name is Peter Woolley , I knew Keith for 26 years.

Originally I was writing this as an open letter to Keith’s children before I was asked to do Keith’s eulogy.

Ry-Guy, Lo-Lo, Monkey, Sue

You knew Keith better than any of us.

For the rest of you I would I’d like to share a few moments about Keith.

Keith was a big bear of a man what you saw is what you got. He made you a little braver and stand a little taller he was fearless, and knew his strengths.

He saved my ass more times than I can count, but he was usually the reason why we were getting into trouble to begin with…

The first time I met him was when he was introduced to me by my wife while I was away at police College she had begun working with the auxiliary police and was patrolling with him. She patrolled with him for 11 years. I remember him saying “Rook” you don’t have an opinion till you wear out your first pair of boots - then come talk to me - till then you listen. After 15 years in the army I knew I was going to get along with this guy.

I wanted to capture a couple of the calls that I remember best on and their personal and they’re dirty, but I wanted you to know them so that you knew the kind of man that your dad was

For most of our time together on ERT your dad was the primary breacher and I was number one in the stack.

With those two jobs you become intimately aware of each other‘s body language I knew where the position myself to best cover him. I knew his swing arc. He knew when I was set and I knew when he was set we did it without communication with a look and a nod.

Things weren’t always perfect with Keith. I remember once where he was providing support to me in a sniper/observer role at a residence across from the blue anchor.

We had to quietly crawl across a room filled with stored furniture and personal belongings.

As he crawled across the floor it sounded like I was being chased by a truck. Tables falling over things crashing to the ground. Even the guy we were watching across the street stopped and look up…. He looked at me and said “Brother, look at me this frame ain’t built for stealth”

We weren’t always on the same shift on the road, but when we were, we were the primary response in any high-risk situation

He and I were together and probably one of the most dramatic days of our time. 3 days after my beautiful daughter was born. Your dad and I were on a beautiful sunny day just setting up for some new repelling training at the fire training centre on industrial Avenue in Ottawa.

I remember remarking about what a beautiful sunny day it was and it was going to be perfect for repelling off of the tower when one of the firefighters later became a friend Tracy Cadorette stuck his head out of the door and said hey a plane just crashed in the World Trade Centre the fireman as they do we’re busy cooking breakfast that morning and had seen the first plane go in.

We all came inside and watched and fascination at the smoke billing out of the tower we were shocked to watch the second plane, live crash into the second tower.

We stood there, stunned, not knowing what to make of it, and not really knowing the massive impact that that single event would have on the world for decades to come while we grappled with what we were seeing suddenly all of our pagers started to go off. I called George to ask what was going on. He said I don’t know. Just get back here now.

Your dad was behind the wheel that day and we left industrial Boulevard full lights and sirens back to Cornwall a drive that would normally take more than an hour and a half took less than 40 minutes. I knew that day the world would never be the same And I knew that poor car number 8 would never be the same either.

Over the next nine years, your dad and I attended some of the highest risk calls that I’ve ever been involved in.

What kind of a man was he at these calls? Your dad was a rock.

I remember one particular call when one of his teammates got injured. He circled around the back of the house and didn’t climb the 6-foot fence separating his position and the other officers he knocked it down to get to him.

Another time were exhausted finishing paperwork hours after our shift ended on a late arrest. We were trying to stay awake when a call came in that the main post office in Cornwall was being robbed. He and I and the rest of the team ran to the closest cars and intercepted the robbery suspects within minutes in the parking lot of the LCBO.

Keith and I approached the vehicle and conducted a high-risk arrest. The armed suspect refused to exit Keith smashed the window but he missed the first time and hit the side of the car…. He hit it so hard Trevor who had been blocking traffic heard it and thought we’d shot him. Keith dragged him out of the car window. We had gone from zero to 100 miles an hour in an instant. These guys had been conducting a string of robberies from Toronto to Montreal…. We made the arrest and Keith said “welcome to Cornwall “….

I’ve been with your dad when he tore down the front of a house trying to get inside.

I’ve been with your dad having compelling discussions with an MHA about the benefits of tinfoil hats as we sat for hours at third south waiting to be seen by a doctor.

I’ve been with him when he laughed that mischievous laugh like you knew he was up to something, and

I watched him cry as he desperately tried to save a father who had been stabbed so many times his fingers couldn’t fill the holes.

