Ontario’s highest court has tossed one of two appeals requested by Ian Bush, who murdered three people in 2007 and was finally identified when he robbed and tried to murder a Second World War veteran in 2014.
In a decision released Monday, three Court of Appeal judges agreed to dismiss Bush’s recent appeal of his attempted murder conviction.
The court continues to mull whether to grant a new trial for his three murder convictions.
In two separate trials, Bush was found guilty in 2017 of crimes still memorable to many Ottawa residents for their brutality and their targets, which included a former chief justice of the Tax Court of Canada and a celebrated war veteran.
WWII vet died of natural causes months later
In 2007, Bush murdered retired judge Alban Garon, his wife Raymonde Garon and their friend and neighbour Marie-Claire Beniskos, all in their 70s, at a luxury Ottawa apartment building.
They were “brutal, gratuitous” killings that involved his victims being tied up and suffocated with plastic bags. Court heard that Bush had held a long-standing tax court-related grudge against Garon.
But the murders went unsolved for six years, until Bush broke into a veteran’s apartment, placed a plastic bag over his head and robbed him in 2014.
The victim, 101-year-old Ernest Côté, survived the attack but died of natural causes just months later.
Côté, who helped plan the Normandy invasion during the Second World War, was remembered as a “hero” and “old-school gentleman” during his funeral in 2015.
WATCH: Ernest Côté discusses the attack
At 101 years old, second world war veteran doesn’t judge man accused of robbing him.
Appeal bid heard in March
In the attempted murder, Bush’s lawyers Mark Halfyard and Samantha Bondoux argued before the Court of Appeal in Toronto on March 7 that the trial judge, Superior Court Justice Robert Beaudoin, erred by revisiting the prosecution’s application to bring evidence about the triple murder Bush was convicted of, and by permitting cross-examination on the facts underlying the murder convictions.
They also argued the sentence of life imprisonment was unfit and that Beaudoin made a mistake by treating Bush’s lack of insight, and the lack of a psychological explanation for his actions, as aggravating factors.
Court of Appeal Justice Ian Nordheimer agreed in his decision that Beaudoin made mistakes when he revisited the application to bring evidence about the triple murder, and when he allowed cross-examination on the facts of the murders.
Still, Nordheimer dismissed the appeal. He wrote that the Criminal Code allows appellate courts to dismiss appeals when the court believes no substantial wrong or miscarriage of justice has occurred.
“In my view, this is such a case,” Nordheimer wrote.
He also wrote that while he would grant leave to appeal the sentence, he would dismiss that, too. Nordheimer wrote that he doesn’t think Beaudoin’s decision on sentence was distorted by Bush’s lack of insight or the lack of a psychological explanation for his actions, which aren’t technically aggravating factors.
He also wrote that the 10- to 12-year sentence proposed by Bush’s lawyers is “woefully inadequate.”
Court of Appeal Justices Steve Coroza and Jonathon George agreed with Nordheimer.
For his crimes, Bush was sentenced to four concurrent life sentences, with no chance of parole for 25 years.
Correctional Service Canada said Bush’s sentence commenced in May 2017. He becomes eligible to apply for day parole in 2035 and full parole in 2040. Being able to apply for parole doesn’t mean an offender will get parole.