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Criminal law - Offences against the person - Manslaughter - Sentencing - Whether Quebec Court of Appeal erred in law in finding that, contrary to provocation, psychiatric evidence that had effect of reducing second degree murder to manslaughter had little or no effect on sentencing.

The Applicant, a former professional football player, was arrested on November 30, 2003 for the second degree murder of his wife, from whom he had been separated for some time. The tragedy began when the victim went to the home of the Applicant's mother. The victim was supposed to accompany the Applicant when he went for detoxification treatment. At the last minute, the Applicant apparently changed his mind and a violent argument erupted. The Applicant's mother and a third party tried in vain to intervene, but, by the time the police arrived, the victim was lying on the ground seriously injured after being punched and stabbed several times. At the time, the Applicant was charged with second degree murder, to which he pleaded not guilty. At the preliminary inquiry, psychiatric reports indicated that the Applicant had been suffering from severe depression and had thus been unable to form the specific intent to kill his wife. The charge was therefore reduced to manslaughter, and the Applicant pleaded guilty. Since the Applicant had been in pre-trial detention for one year, the trial judge sentenced him to 18 years of imprisonment. The majority of the Court of Appeal dismissed the Applicant's appeal from his sentence and upheld the 18-year sentence. The dissenting judge would have allowed the appeal and substituted a sentence of 10 years.