QUEBEC CITY -- Quebec's highest court has declared unconstitutional a provision of the Criminal Code that allows for life sentences to be served consecutively, reducing the sentence given to the man who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
Alexandre Bissonnette was sentenced in February 2019 to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 40 years.
With today's decision from the Quebec Court of Appeal, Bissonnette will be eligible to apply for parole after serving 25 years.
Since 2011, the Criminal Code has allowed judges to impose consecutive sentences for multiple murders in blocks of 25 years, but the trial judge in Bissonnette's case rewrote the law and instead sentenced the killer to 40 years.
Bissonnette pleaded guilty in March 2018 to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder. His victims were Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42; Abdelkrim Hassane, 41; Khaled Belkacemi, 60; Aboubaker Thabti, 44; Azzeddine Soufiane, 57; and Ibrahima Barry, 39.
His original sentence didn't allow any chance of parole for four decades, which his lawyers called "unreasonable" when they appealed.
Bissonnette will turn 31 this week
Crown prosecutors had first sought a 150-year prison term, asking for life sentences to be stacked on top of each other -- an option under the Criminal Code.
Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot instead opted for life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 40 years, saying that a sentence beyond life expectancy would have been "absurd" and a charter violation.
During the appeal hearing last January, Bissonnette's lawyer argued he should be eligible for parole after 25 years, not 40.
The lawyer argued that some of the aggravating factors the judge had taken into account during the sentencing weren't accurately represented.
He argued that Bissonnette wasn't motivated by "hatred" and "racism" and there was no evidence the murders were not motivated by prejudice against Muslims. Rather, he said, attacking Muslims was a way for Bissonnette to rationalize his violence.
The lawyer also denied that the crimes were carefully planned and he denied that Bissonnette targeted children.
Meanwhile, leaders in Quebec's Muslim Community said they were disappointed by the sentence, saying it wasn't harsh enough.
The Crown also sought an increase to the sentence during the appeal, asking for it to be extended to 50 years before a chance of parole
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This case was really ridiculous, the judge essentially wrote his own rules on sentencing because racism is evil and some mentally ill kid shooting up a mosque is so major that the judge felt Canadian law itself had to be rewritten.
If he was a repeated dangerous offender I can see why you'd deny parole, but this was many steps too far.
God bless Rafal Gan Ganowicz and his people.
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