The Supreme Court of Canada will not hear an appeal of a Calgary man who fatally stabbed five young people at a house party nearly a decade ago.
The court, as per usual practice, did not give reasons for its decision Thursday in the case of Matthew de Grood.
De Grood was found not criminally responsible in 2016 for the deaths two years earlier of Zackariah Rathwell, Jordan Segura, Kaiti Perras, Josh Hunter and Lawrence Hong.
The five were stabbed during a house party in the northwest Calgary neighbourhood of Brentwood, and de Grood was later determined to be living with undiagnosed schizophrenia.
De Grood believed he was killing Medusas and werewolves for the son of God.
He has appeared for annual hearings before the Alberta Criminal Code Review Board (formerly the Alberta Review Board), most recently last November, which has ruled he must remain detained at a psychiatric facility because he is still “a significant risk to public safety.”
His lawyer, Jacqueline Petrie, took the case to the Alberta Court of Appeal, which rejected her request that it set aside the review board order and substitute it with an absolute or conditional discharge for her client.
She argued that the board misinterpreted medical evidence finding that de Grood was a significant threat and alleged political interference by Alberta’s former justice minister, Doug Schweitzer, for public statements in support of more stringent release standards.
In a statement Thursday, Petrie called the dismissal “disappointing”.
“It would have been an opportunity to settle some very important legal issues, the lion’s share of which had nothing to do with Mr. de Grood’s current disposition and more about tribunal independence and impartiality, a rather newsworthy topic these days,” said Petrie.
Petrie said there is overwhelming evidence her client is completely dedicated to remaining well and poses a low risk for becoming violent or unwell again.
“As he has told the review board many times, public safety is his paramount concern, too.”
Families of the victims have opposed any plans to release de Grood or to grant him additional freedoms and welcomed the decision.
Gregg Perras said the board thoroughly assessed de Grood’s risk to the public and the Alberta Court of Appeal agreed the appeal was without merit.
“The Alberta Appeals Court soundly disagreed with the baseless assertions made by his lawyer back in 2022 regarding bias of the ARB (Alberta Review Board) and their judgment,” Perras said in a message.
“Clearly, the Supreme Court found no reason to reopen the 2022 decisions by the review board and Alberta’s provincial appeals court. Hopefully, now the five families can find some additional peace at least until the next review of his case later this year.”