Hearing in September on whether Quebec daycare crash accused is high-risk offender

A city bus is shown next to a daycare centre in Laval, Que, Feb. 8, 2023. (Graham Hughes/The Canadian Press)

LAVAL — 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.

Superior Court Justice Éric Downs today 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.

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.

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.

The case will return to court on May 27.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 9, 2025.

By Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press