Killer had ‘mindset of a mass murderer’
Crown seeks tough sentence for Bain in deadly 2012 Quebec election night attack
MONTREAL— A deadly shooting at the Parti Québécois’ election victory celebration in 2012 was a politically motivated “massacre averted” and the man responsible should spend the next 25 years behind bars, a Montreal court heard Friday.
But far from the raving Englishrights crusader arrested the night of Sept. 4, 2012, outside a nightclub in a black balaclava and blue bathrobe, Richard Henry Bain’s voice was at the point of breaking as he addressed his sentencing hearing.
“It’s just a terrible, terrible tragedy. I have great regrets about it,” the 66-year-old said.
The Crown prosecutor in the case was not swayed by Bain’s apparent contrition or struggles with mental illness. “It was intended to be a bloodbath of unspeakable proportions,” said Dennis Galiatsatos. “Because he had the mindset of a mass murderer . . . he should be treated as such at the sentencing phase.”
The shooting killed lighting technician Denis Blanchette, 48, while a colleague, Dave Courage, was hit by the same bullet and survived.
Bain was found guilty of seconddegree murder. Friday’s hearing was to determine how much of his 25year sentence he must serve before he is eligible for parole.
The Crown stressed the forethought and planning that Bain put into the attack, for which he stocked his vehicle with an arsenal of weapons, drove two hours to Montreal and conducted surveillance at the site where the Quebec’s newly elected sovereigntist premier, Pauline Marois, was celebrating with party faithful.
Bain wrote to a psychiatrist two months after his arrest that he had spent three weeks planning the attack and intended to “kill as many separatists” as he could.
Though his rifle jammed after he fired the first bullet, he also set fire to a garbage bin outside the nightclub before being detained by police. “The attack on democracy itself justifies a 25-year sentence (without eligibility for parole),” Galiatsatos said.
Bain’s lawyer, Alan Guttman, said the judge should disregard Bain’s written admission because even the psychiatrist to whom it was addressed believed that he was in a psychotic state at the time. Instead, Guttman said Bain should be eligible for parole after serving 10 years of his sentence.