Murder of Denis Blanchette

On the night of September 4, 2012, the Parti Québécois won Quebec's general election with a minority government, and party leader Pauline Marois was delivering her victory speech at the Métropolis theatre in downtown Montreal. During the speech, Richard Henry Bain approached the back of the building wearing a blue bathrobe and black balaclava, armed with a 9mm CZ 75 semi-automatic pistol and a Česká Zbrojovka-858 semiautomatic rifle. He opened fire, killing 48-year-old stage technician Denis Blanchette and critically wounding his 27-year-old colleague Dave Courage. Initial eyewitness reports mistakenly described the rifle as an AK-47, an assault rifle visually similar to the semiautomatic CZ-858 actually used.

Marois was safely escorted from the stage by her bodyguards and was not harmed. After his rifle jammed, Bain set a fire at the back entrance of the building, reportedly by pouring gasoline on a door and igniting it with a road flare, contrary to initial 2012 reports that described a Molotov cocktail. The fire forced the evacuation of several nearby families before it was extinguished. Bain was tackled and arrested by Montreal police shortly afterward; while being led to a police vehicle he shouted "The English are waking up!" and "It's going to be fucking payback." The Sûreté du Québec announced the shooting would be investigated as a potential attempted assassination of Marois, who was premier-designate at the time.

Bain, an evangelical Baptist from La Conception, Laurentides, Quebec, faced 16 charges including first-degree murder, three counts of attempted murder, arson, and weapons violations. Police found additional firearms and fire-starting materials in his vehicle. Legal proceedings were prolonged; Bain lost his legal aid lawyer, attempted to represent himself, and later retained lawyer Alan Guttman, who sought further psychiatric evaluation and argued Bain was not criminally responsible. Crown psychiatrist Dr. Joel Watts testified that Bain understood his actions were wrong, and prosecutors cited Bain's own handwritten statements — including that he would have killed Marois if he could have seen her, and would have killed others had his rifle not jammed.

On August 23, 2016, Bain was found guilty of second-degree murder and three counts of attempted murder. On November 18, 2016, he was sentenced to life imprisonment without parole eligibility for 20 years. In October 2019, the Supreme Court of Canada declined to hear his appeal.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was "shocked and saddened," calling the violence something that "has no place in Canada." Denis Blanchette received a civic funeral on September 10, 2012, attended by Marois and former premier Bernard Landry. A benefit concert was organized to support Blanchette's four-year-old daughter.