Man who drove bus into Laval daycare, killing 2 children, to appeal high-risk offender status

Pierre Ny St-Amand, the man who was found not criminally responsible for killing two children and injuring six others after driving a city bus into a Laval daycare in 2023, is appealing his high-risk offender status.

On Monday, Ny St-Amand was granted an extension to file a notice of appeal by Justice Geneviève Marcotte of the Quebec Court of Appeal.

Ny St-Amand’s lawyers have been given until Sept. 4 to file their documents to appeal.

“Anybody after a sentence is given to them or designation has the right to seek the appeals court if they feel, somewhere or somewhat, the judge of the first instance made a mistake,” explained criminal defence lawyer Kwadwo Yeboah.

“His lawyers want to make sure that the first judge didn’t make a mistake in the ruling.”

On March 16, Justice Éric Downs ruled that Ny St-Amand be designated a high-risk offender, which means he is to remain under more strict conditions — especially concerning absences — at a psychiatric facility. Ny St-Amand remains at the Philippe Pinel Institute in Montreal.

“To be designated a high-risk offender, it’s something that has a lot of consequence on the offender himself, and the court takes it seriously,” said Yeboah. “So his lawyers are probably going to argue that the first judge made a mistake either by analyzing, by the analysis that he did, or made a legal mistake, and they want the appeals court to have a word in it.”

Last year, it was concluded by psychiatrists that Ny St-Amand was likely experiencing psychosis at the time of the fatal Feb. 8, 2023, bus crash, and therefore unable to determine right from wrong. 

Yeboah suggests the bar is set fairly high for a case to be accepted by the Quebec Court of Appeal.

“Well, it’s very high because, don’t forget, the judge at the first level is the one that heard the case,” the criminal defence lawyer told CityNews. “He’s the one that did the analysis. He’s the one that was there during the whole process. So the court of appeal, they weren’t there. They’re the one that’s going to see if that process was done in accordance with the law.

“It’s a high threshold, if you ask me. It’s not something easy to do.”

The lawyers add that Ny St-Amand has been willing to follow all recommended medical treatment following his psychosis in 2023 and that he has shown remorse. 

Ny St-Amand is currently detained at the Philippe-Pinel psychiatric hospital in Montreal.

-With files from the Canadian Press