Laval daycare bus crash: driver declared high-risk offender

The man who crashed a bus into a Laval daycare in 2023, Pierre Ny St-Amand, has been declared a high-risk offender after killing two children and injuring six others.

The families of the victims gathered in the courtroom Monday as Superior Court judge Éric Downs confirmed his judgment.

Downs stated in his ruling that the nature of the crime was so brutal that there was a risk Ny St-Amand could reoffend.

Superior Court Justice Éric Downs also upheld the constitutionality of a section of the Criminal Code that permits offenders found not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder to be labelled “high-risk,” rejecting arguments from the defence that the status reinforces stereotypes against the mentally ill.

“The court grants the prosecutor’s request: it designates the accused as high-risk under the Criminal Code,” Downs said at the courthouse in Laval, Que., Montreal’s northern suburb.

“On the one hand, there is a marked probability that the accused will use violence in a manner that endangers the life or safety of another person; on the other hand, the acts that gave rise to the offences are of such a brutal nature that there is a risk of serious physical or psychological harm to another person.”

St-Amand has maintained he doesn’t remember what happened on the day of the crash. He will remain detained at the Philippe-Pinel psychiatric hospital in Montreal. As a high-risk accused, Ny St-Amand will now face stricter rules while he is detained.

The high-risk status prevents St-Amand from leaving the psychiatric hospital except for medical reasons or for the purposes of his treatment. It also limits the decisions that the province’s mental health review board can make in his case. Any changes to his treatment plan or to the restrictions of his movements would need to be put before the Quebec Superior Court.

Ny St-Amand’s lawyers say applying high-risk accused status to people declared not criminally responsible violates several articles of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

They say in their legal briefing that the high-risk status assumes such accused are irredeemable and reinforces the stereotype of the “criminal lunatic.”

In April 2025, Ny St-Amand was found not criminally responsible for the crash after Downs ruled he had likely experienced psychosis. The Crown and the defence jointly concluded that Ny St-Amand was unable to discern right from wrong at the time of the fatal crash.

In a 103-page ruling, Downs says the Crown met its burden in having St-Amand declared a high-risk offender and upheld the constitutionality of the designation.

The high-risk label “is temporary and revocable once the legal conditions are met,” Downs said, adding while he found no violation of constitutional rights in the case, “the court remains aware that this is a restrictive regime for the rights of certain defendants found not criminally responsible.”

Downs also noted that St-Amand has shown “modest” progress recently. “It also appears that he has the capacity to eventually adhere to a strict treatment plan. Given his continued commitment to this process, the court encourages him to persevere in his treatment in order to meet the objectives of the medical team.”

“The court remains aware that this is a restrictive regime for the rights of certain defendants found not criminally responsible,” Downs said. “In any event, the court finds no violation of the constitutional rights invoked.”

St-Amand was born in Cambodia in 1972, shortly before the Khmer Rouge began a brutal rule that is blamed for the deaths of 1.7 million people. Both his parents died in the conflict, and he doesn’t know his real surname or birthday. In 1982, he was sent to Canada by a humanitarian agency and adopted by a Quebec family.