Laval daycare fatal bus crash: Preliminary hearing begins for Quebec man charged with murder

The bus driver accused of killing two young children by driving his bus into a Laval daycare is back in court Monday morning at the Saint-Jérôme courthouse for his preliminary hearing.

52-year-old Pierre Ny St-Amand is accused of killing two children – a five-year-old girl and a four-year-old boy – when he allegedly rammed his bus into a daycare in the Sainte-Rose neighbourhood on Feb. 8, 2023. Six other children were injured.

The hearing is taking place to determine whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.

Seven other charges, including attempted murder and aggravated assault, are also being brought against him.

Quebec court Judge François Landry is presiding over the hearing, after which he will decide whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to be sent to trial. 

“Essentially, we are talking about several witnesses, police officers, witnesses that acted on Feb. 8, 2023,” prosecutor Simon Blais told reporters outside the courtroom on Monday.

“There is a publication ban to ensure that at the trial, the jury members that will be selected are not biased by what they could hear in the media.”

The hearing is taking place in St. Jérôme, Que., north of Montreal, due to a lack of courthouse space in Laval. 

St-Amand was impassive as he listened to testimony this morning from the first of 13 witnesses the Crown intends to call over the next four days.

A publication ban covers the names of the young victims as well as the evidence being presented.

Among the scheduled witnesses are parents whose children were at the daycare and who intervened after the bus crash, police officers and members of the accused’s family. A psychiatrist is also scheduled to testify.

Wearing a grey sweatshirt with short-cropped salt-and-pepper hair, St-Amand took notes on a clipboard while he sat in the prisoner’s dock, occasionally conferring with his lawyers. He entered the courtroom in chains, which his lawyers requested be removed so that he could take notes. Instead, guards fitted him with looser handcuffs because the courthouse constable manager considered the accused to be “unpredictable.”

Shedding light on what happened

The daycare that Ny St-Amand allegedly rammed his bus into is the Garderie éducatif Ste-Rose, located at the end of a cul-de-sac in a residential area of Laval.

The preliminary inquiry in Ny St-Amand will shed light on the circumstances of the tragedy.

Several relatives of the young victims were present Monday morning in the courtroom to hear Crown evidence.

Close to a dozen witnesses are expected to be heard during the four days of hearings scheduled for this week.

Parents of children from the daycare who intervened during the deadly incident will also testify Monday and Tuesday.

Police officers, co-workers and employees of the Philippe-Pinel National Institute of Forensic Psychiatry will then be heard.

Ny St-Amand’s wife is also expected to testify for the Crown later this week.