Quebec woman who stopped for ducks appeals conviction

MONTREAL – A Quebec woman found guilty in the deaths of two motorcyclists after stopping for ducks on a Montreal-area highway is appealing her conviction.

Emma Czornobaj is asking the province’s highest court to overturn her conviction in the June 2010 deaths of Andre Roy and his teenage daughter Jessie.

A jury found Czornobaj guilty last month on two counts of criminal negligence causing death and two counts of dangerous driving causing death.

The trial heard that Czornobaj had stopped her car on a highway to rescue ducklings on the side of the road.

Monday’s appeal argues the trial judge erred in her instructions to the jury and that the verdict was unreasonable given the evidence presented.

It wants the Quebec Court of Appeal to substitute the guilty verdicts with acquittals.

Her case returns to court on Aug. 8.

An online petition since Czornobaj’s conviction has garnered several thousand signatures in her support.