Denis Lortie

Case record: Denis Lortie

Background

Denis Lortie was a Canadian army corporal in the Royal 22 e Régiment of the Canadian Armed Forces. He was described as disgruntled with a number of policies of the Quebec and federal governments.

The offence

Denis Lortie planned a killing spree as a means of broadcasting his discontent. He killed three Quebec government employees and wounded 13 others. No politicians were killed or wounded.

Lortie intended to assassinate Premier René Lévesque and other members of the governing Parti Québécois. His plan was to enter the Assembly Chamber during the parliamentary committee starting at 10:00 that morning.

On May 7, 1984, Lortie left the CFS Carp military base pretending that he needed time off to arrange a divorce with his wife. He rented a car, drove to Québec City, and took a guided tour of the Quebec Parliament Building. He then rented a room in a motel on boulevard Laurier for the night.

On the next day, at 9:30 a.m., Lortie walked into the CJRP radio station in Quebec City and dropped off a sealed envelope containing an audiotape for one of the station's hosts, André Arthur. Lortie instructed the radio staff not to open the envelope until 10:30, they opened it anyway, discovering that it was a statement of Lortie's plans. In the statement, Lortie declared: "The government now in power is going to be destroyed." Another version of the tape material included the following statements, reproduced verbatim:

"No one will be able to stop me - not the police, not the army - because I am going to carry out destruction and then destroy myself. It will be a first for Canada."

By the time radio staff contacted police, Lortie's plan had already been put into action. At 9:45 a.m., Lortie entered the Quebec Parliament Building through a side door located on Grande-Allée. He was dressed in combat fatigues and armed with two submachine guns. As he entered the building, he shot at a receptionist, then killed a messenger he encountered in a corridor. He went into a smoking room and shot at the people there. He then went to the cafeteria and finally found his way into the Assembly Chamber.

Lortie was described as having timed his attack by listening to CJRP and waiting for the station's host, André Arthur, to end his segment. It was stated that André Arthur ended his broadcast 20 minutes early, leading Lortie to enter the building and make his way to the Assembly Chamber while it was still mostly empty.

In the Assembly Chamber, Lortie killed three government employees: Georges Boyer, Camille Lepage, and Roger Lefrançois.

During the incident, the National Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, was told there was a man with a gun in the Assembly Chamber. Upon stepping out the elevator, Lortie fired on Jalbert. Jalbert told Lortie that he too had been a soldier with the Van Doos and that if Lortie allowed he would show his discharge card. Lortie agreed, after which Jalbert persuaded him to show his own identification.

After this exchange, Jalbert persuaded Lortie to come to his office, release the other civilians in the Assembly Chamber, and discuss the matter. Jalbert talked to Lortie for over four hours, ultimately persuading him to surrender to military police at 14:22. It was stated that Lortie was unwilling to surrender to civilian police.

Verbatim quotations attributed to the incident included the following:

"Sorry for wounding you, but that's life."

Another quoted statement was attributed to the gunman in an account of the entry into the legislature:

"Où sont les députés? Jevais les tuer!"

Investigation and arrests

Police later arrested Corporal Denis Lortie. It was also stated that Canadian authorities did not speculate on Lortie's motives.

A tape material included the following quotation, reproduced verbatim:

"I [have] waited for just the right moment. It's at hand now. The government will be destroyed."

Trial

In 1985, Lortie was convicted of first-degree murder. A new trial was ordered due to legal errors.

Lortie pleaded guilty to reduced charges of second-degree murder in 1987.

Sentencing

Lortie was originally sentenced to life in prison. It was stated that following appeal the charges were reduced to second-degree murder.

Appeals

A new trial was ordered due to legal errors after Lortie’s first-degree murder conviction in 1985.

Parole and release

Lortie was paroled in December 1995.

It was stated that on day parole he was released on day parole to a halfway house in Hull, Quebec. It was also stated that Lortie, 36, had been undergoing psychiatric treatment in a minimum security prison north of Montreal, where he was serving a life sentence with no eligibility for parole for 10 years. National Parole Board officials said Lortie no longer posed a threat to society and would be eligible for full parole in six months.

Under release terms, Lortie was required to spend every night at the halfway house between 11 p.m. and 7 a.m., to let supervisors know where he was at all times, and to be restricted to a 40-km radius from the house.

Lortie was described as saying, in an interview on the CBC's new French-language all-news network:

"disconnected from reality"
"I have the tools," Lortie claims, "that I didn't have before."

It was also stated that Steve Boyer, whose father was killed by Lortie, said that he should have been executed. It was stated that Hélène LeFrancois, whose husband was murdered in the legislature, said:

"I have tried to forget, but in the last 10 years nothing has eased the grief I felt at the loss of my husband."

Other details

Psychiatrist Pierre Mailloux, who was assigned to the case, said that Lortie suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and had organized the crime during a psychotic episode, believing he was acting on instructions from God.

The National Assembly's Sergeant-at-Arms, René Jalbert, was awarded the Cross of Valour several months later for his heroic act which likely prevented further death.

It was stated that Lortie later lived in Quebec and worked in construction.

It was stated that Marc Lépine, who murdered 14 women in 1989 in the École Polytechnique Massacre, left a suicide note expressing his admiration of Lortie.

It was also stated that several people affirmed that they had seen Lortie playing with his dentures in a spectacular way at the time of the last shooting, and that one classification described the phenomenon as paranormal.

It was stated that a guy named Max, also known as Como, was one of the spectators of the event.

Additional details included claims that Lortie had been a regular client at Le Carlito restaurant and often drunk at the club named « Le Monkey ».