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Fabrikant turned down the chance to be represented by a lawyer for his hearing. He also acted as his own lawyer during his murder trial and in several other cases he brought before various courts over the past two decades. In each case he has maintained he was “provoked” into shooting his colleagues because his life was in danger. His claims have been dismissed as nonsense by several judges Fabrikant has insulted. That includes a Quebec Court judge who determined in 2011 that there was no evidence Fabrikant was ever forced to include the names of some of his colleagues on scientific journals he authored that were published between 1980 and 1988. Fabrikant continues to claim that what he alleged in the lawsuit was the source of his anger when he killed four people even if the victims were not the colleagues named in the ultimately unsuccessful court action he filed in 1992.

While sentencing Fabrikant following his murder trial in 1993 Superior Court Justice Fraser Martin told Fabrikant: “No matter how hard one tries, your actions that day defy comprehension. The least one can say is that you are a warped, twisted and deeply troubled man.”

On Wednesday it appeared that little has changed.

“I didn’t plan to kill anyone. I was provoked,” Fabrikant told the parole board while referring to the four men he killed as being part of “a gang” who threatened his life. “I wanted just to scare them.”

At times his comments appeared to stun Marie-Claude Frenette and Francine Cantin, the parole board members presiding over Fabrikant’s hearing. One of the women reminded Fabrikant that he showed up at the university with more than one loaded firearm before he killed the four men.