Supreme Court to rule on Quebec City mosque murderer's sentence May 27
Supreme Court to rule on Quebec City mosque murderer's sentence May 27
Canada's highest court is set to rule on the constitutionality of consecutive life sentences for the gunman who murdered six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
The Supreme Court of Canada announced Thursday a decision will be rendered on May 27 in the case of Alexandre Bissonnette. The 31-year-old pleaded guilty in 2018 to 12 charges, including six counts of first-degree murder, in relation to the attack at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Quebec, the province's largest mosque.
Bissonnette, who was 27 at the time of the killings, was originally sentenced in 2019 to life in prison with no eligibility for parole for 40 years. The judge relied on a revised law in 2011 that gave judges discretion to impose sentences one after the other rather than concurrently. That would mean the sentencing judge could have technically imposed a 150-year-sentence for parole ineligibility in Bissonnette's case.
Believing that such a sentence would be "cruel and unusual" punishment, he imposed concurrent sentences of no parole for 25 years for five of the six murders and on the sixth murder count, he added another 15, bringing the total to 40 years.
Both the Crown and the defence appealed the sentence. The Quebec Court of Appeal agreed with the Superior Court judge that consecutive sentencing was a violation of the Charter, but ruled that the judge erred in rewriting the law by allowing a 40-year period for parole eligibility.
The panel of judges on the appeal court finally ruled last year that the appropriate sentence would be what the law allowed for before the 2011 amendment by the Stephen Harper government, which meant Bissonnette can apply for parole after serving 25 years.
Quebec's Attorney General appealed the ruling to the country's highest court. Prosecutors argued before the Supreme Court in March, saying that preventing Bissonnette from seeking parole after just 25 does not fit the severity of the crimes he committed. They asked for it to be raised to 50 years, when Bissonnette would be 77 years old.
- Portrait series honours victims of Quebec mosque shooting
- Five years later: Vigils honour victims of Quebec mosque shooting
The killing of six Muslim men during evening prayers on Jan. 29, 2017 sent shockwaves throughout Canada. The victims of the massacre were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Khaled Belkacemi, 60, Aboubaker Thabti, 44, Azzeddine Soufiane, 57, and Ibrahima Barry, 39.
-- This is a developing story that will be updated.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Several dead in Copenhagen mall shooting; suspect arrested
A gunman opened fired inside a busy shopping mall in the Danish capital on Sunday, killing several people and wounding several others, police said.

'Be prepared for delays at any point': Canada not flying alone in worldwide travel chaos
As Canadian airports deal with their own set of problems amid the busy summer travel season, by no means are they alone.
Alpine glacier chunk detaches, killing at least 6 hikers
A large chunk of Alpine glacier broke loose Sunday afternoon and roared down a mountainside in Italy, sending ice, snow and rock slamming into hikers on a popular trail on the peak and killing at least six and injuring eight, authorities said.
Blue Jays mourn death of first base coach Mark Budzinski's daughter
First base coach Mark Budzinski is taking a leave of absence from the Toronto Blue Jays following the death of his daughter.
Dog left with lost baggage at Toronto Pearson Airport for about 21 hours
A Toronto woman says a dog she rescued from the Dominican Republic has been traumatized after being left in a corner of Toronto Pearson International Airport with baggage for about 21 hours.
'There should have been one': N.S. mother drives son to ER after waiting nearly an hour for ambulance
A Nova Scotia mother says she had to drive her son to hospital herself on Canada Day when no ambulance showed up after more than 40 minutes.
'Cold-adapted' dinosaurs survived mass extinction event to achieve dominance, study finds
A new study has offered what it says is the first physical evidence showing dinosaurs from the Triassic period regularly endured freezing conditions, allowing them to survive and eventually supersede other species on the planet.
Vancouver police service dog named after Calgary police officer
A Vancouver Transit Police service dog has a special connection to the Calgary Police Service.
'Ungrading': How one Ontario teacher is changing her approach to report cards
An Ontario high school teacher plans to continue with an alternative method of grading her students after an experiment last semester in which students proposed a grade and had to justify it with examples of their work.