QUEBEC CITY —
The man accused of a sword attack in Quebec City, Carl Girouard, will be back in court on Tuesday, where his psychiatric examination will likely be discussed.
In November, defense lawyer Benoit Labrecque said he asked a psychiatrist to assess Girouard’s potential non-liability on account of a psychiatric disorder.
Labrecque has since been replaced by lawyer Pierre Gagnon.
Gagnon, who practices mainly in the judicial district of Chicoutimi, will also be defending Michaël Chicoine in another case.
Chicoine is a father accused of having murdered his two and five-year-old sons in Wendake.
In the Girouard case, the Crown said the disclosure of evidence was 90 per cent complete.
The 24-year-old man from Sainte-Thérèse, located about 20 kilometres northwest of Montreal, is charged with two first-degree murders and five attempted murders.
On Halloween night, 2020, an assailant armed with a Japanese sword and dressed in a medieval costume attacked passers-by in Old Quebec, the historic district of Quebec City.
Two people died in the assault, named François Duchesne, 56, and Suzanne Clermont, 61.
Duchesne was the director of communications for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Clermont worked in a hairdressing salon in Old Quebec.
Four of the five injured have been identified following the lifting of a publication ban. They are Rémy Bélanger, Gilberto Porras, Lisa Mahmoud and Pierre Lagrevol.
Some of them have since gone public on social media, retelling their stories of that Halloween night.
Lagrevol said he and his friend Lisa Mahmoud were assaulted by a “madman” while taking pictures in Old Quebec.
Rémy Bélanger, a musician from Beauport, released a 45-minute video shot from his hospital bed, wherein he said he has forgiven his attacker.
On Nov. 5, prosecutor François Godin said Girouard was presumed sane until proven otherwise.
— This report from the Canadian Press was first published on Jan 26, 2021
