A jury has been chosen as Ronald Cyr’s faint hope hearing gets underway in Hamilton. Cyr was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of his wife, Nadia Gehl. She was fatally shot in February 2009 while walking to a bus stop near Ottawa Street and Fischer Hallman Road in Kitchener, in what a judge described as an “execution-style killing.” Cyr was found guilty of first-degree murder in April 2012. The Crown told the court Cyr arranged for his friend, Zdenek “Dennis” Zvolensky, to kill Gehl. Zvolensky then recruited Nashat Qahwash to help commit the crime. All three received an automatic sentence of life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Cyr has now applied for a reduction in his parole eligibility under the faint hope clause. It allows offenders who have already served 15 years of their sentence to get their parole eligibility reviewed by a jury. The faint hope clause was abolished by the Canadian government in 2011, but Cyr is still eligible given his offense took place before that date. Last year, a judge ruled a jury should be empaneled to hear Cyr’s request citing, among other reasons, Cyr had shown remorse and those close to him said he had worked hard to change his life and become a better person during his imprisonment. Cyr also said he had converted to Judaism in 2011 and regularly attends Shabbat. On Monday, 12 jurors and two alternates were chosen for the hearing at the John Sopinka courthouse in Hamilton. Jurors will be asked to consider Cyr’s character, conduct while serving his sentence, the nature of the offense, and information from the victim’s family about the impact of Gehl’s death. The proceedings are scheduled to resume on Tuesday.
