Laval tragedy: "We lost, he won," says the mother of a victim
The mother of one of the two children killed by Pierre Ny St-Amand, the bus driver who plowed into a Laval daycare in February 2023, feels abandoned by the justice system, which officially declared the Cambodian man not criminally responsible for the tragedy on Tuesday.
• Also read: Laval daycare tragedy: bus driver found not criminally responsible
Jessica Therrien, mother of the deceased 5-year-old Maëva, was not at all relieved when she heard the verdict delivered by Judge Éric Downs today.
She also admits that she needed to leave the courtroom because "the judge kept treating the driver like a victim."
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
"He kept saying, 'Poor him, with all the trauma he's been through,' and all that, so he was the victim," said Ms. Therrien sadly to Richard Martineau on QUB radio and TV, broadcast simultaneously on 99.5 FM Montreal.
"It was extremely difficult, extremely painful, because he caused many more victims [...], and he could have gone and sought help. We, our daughter, she will never come back," she continues.
PHOTO FILED IN COURT
Ms. Therrien said she had a strong feeling that the system showed more empathy towards Mr. Ny St-Amand than towards the devastated families from whom this man took a child.
"We feel sorry for him," Maëva's mother complains.
She also emphasizes that the system will take better care of Mr. Ny St-Amand than the victims who have lost a loved one or who have been traumatized by this event.
• On the same subject, listen to this podcast episode taken from Richard Martineau 's show, broadcast on QUB platforms and simultaneously on 99.5 FM Montréal:
"We'll never get paid services, we have to pay our psychologists, the IVAC (Compensation for Victims of Crime) pays $95. I don't know if you know, a psychologist is now $175, so we're the ones who have to pay for psychologists, or whatever all the professionals we need," she laments. "He's okay, as long as he's on Pinel, everything will be paid for him, [...] we've already lost, we're losing even more, and he's winning, so I can't get myself to..."
Watch the full interview with Jessica Therrien in the video above.
LE Journal de Montreal
