OTTAWA — Days before Christmas in 2022, Georgia Kerhoas was home playing cards with family when her son Chris showed up unexpectedly with news that would upend all their lives.

Her son Lee Herriot, a longtime correctional services officer and then 911 dispatcher for the Toronto Fire Service who had recently gone on medical leave, had taken his own life. His passing would eventually be recognized as an on-duty death.

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Her son’s work as a first responder has since been recognized countless times, including at a memorial for fallen firefighters in June. His name is etched onto both the Canadian Firefighters Memorial in Ottawa and the Fallen Firefighter Memorial in Toronto.

But in January, the grieving mother and her family got more bad news.

The federal Memorial Grant P

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