When the sentence was read Friday morning at the courthouse in Chicoutimi, the word condamné carried the weight of a case that had already changed three lives. Ahmed May received a global sentence of 14 years in prison for a knife attack at La Belle et La Bœuf in 2023, an assault the judge described as brutally violent and completely gratuitous.
What happened inside the restaurant in Chicoutimi?
On December 20, 2023, May, a cook of Tunisian origin, went to his workplace and asked whether the manager was there. She was not. From there, the sequence moved quickly and silently. He entered an administrative office upstairs and cut the throat of one coworker, causing heavy bleeding. He then stabbed another employee several times in the head and hands. A third worker encountered him in the kitchen and had to crawl on the floor while May threatened him with a knife.
The three employees survived, but the damage did not end when the attack stopped. Their injuries were physical, psychological, and personal. One survivor, Stéphanie Larocque, said it had been difficult to seek help and that the impacts in a life can be many. She added that she was able to return to activities relatively quickly, but made clear that her experience could not stand in for the others.
Why did the judge call the violence excessive?
Justice Jean Hudon said the violence used by Ahmed May was of extreme brutality and entirely gratuitous. He also said the attack stemmed from a feeling of persecution that was unfounded. May later explained his actions by saying he held a grudge against his superiors and felt disrespected as a Muslim man. The court, however, placed the focus on the victims, noting that they were the ones who paid the price.
May pleaded guilty in 2025 to five charges, including attempted murder, aggravated assault, and obstructing police officers, after being found criminally responsible. The sentence was long, but not as long as the 19 years requested by the prosecution. Because he has already been detained since his arrest, he now has 10 years left to serve.
What do the victims still face after the sentence?
The courtroom decision closed one chapter, but not the broader reality for the survivors. Larocque said the legal process itself has been difficult, especially the changes made to the charges during the proceedings. She described how the name of the charge becomes the title of the story for victims, even when the emotional and physical consequences remain the same.
She also raised the question of what happens once the sentence ends. The prosecutor in the case, Me Sébastien Vallée, said May will return to Tunisia at the end of his term. He noted that May did not have Canadian citizenship at the time of the attack. During his detention, he has faced at least 50 disciplinary reports, with the latest in June 2025, and he has been representing himself since parting ways with his lawyer last year.
Condamné, but what remains after the courtroom empties?
The sentence gives the case a legal ending, but the human reality is still unfolding for the three workers who survived. One left the courthouse with a sentence measured in years; the others leave with memories measured in wounds, fear, and the effort it takes to keep moving. In that sense, condamné describes more than a man in a prison term. It marks the moment when a brutal act was formally judged, even as its aftermath continues to live on in the people who were there.
