Curt Dagenais' appeal of his murder conviction is moving ahead.
Dagenais was convicted in March 2009 of the murders of RCMP constables Marc Bourdages and Robin Cameron and the attempted murder of RCMP constable Michelle Knopp outside Spiritwood.
It has been confirmed by the News-Optimist that counsel for Dagenais filed a factum with the provincial Court of Appeal last week.
A factum is a document of written legal arguments filed with the court.
This moves the Dagenais case closer to being heard in the Court of Appeal. The next step, according to the court, is for the prosecution to file their own factum of written arguments in response and for a date to be set for the court to hear arguments from the two sides in the appeal.
That process is expected to take some time. The case is not expected to come before the appeal court until this fall.
Peter Abrametz of Prince Albert is representing Dagenais in his appeal efforts.
Dagenais was charged with murder in connection to shooting deaths that took place on the night of July 7, 2006 following a confrontation on a dirt road outside Spiritwood involving Dagenais and the three RCMP officers. This happened shortly after Dagenais engaged officers in a high-speed chase of several kilometres on roads outside Spiritwood.
Shortly after his conviction, Dagenais's former lawyer Bill Roe had filed a notice of appeal within the 30-day window required by law for appeals.
At the time, Roe had taken particular issue with the sentences imposed on Dagenais by trial Judge Gerald Allbright: three concurrent life sentences for each of the counts against Dagenais, including the attempted murder count.
Roe contended the judge had erred by failing to put the provocation defence to the jury for consideration, as well as that the verdict was not supported by the evidence and that the judge erred in imposing a life sentence for attempted murder.
Soon after, Dagenais parted ways with Roe and appeal efforts have moved at a slow pace since.
Dagenais has gone through a series of lawyers handling his appeal, including briefly employing defence lawyer Brian Benesh out of Edmonton. There have been a number of delays requested and granted in the case.
In addition to the latest appeal efforts, Curt's father Art Dagenais filed a formal complaint in February with the Commission for Public Complaints Against the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Art's submission outlined several points of complaint over the RCMP's actions against both Curt and himself in the handling of the case. The process involved with handling that complaint is expected to move slowly over the next few years.