Keith was passionate and there were a good times too. Keith and Sue would host some amazing parties. Legendary

I learned very quickly that November 1 is the day that I needed to take off because Halloween in the McCready ‘s neighbourhood was not just for the kids when we lived in Apple hill and had two neighbours on our road so we would go over to McCready ‘s neighborhood and bring our kids door-to-door. I still have a picture somewhere of McCready wearing Erin’s Elmo hat as the grown-ups went door-to-door for their trick-or-treat.

In Keith’s neighbourhood the grown-ups get treated with a stiff drink at every house made for some very long nights.

I still remember how beautiful the stars are in Bainsville after I woke up on the lawn at three in the morning.

Legendary.

The last year that I was at Cornwall. I was a supervisor and Keith was on my shift. I spoke with Karla about this and Mike knows too. You never really ‘supervised’ Keith. He just kind of tolerated you being in charge. But you always knew how he felt about things. He wore his heart on his sleeve l. He was always passionate and wanted to do things right.

I remember one night he pulled me into the ERT office and for those of you who don’t know the ERT office is a broom closet with a desk in it and he pulled me aside and he said “Peetie I got to ask you a favour” I said what is it brother said he said I need you to sign my reference letter for the RCMP. I was standing there with a pen and paper in hand and I said you bastard I was going to ask you the same thing.

Keith joined the Mounties in February 2009 and I was right behind him in May. We wound up being attached together on Charlie watch GDPP.

the Mounties had no idea what they’d done. It was kind of cool being a constable again the Mounties were so polite. It took Keith and I a little while to adjust to federal mandate….

We got marched up in front of the staff Sergeant so many times we practically wore a hole in his carpet.

After a couple years in GDPP we wound up going our separate ways. Keith got transferred over to the governor General ‘s house where he served with this distinction, and I went to VIP.

He later transferred to the Prime Minister ‘s detail where he worked security protection to the Prime Minister of Canada and his family. Keith served with distinction at PMPD where did a stint in training as well teaching firearms and close protection skills.

There are a lot of members that know Keith’s firm hand when it came to teaching and passing on his wisdom firm but fair. He was passionate in what he did and meticulous - he would never round any corners.

Keith was always full of wisdom. I’m sure that most of you are familiar with the McCready “side bar” anytime Keith wanted to pass on some information to you. He’d pull you aside put his hand on your shoulder and lean in and pass on his nuggets of wisdom - sometimes it was complaints. Sometimes it was a dirty joke. It was always something to be listened to though.

I remember one particular time when I was in VIP planning and was running a PM site at the museum of History, I was trying to keep in charge of a particularly chaotic situation just after the PM had arrived. Things were starting to fly a little bit out of control and I was doing my best to keep a handle on the Mounties and the politicians and I saw Keith sauntering over with that smile on his face and I remember thinking what now what is he possibly going to share with me at this point in time ….I looked at him a little irritated …. I am known to be a bit intense sometimes….and I said “what is it” and he put his hand on my shoulder and he leaned in I said “what… what is it?” and he said hardly able to contain his laughter…Peetie brother do up your fly!…

Always the voice of wisdom.

Steve Madden shared with me a time when Keith was working the elections with Prime Minister Harper out in Vancouver. A protester rushed the stage behind Harper and Steve sprinted to try and stop the would be protester other officers pursued him across the stage until he was apprehended by what Steve refers to as the “wall of McCready” Keith bear hugged him, picked him up and carried him off stage….he was an unstoppable force.

Todd shared a story from Guatemala where they were conducting an advance in the ancient city of Antigua next to the volcano Acatanango and the they wanted to do a tour at the top of the volcano, and the only route up was by horseback. The only horses that they had that were capable of scaling the terrain or miniature horses

That poor horse… Todd has difficulty telling the story without coming to tears of laughter of how that poor horse carried that big frame all the way up the side of the volcano even the tour guides had to stop and take pictures.

Rosa said that Keith was always a gentleman he was he would hold doors, he would say nice was always respectful and always talked about his kids. He was so proud of you guys. He would find excuses to discuss his children’s endeavours every time we met.

Alex barely knew Keith but shared that Keith loved his family and was touched when overheard a poignant conversation between Ryan and his dad, saying “You are the man” and Ryan replying no you are the man!”

