LAVAL — The man accused of killing two children and injuring six others when he drove a city bus into a Montreal-area daycare was unable to distinguish right from wrong, a psychiatrist told a trial on Tuesday.
Dr. Sylvain Faucher was the second psychiatrist in two days to testify that Pierre Ny St-Amand was experiencing psychotic symptoms on Feb. 8, 2023, and should not be held criminally responsible — that a mental disorder rendered the accused incapable of appreciating the nature of his actions or knowing they were wrong.
On the second day of the trial, Crown prosecutor Karine Dalphond read out the definition of not criminally responsible in the Laval, Que., courtroom, and Faucher replied, "I believe he responds to that."
Ny St-Amand, 53, is accused of ramming a bus into the Laval daycare, killing a four-year-old boy and a five-year-old girl. After the crash, the accused stood inside the mangled bus and undressed, speaking and yelling incoherently before he was subdued by parents on the scene.
Faucher testified that a possible untreated post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from Ny St-Amand’s childhood as an orphan in war-torn Cambodia left him "fragile" to stressors. The doctor said it's impossible to know why Ny St-Amand acted in the way he did, but the witness speculated that the accused might have attacked the daycare during his psychosis as a way of "killing his own past."
"We can ask whether the link exists between the significant traumas experienced by the accused during his childhood and the fact that, during an episode of illness, he aimed at individuals of a comparable age to his own when he suffered various abuse and was confronted by highly tragic situations," Faucher told the court. "This supposes he knew he was crashing into a daycare, at some level."
On Monday, Dr. Kim Bédard-Charette told the first day of the trial that the accused was likely experiencing psychosis at the time he drove the bus into the building. Faucher evaluated Ny St-Amand separately at the request of the Crown and reached largely the same conclusion, though he characterized the psychotic episode as “brief” rather than “unspecified," as Bédard-Charette had.
In response to their evaluations, both the Crown and defence presented the facts of Ny St-Amand's case jointly. After Faucher's testimony ended, they recommended in separate closing statements that he should be considered not criminally responsible.
Court documents state 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 as a result of the conflict, and he doesn’t know his real birthday. He was moved to various 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.
Faucher told the court that Ny St-Amand's past and lack of close emotional relationships, even with his wife and adopted family, left him poorly equipped to cope with stressors that might appear unremarkable to others. Those included a costly family trip planned to Disney World and his impending marriage to his longtime partner.
Like Bédard-Charette, Faucher said Ny St-Amand had exhibited many of the classic symptoms of psychosis, including agitation, memory loss, delirium and strange behaviour. As an example, Faucher noted that after his arrest, Ny St-Amand was found naked in his cell, walking an imaginary line on the floor.
During Tuesday's testimony, the accused stared straight ahead, sometimes closing his eyes and appearing to briefly nod off.
Melanie Goulet, whose daughter survived after being trapped under the bus, told reporters outside the courtroom on Tuesday that she felt like Ny St-Amand was being treated as a victim. "Basically, they were trying to justify his actions by his past, but we all have a past, we all have stress in our life," she said.
Ny St-Amand, Goulet added, is receiving more help and treatment than the victims are. "He's been in a facility with a really big team and everything for his recovery," she said. "What about us? What about the kids?"
Quebec Superior Court Justice Éric Downs presided over the hearings and will make the final decision on Ny St-Amand's criminal responsibility on April 29. Ny St-Amand has been charged with two counts of second-degree murder, and assault with a weapon and assault causing bodily harm in relation to six other children who were injured.
Downs told the courtroom on Tuesday that a finding of criminal non-responsibility is neither an acquittal nor a conviction in the sense of the law. He said there was no doubt that the accused committed acts that have "dismayed all of us … and in particular the victims and their loved ones."
The Crown indicated that they will seek to have Ny St-Amand declared a "high-risk accused," which would require he face stricter rules around absences from his designated treatment facility.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 8, 2025.
Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press
