The trial of Pierre Ny St-Amand, the man who killed two children by driving a bus into a daycare center in Laval in 2023, is coming to an end, with closing arguments set to begin on Thursday.
The defendant’s lawyers argue that it would be unconstitutional for a Superior Court judge to declare him a high-risk offender, a designation that would impose stricter rules on him during his confinement in a psychiatric hospital.
They are asking the judge to invalidate the section of the Criminal Code that allows courts to classify certain individuals who are found not criminally responsible as high-risk offenders.
In April, the judge ruled that Ny St-Amand was likely in a psychotic state when he crashed into a daycare center in Laval, killing a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl.
The Crown argues that Ny St-Amand’s actions were so brutal that he should be considered a high-risk offender, but his lawyers say that this status reinforces the stereotype of the “criminal madman” who cannot be rehabilitated.
The chair of the province’s mental health review committee testified Wednesday that 17 people have been designated high-risk offenders in Quebec since 2014, and 12 of them still have that status.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
