Hearing in September on whether Quebec daycare crash accused is high-risk offender
A court hearing will take place in September into whether a man who killed two children by driving a city bus into a Montreal-area daycare should be declared a high-risk offender.
On Friday, Superior Court Justice Éric Downs set aside one week beginning Sept. 15 to hear arguments from prosecutors and the defence team for Pierre Ny St-Amand.
Last week, the 53-year-old former bus driver was found not criminally responsible after Downs agreed with a joint recommendation from the Crown and defence that the accused was likely in psychosis when he crashed the bus into the daycare on Feb. 8, 2023.
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Prosecutors have said they will argue that Ny St-Amand should be declared a high-risk offender, a designation that would ensure he is held under strict conditions at a psychiatric facility.
The defence, meanwhile, has said it will challenge whether the high-risk offender status is constitutional, during a separate hearing that Downs said today will be heard over a week beginning Nov. 15.
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Downs told defence lawyers he wanted a response from federal government's lawyers on the high-risk designation, which was included in the Criminal Code in 2014 for people found not criminally responsible for violent crimes.
Killed in the crash were Jacob Gauthier, 4, and a five-year-old girl named Maëva, whose family name is covered by a publication ban at the request of her parents. Six other children were injured.
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