Quebec mosque shooter to be sentenced in February

QUEBEC CITY: A Canadian convicted of murdering six worshippers and injuring more than 30 others in a hail of bullets at a Quebec mosque in 2017 will be sentenced on Feb 8.

A judge on Wednesday scheduled the sentencing hearing, which will bring an end to the case that shocked the nation and was the worst attack on Muslims in the West.

Several widows of the victims and mosque members were present in the courtroom.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 29, had opened fire on a snowy night at the end of Sunday prayers at Quebec City’s Islamic Cultural Center, a mosque located in a normally quiet neighbourhood, on Jan 29, 2017.

Introverted and educated, Bissonnette had been described after his arrest as a white supremacist opposed to Muslim immigration, but not affiliated with any group.

At the start of his trial last year, he pleaded guilty and told the court he had been suicidal, “swept away by fear and by horrible despair,” and deeply regretted his “unforgivable” actions.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called it a terrorist attack, but Bissonnette was not charged under the criminal code provision for terrorism.

A university student at the time of the shooting, Bissonnette could face up to six consecutive life sentences, or a minimum of 150 years in prison.

This would be the harshest sentence in the country in decades (notwithstanding the death penalty which was abolished in 1976).

Until the law was changed in 2011, the maximum sentence for multiple homicides was life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.

The amended formula has been applied sparingly, such as in the sentencing of Justin Bourque, who killed three police officers in Moncton in 2014, to 75 years behind bars. — AFP