Photo: Alexandre Bissonnette/Facebook

Harun Nasrullah

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled on May 27 that the sentence Alexandre Bissonnette received after he pleaded guilty to murdering six worshippers at an Islamic centre in Québec City was unconstitutional.

The unanimous decision means Bissonnette must serve a life sentence for the six murders, but he will be eligible for full parole after serving 25 years behind bars.

That sentence is automatic when a person is convicted of first-degree murder in Canada. However, the Criminal Code of Canada allows judges to sentence someone convicted of multiple murders to consecutive life sentences. That meant a convicted killer could have their period of parole ineligibility increased significantly.

Armed with two firearms and ammunition on January 29, 2017, Bissonnette, who was 27 at the time, left his home and headed to the Islamic Cultural Centre in Ste-Foy. There, he fired on dozens of worshippers, killing six men and seriously injuring five others.

In May 2018, Bissonnette pleaded guilty to 12 counts, including six of first-degree murder. On February 8, 2019, Superior Court Justice François Huot set Bissonnette’s period of parole ineligibility at 40 years. The Crown had requested 50 years. The Québec Court of Appeal reversed Huot’s decision, and the Crown appealed. The Supreme Court of Canada rejected that appeal.

“Not only do such punishments bring the administration of justice into disrepute, but they are cruel and unusual by nature and thus contrary to (Section 12 of Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms). They are intrinsically incompatible with human dignity because of their degrading nature, as they deny offenders any moral autonomy by depriving them, in advance and definitively, of any possibility of reintegration into society,” the court said in its decision.

“Sentences of imprisonment for life without a realistic possibility of parole may also have a devastating effect on offenders, who are left with no incentive to rehabilitate themselves and whose incarceration will end only upon their death.”