INSANE KILLER OR MURDEROUS PLOTTER?
Bain allegedly made statements to psychiatrist
• During a full week of testimony in his defence, accused electionnight killer Richard Bain has maintained that his assault on a 2012 Parti Québécois celebration was an episode of insanity caused by an overdose of antidepressants.
But under cross-examination Friday, Bain was confronted with statements allegedly made to a psychiatrist that he had conceived the attack weeks in advance and intended to “kill as many separatists” as possible.
Crown prosecutor Dennis Galiatsatos asked Bain about meetings he had with psychiatrist Marie-Frédérique Allard in the weeks after his arrest. Allard will testify in Bain’s defence later in the trial.
Galiatsatos asked Bain whether he told the psychiatrist that the reason he took extra capsules of the anti-depressant Cymbalta on the night of the shooting was “because you knew it would give you the guts to do what you knew was coming.” Bain, 65, denied having said that.
Galiatsatos suggested Bain had complained to Allard that “separatists don’t respect your rights and your language.” He asked Bain about a letter written to Allard in November 2012 describing his “plan to kill as many separatists as you could, the heart, the backbone.”
In the letter, which has not been entered into evidence, Bain said he had decided three weeks before the election that he “had to do something,” the prosecutor said. Bain allegedly alluded to the deadly 1972 fire at Montreal’s Blue Bird Café and said his intention was to set fires at the back and front entrances to trap people inside the concert hall where the celebration was being held.
The jury has heard that when his semi-automatic rifle jammed after firing one shot at a group of stagehands waiting outside, Bain used gasoline to start a fire at the back of the building.
“Do you remember writing that if your CZ 858 (rifle) hadn’t jammed, you would have kept shooting ... and that if you had seen (PQ leader) Pauline Marois, you would have killed her?” the prosecutor asked.
Bain denied having made any of the statements.
Bain’s defence is that he was not criminally responsible at the time of the shooting because of a mental disorder. He has testified that he took at least nine Cymbalta pills that evening and has no memory of what happened later.
Security video footage shows Bain arriving behind the downtown Montreal Métropolis concert hall shortly before midnight on Sept. 4, 2012. Police have testified that his GMC Yukon was loaded with three CZ 858 rifles, two handguns and more than 200 rounds of ammunition. Magazines for the CZ 858 rifles had been modified to hold 30 bullets instead of the legal limit of five.
Galiatsatos suggested to Bain that he left his bulletproof vest in his vehicle because he hoped to “go down in history” and die a “martyr” for the English community. “Nonsense,” Bain replied.
As he was led away following his arrest outside the PQ gathering, Bain shouted, “The English are waking up!” In testimony Monday, he said that he is not prejudiced against the French. “All my friends are francophones,” he said.
Galiatsatos accused Bain of “looking to blame medication to avoid getting in trouble for what you did.” He said a toxicological analysis of Bain’s blood the day after the shooting found no sign of a Cymbalta overdose.
Bain’s older brother, David, testified that Bain’s personality changed dramatically after he was first prescribed Cymbalta in the spring of 2009. “He became very hyper, paranoid,” he said. On the advice of a relative who is a retired psychiatrist, he persuaded Bain to switch from Cymbalta to another medication.
He said his brother’s behaviour improved, but he was still not the same person.
Bain is charged with the first-degree murder of Denis Blanchette and the attempted murders of a dozen other stagehands. He is also charged with the attempted murder of a police officer and with arson.
SEPARATISTS DON’T RESPECT YOUR RIGHTS AND YOUR LANGUAGE.