The last time that Keith and I were together was when the Pope toured Canada and I were on the other side of the stage of that powerful moment when the pope had a headdress placed on his head by Grand Chief Wilton Littlechild at Maskawacis we made eye contact and instantly recognized the power of the moment. As I was leaving I found a parking ticket on my unmarked police car I’ll never know for sure - but I’m pretty sure he had something to do with it….

The week prior to his trip to Paris, Keith and I reconnected. I was asking him if he would stand up as a reference for Melanie. We spent about 15 minutes catching up, talking, reconnecting and promising when he got back from Paris we get together for drinks, little rum and Coke. Get the families together.

Well this isn’t really what I had in mind.

Mike Dekker told me his last day in Paris was a really good one. He laughed with his friends had good food good drink and shared stories talked about his family and what he was going to do when he came back.

It was a good day.

He was always one to connect people. I still remember those Christmas parties in Cornwall the McCready dancing the running - man the big man had moves!

When all this ceremony fades we’re going need each other the most that’s when it’s the realization is going settle in We’ve go to reach out and make the effort to stay connected. Stay close. Hug your children

The big man upstairs can call anytime….

172 Breacher up.

Mark's Eulogy

Ladies and gentlemen, friends, family and colleagues,

Today, we gather to honor and celebrate the life of Constable Keith McCready – a powerful personality, a man of unwavering loyalty, deep devotion to his family, and a sense of humor unlike anything I have ever encountered.

Over 20 years ago I started my policing career on a shift with many of the people in this room today. I vividly remember a call coming in one night shift regarding an armed suspect in a housing complex. It may sound strange to some, but this was an exciting call for a new officer, and I was happy to play my part. At the time, Keith was a member of the Cornwall Police Emergency Response Team and was quarterbacking the call. Keith quickly established the plan and assigned me to a cut off position in case the suspect fled – so very exciting, until I attended my assigned location and realized it was at least three city blocks away from the action – I was essentially the last option should the suspect get by all the other experienced officers on shift! I remember speaking to Keith after, not complaining, but expressing a desire to be more involved. Keith’s response that evening will forever be associated with him and has been repeated many times to new recruits in similar circumstances. Paraphrasing (PG-13) “Come see me when you have worn out a pair of boots until then your job is to be a sponge and learn everything you can”. He didn’t say this to be harsh, nor was it taken that way. The job is hard, trust is earned. Fast forward a year, at a shift party (yes, we used to have them quite regularly), Keith had gone to the quartermaster and grabbed a brand new set of boots and presented them to me. I have never been more proud of a pair of Simzer boots in my life!

In his professional life, Keith’s sense of duty was unparalleled. As a constable, he showed up every day with a heart full of dedication, and his commitment to serving and protecting his community was unshakable. Keith approached his work with the seriousness it deserved, but it was his ability to connect with people, especially in high-pressure situations, that truly set him apart. Keith always found a way to put others at ease. Can you imagine a switched on Tac officer dancing the hokey pokey in the hospital to keep the mood light during a difficult time for someone. Some in this room can absolutely picture that – because they have seen it!

Keith was a protector, not just for the communities he served but for the family he cherished above all else. His loyalty was evident in every facet of his life, whether he was standing steadfast beside his fellow officers or embracing his role as a husband, father, and son. He approached every duty with a profound sense of responsibility, ensuring those around him felt safe, supported, and loved.

To Mrs. McCready, Sue, Erin, Lauren, and Ryan – Keith had a rare gift – what will be remembered most by many is his ability to bring levity even in the toughest of moments. Whether it was a well-timed joke or a playful comment, his laughter was contagious, a reminder that joy can be found even in life’s most challenging days. Though we grieve his passing, we also celebrate his life – a life lived with honor, devotion, and an enduring spirit. Keith left an indelible mark on everyone he touched, and his legacy will live on in the people who loved him most.

Today, as we reflect on Keith’s life, we remember a man who gave everything for his family, his colleagues, and his community. A man who always had your back, whether you were family, a friend, or a fellow officer. A man whose laughter and humor brightened the darkest days. Keith will be missed more than words can express, but we take comfort in knowing that his spirit lives on in the stories we share, in the memories we hold dear, and in the example he set for us all.

Rest easy, badge #172 – the “people’s elbow”. Keith. Your watch is over, but your legacy will never fade.