01-05-2025
Laval daycare crash: Court hears emotional statements from relatives of children who died or were injured
News
By
Boxes of tissues were strategically placed in many spots of a Laval courtroom Thursday as emotions were expected to run high while the relatives of the children who died or were injured when Pierre Ny St-Amand drove a Laval city bus into a daycare gave emotional statements about a tragedy that will never make sense.
Earlier this week, St-Amand was declared not criminally responsible for the deaths of the two children who died and the injuries suffered by six other children. Superior Court Justice Éric Downs delivered the decision on Tuesday after hearing and reading evidence provided by two psychiatrists who found St-Amand was suffering from a psychosis and was unable to tell right from wrong on Feb. 8, 2023 when he brought the bus into the daycare's parking lot, aimed it at the facade and accelerated it before it crashed.
Downs ordered that St-Amand remain detained at the Philippe-Pinel Institute for the time being. He will later hear arguments on whether St-Amand can be considered a 'high risk accused,' a term from the Criminal Code that would make it more difficult for him to be released from detention.
St-Amand appeared emotional at times while the statements were read. At other times he appeared to be tired as he stared at the space in front of him while he sat in the prisoner's dock of the courtroom. He is now balder than he was when two photos, published by many media, were taken of him sometime before the tragedy. He wears glasses and there is a lot of grey in his hair.
Some of the people delivered their own statements while others who found it too difficult had them read by another person. Some made mention of feeling 'abandoned by the system' that allowed St-Armand to avoid being tried on two second-degree murder charges and other charges related to the children who were injured.
Instead of having a murder trial before a jury, St-Amand had a trial before a judge alone to determine whether he could be found not criminally responsible.
The first to give a statement was Marie-Christine Cloutier, the mother of Jacob Gauthier, one of the children killed in the crash. Cloutier gave her statement through a video conference from another country. The distance first appeared to help her, but she eventually broke down and cried while she spoke about losing her son.
'I still tell this story like it is not mine,' Cloutier said. 'I have not accepted the death of my son.
'I will always be the mother of a boy who was killed by a Laval city bus driver.'
Prosecutor Karine Dalphond read several statements from the relatives into the court record.
One of the mothers of the injured children described the permanent injuries her child was left with and how she feels the justice system 'let us all fall.'
'The physical injuries were just the start,' the mother wrote, adding that her child still has fears of being left alone.
She also described how she lost her job because she was working on a contract when the tragedy occurred and she spent days being at her child's side during a long stay at a hospital.
