Victim satisfied with Quebec election shooter’s 2nd-degree murder conviction

MONTREAL — Four years after being seriously wounded by the same bullet that killed his friend outside the Metropolis nightclub in 2012, Dave Courage says justice has finally been done.

“Everyone did their jobs and I can’t ask for more,” Courage told Radio-Canada after a jury found Richard Henry Bain guilty of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder in Quebec’s election-night shooting.

“I’m very satisfied he’s going to prison,” he said. “I hope he stays there a long time and, above all, I hope he gets the help he needs.”

Tuesday’s verdict came nearly four years after the shooting on Sept. 4, 2012, that injured Courage and killed his fellow stagehand, Denis Blanchette.

Bain, 65, fired a single shot in the direction of the technicians working outside the Metropolis as then-Parti Quebecois leader Pauline Marois was inside delivering her victory speech.

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Bain, who shouted “The English Are Waking Up” as he was arrested in a blue bathrobe, faces a sentence of life imprisonment with no possibility of parole for at least 10 years on the second-degree murder conviction.

Sentencing arguments are set for early September.

In finding him guilty, the 12 jurors rejected the defence’s argument he was not criminally responsible by way of mental disorder, but they also chose not to convict him on the more serious charge of first-degree murder, which would have meant no chance of parole for 25 years.

Courage said the jury may have decided against the premeditated murder charge because he and Blanchette were not Bain’s intended targets. But he told Radio-Canada he is satisfied with the result.

“He’s guilty of murder, even if it isn’t first-degree,” he said. “He’s guilty of attempted murder and that’s what he did.

“Justice was served, even if it wasn’t to the degree some people would have wanted.”

Courage says he still lives with constant physical and emotional pain as a result of the shooting, but doesn’t want to complain.

“I’m tired of saying I hurt,” he said. “At least I can walk, at least I’m still here. Denis isn’t.”

He also expressed gratitude for the public support he’s received.

“I can’t say it enough,” he said. “Thank you for supporting me, thank you for being there when I needed help.”

The Canadian Press