The survivor of the shooting at a Parti Québécois (PQ) victory rally is speaking out five years after the event.
Dave Courage was shot on Sept. 4, 2012, as Richard Henry Bain tried to gain access into the Metropolis nightclub.
Then-premier-designate Pauline Marois was celebrating her party’s win in the Quebec general election with a victory speech.
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Courage was caught in the crossfire and hit by the same bullet that killed his friend and fellow stagehand Denis Blanchette.
Courage suffered physical and mental injuries from the attack and has now released a book detailing the aftermath of that night.
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In it, he describes how he felt abandoned in the years following the shooting, saying Quebec needs to do more to help victims of crime.
Courage, having gone through the hospital system, says once he was cleared from the hospital was when he needed the most help.
“People believe once you get out of the hospital, your trauma is over but it’s actually just starting,” Courage said.
“Especially if you have things that will follow you for the rest of your life, physiologically and physically.”
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Since the events of the 2012 shooting, Courage claims to be experiencing chronic physical pain and suffers from post-traumatic stress, things that he says were never fully corrected when he stopped getting medical and provincial assistance.
“We have to ask , ‘Is the person literally OK,’ instead of letting them go back and waiting for them to fall again to pick them up, we should help them stand tall,” Courage said.
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The jury found shooter Bain guilty of second-degree murder in the election-night slaying of Blanchette, as well as three charges of attempted murder.
Bain will serve a minimum sentence of life in prison with no possibility of parole for at least 20 years.