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Cathie Gauthier, left, is escorted to courthouse in 2009. The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed her appeal after being found guilty of killing her three children.Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press

The Supreme Court of Canada has dismissed the appeal of a Quebec woman found guilty of killing her three children.

The court has upheld three first-degree murder convictions against Cathie Gauthier, who is serving life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Her trial heard that Gauthier and her husband Marc Laliberte were in financial trouble and had formed a murder-suicide pact.

Her husband and children were found dead after she made an emergency call on New Year's Day 2009.

Her lawyer argued that the judge gave the jury improper instructions on different points of law before they retired to consider their verdict.

The high court ruled 6-1 that the trial judge acted properly in deciding what the jury was allowed to hear.

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