The mother of a four-year-old boy killed when a city bus plowed into a Montreal-area daycare in 2023 told a courtroom on Thursday that the accused has left her family broken and angry.
“He stole our innocent child who only wanted to play with his friends and his sister,” said Marie-Christine Cloutier, whose son Jacob died in the Feb. 8, 2023, attack in Laval, Que.
On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge found 53-year-old former bus driver Pierre Ny St-Amand not criminally responsible because of a mental disorder in the deaths of two children and injuries of six others.
“I am so angry with him for dragging us into this whirlwind we didn’t choose, for breaking us,” Cloutier testified via video link.
On Tuesday, Justice Éric Downs accepted the joint conclusion from the Crown and the defence that Ny St-Amand was unable to discern right from wrong at the time of the fatal crash. Psychiatrists for the Crown and the defence had both concluded Ny St-Amand was likely experiencing psychosis when he drove the bus into the daycare, killing Jacob and a five-year-old girl named Maeva, whose family name is covered by a publication ban at the request of her parents.
Victim impact statements were read in a courtroom thick with tears and emotion, as parents recounted how their lives were immeasurably changed that day; many of them said they have not received enough psychological help. In response, Downs ordered the Justice Ministry to provide more mental health services to the families of the victims.
Some parents of children who were present when a bus crashed into a daycare in 2023 say there has been ‘no justice’ after a Quebec Superior Court judge declared the driver of the bus not criminally responsible for his actions.
Surprise apology
Meanwhile, Ny St-Amand sat impassively in the prisoner’s box and listened before surprising everyone with an apology near the end of Thursday’s hearing.
“I’m sure that nothing I say can ease your anger and your suffering,” Ny St-Amand said in a faint voice. “But I also want to offer my sympathies. I have no words to describe this tragedy. And I am immensely sorry.”
For parents who’ve been seeking answers, it came too late.
“For me it’s a bit out of the blue for him to talk. I wasn’t prepared for him to talk,” said Mélanie Goulet, whose daughter had been pinned under the bus after the crash. “For me, for him to talk now, it’s too late. It doesn’t mean anything.”
Many parents told the court on Thursday they have been seeking answers about what happened that day.
In a statement read into the record, Maeva’s mother said the loss of her little girl has deeply shaken the family, adding that it has been difficult to explain to her two other children how to live with this trauma.
“They can’t understand why the person who turned our lives upside down isn’t criminally responsible,” she wrote.
Maeva’s father testified in person and spoke about how his daughter had celebrated her fifth birthday a week before she was killed. He described her as “creative, focused, meticulous, playful.”
On one of her final mornings with the family, Maeva asked to be filmed behind a small cake topped with a candle. She closed her eyes and said, “I wish that the whole family remains together,” her father told the court. He said she then blew out the candle, opened her eyes and smiled.
“Some wishes are lost,” the father said.
He recalled how on the morning of Feb. 8, 2023, a call came that changed everything for his family. Maeva had been seriously hurt when a bus crashed into her daycare. Panicked, he rushed to the hospital, and the look his wife gave him when he arrived confirmed the worst.
“Not an hour goes by when I don’t think about this loss, this tragedy,” he said, telling the court the pain remains raw and all-encompassing.
“My darling, I loved you, I love you, and I will love you forever,” he said as those attending the hearing sobbed.
Reason for tragedy remains a mystery, judge says
According to court documents, Ny 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.
He was moved to different refugee camps under the guardianship of a cousin, who also died. He was physically assaulted by the cousin’s wife, who strung him up by his feet and beat him. In 1982, he was sent to Canada by a humanitarian agency and adopted by a Quebec family.
Psychiatrists who dealt with the accused said his past and lack of close personal relationships left him poorly equipped to cope with stressors. But the judge noted that why he drove the bus into the daycare will remain a mystery.
For Cloutier, she said she will never get an answer as to why young Jacob was taken from her.
“At 36, we’re not supposed to prepare our child’s funeral,” she said.
Also weighing in were the grandparents of the two young victims, who told the court that the attack left a void in their lives that can’t be filled. Several other parents whose children were injured in the attack, witnesses to the carnage, and daycare workers also testified on Thursday.
Some parents have been unable to return to work since the attack happened more than two years ago. Most still deal with stress, anxiety and are fearful in the presence of public transit buses.
Prosecutors have said they plan to argue that Ny St-Amand should be declared a high-risk accused, a designation that would impose stricter rules on him and require any decision taken by the provincial mental health tribunal to be confirmed by the Superior Court.
Ny St-Amand’s lawyers have announced they will mount a constitutional challenge. The case will return to court on May 9.
The defence team in the trial of Jeremy Skibicki are arguing in a Winnipeg courtroom this week that he should be found not criminally responsible. But what does that mean and what are the consequences for the accused? CBC reporter Caitlyn Gowriluk explains.
