Repeat impaired driver gets 9-year sentence for crash that killed 2

The impaired driver in a 2023 collision in Ottawa's east end that left two people dead has been given a nine-year prison sentence, an Ottawa court heard Tuesday. 

In May 2024, Shallen Mckay pleaded guilty to two charges of impaired driving causing death, and one charge each of driving while prohibited and taking a motor vehicle without consent.

The charges stemmed from a crash on Aug. 2, 2023, at the intersection of St. Laurent Boulevard and Montreal Road.

Taking into account the time she has already spent in jail since her arrest, Mckay has more than six years left to serve. The Crown had asked for a 12-year sentence and her defence had argued for five to seven years.

Mckay had a previous impaired driving conviction dating back to 2018. In that case, she was sentenced to 30 days in jail and probation, as well as a 12-month driving prohibition.

Way over speed limit

According to a statement of facts about the August 2023 collision, Mckay ran four red lights and was speeding between 155 and 162 km/h in a 50 km/h zone before the crash. 

Her blood-alcohol concentration was nearly three times the legal limit. 

Franck Ntwari, 41, and Innocent Muhoza, 44, died in the other vehicle. The two men were heading home after having dinner with friends before the collision occurred. 

Mélanie Rubavu, Ntwari's mother, was recovering from surgery when she heard her son was gone, she previously told CBC. 

"Six years, 20 years, a lifetime ... Franck is not going to come back. My son is gone. He's gone," Rubavu said of the sentence while speaking to CBC outside the courthouse on Tuesday. 

Muhoza's widow was also present for the sentencing and said she didn't feel it was enough. "But on the other hand," she said in French, "we have to respect the Canadian justice system."

Justice Heather Perkins-McVey said she took a number of factors into account, including Mckay's previous conviction and her early guilty plea. 

Friends of Ntwari and Muhoza who were in another car on the night of the crash tried to help them. Muhoza had been thrown from their vehicle while Ntwari remained trapped inside. 

"The trauma of witnessing such horror cannot be understated," Perkins-McVey said while reading out her decision. 

Mckay's lawyer Ron Guertin said Mckay is still in her 30s and has four children.

"Five years is lengthy," he said of the lower end of the sentence he had proposed. "Nine years is long. Very long."

But Mckay is happy with the effective sentence of six years, Guertin added. 

"She'll be able to get treatment there, programs there, and she'll come out of the programs a new person," he said. "All in, it was fair." 

Mckay is prohibited from driving for the next 21 years.