Skip to main content

Mossberg 500 shotgun is shown. A judge in New Brunswick ordered the release Friday of all exhibits entered into evidence at the sentencing hearing of Justin Bourque in the killing of three Mounties in Moncton.HO/RCMP/The Canadian Press

Justin Bourque decided there were three ways forward in his life.

The first was staying in his dead-end job at a warehouse. The second, he told police, was going to college and racking up debt for a career that wouldn't work out.

The third was bloodshed – following through on pent-up hatred for authority. This was "the other" choice in Mr. Bourque's view – the one the 25-year-old set in motion last June when he dressed in camouflage gear, grabbed two rifles, numerous rounds of ammunition and two knives and headed out on the streets of Moncton looking for a war.

But after it was all over, after he killed three RCMP officers and wounded two others and terrorized the southern New Brunswick city for 28 hours before surrendering, he told a police interrogator: "I just never found my war."

These admissions are part of a newly released, videotaped interview in which Mr. Bourque confesses to killing the officers and describes how and why he did it.

On Friday, David Smith, Chief Justice of the Court of Queen's Bench of New Brunswick, ordered the confession as well as nearly 100 other exhibits to be made public. The Crown and defence lawyer in Mr. Bourque's sentencing hearing tried to have certain pieces of evidence sealed, arguing they would harm the widows of the dead officers and the community, which is trying to heal from the shooting rampage.

The taped confession was played in open court in October as part of Mr. Bourque's sentencing hearing – but few from the public attended. He had pleaded guilty to the shootings and was sentenced to life without being eligible for parole for 75 years – the harshest sentence in Canada since capital punishment was last used in the 1960s.

The Globe and Mail and five other media outlets successfully argued during a day-long hearing last month for the evidence to be made public. Media lawyer David Coles said that the "norm" is that the court is open and it is up to the Crown and defence to convince the judge that the principle of an open court and the Charter right to freedom of the press needs to be diminished.

"For the Canadian public to be able to understand that sentence, they have to see the exhibits and some may agree and some may disagree. Some may say it's cruel and unusual. But the debate should be an informed one," Mr. Coles told The Globe and Mail. "Here, there is a legitimate public interest in trying to understand why this man did what he did. In seeing the evidence that caused the judge to impose the sentence and also in some of these exhibits, we can begin to understand how is it that RCMP officers are exposing themselves to this kind of danger."

The RCMP is conducting an internal review of the events that led to the deaths of Constables Dave Ross, Douglas Larche and Fabrice Gévaudan.

In addition to the confession, the Crown was ordered to release a slide presentation, which it used to tell the story of the rampage. There are 143 slides – and there is much detail, some of it chilling, about the route Mr. Bourque took as he hunted for police officers; how the officers died; the reactions of residents, who watched the scene unfold; and his subsequent arrest.

Slide 50, for example, tells how Constable Gévaudan was killed: "Justin Bourque changed his position and took three more shots at Gévaudan," according to the information on the slide. "Gévaudan stopped, turned around and placed his hand over his head, took a few steps in the opposite direction and collapsed face down."

He died from gunshot wounds to his chest. He did not fire his gun.

Slide 58 details how Constable Ross is killed: "Bourque steps off the curb, brings up his gun and shoots between 4 to 7 quick succession shots in the windshield of the SUV.

"At 7:48 p.m., Constable Ross called on the radio that he could see Justin Bourque and was about to take him down. Eight (8) seconds later, shots were heard on a 911 call. Constable Ross fired two rounds through the windshield of his SUV."

The next slide notes that a resident could see the officer slumped over in his vehicle. "Bourque walked by the SUV and looked assured," according to the slide exhibit. Mr. Bourque later told police: "I confirmed that he wasn't going to shoot me and then I took off."

Constable Ross died from gunshots to his head. Constable Larche, meanwhile, arrived a few minutes later in an unmarked car; he was shot as he got out of his vehicle. "Constable Larche appeared to be struggling but managed to pull his trigger two more times before collapsing," according to the evidence.

It took Mr. Bourque 20 minutes to kill the three officers.

Mr. Bourque was not looking to shoot civilians. In fact, at one point he came across a resident on the street and said: "Don't worry, I'm not out to kill civilians, I'm only after government officials." And he was hoping that his actions would encourage others to follow – he said he "felt accomplishment" for what he did.

"Maybe people will realize that if I was able to do that by myself, imagine what twenty or thirty people could do, and that's all its gotta start. I don't want a civil war but we need one. It's like I said, it's not sexy, it you know it's not fun, but I can tell you like I didn't have fun but I felt accomplishment …," he told his interrogator.

Interact with The Globe