Parole rule is struck down
Changes mean mosque shooter can apply for release after 25 years in prison
The Supreme Court of Canada has struck down a Criminal Code provision that meant multiple murderers might have to wait 50 years or more to apply for parole, calling it degrading and incompatible with human dignity.
The unanimous high court decision came Friday in the case of Alexandre Bissonnette, allowing him to seek parole after serving 25 years behind bars for fatally shooting six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
The Supreme Court declared unconstitutional a 2011 provision that allowed a judge, in the event of multiple murders, to impose a life sentence and parole ineligibility periods of 25 years to be served consecutively for each murder.
The court said the provision violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guarantee against cruel and unusual treatment because it can deny offenders a realistic possibility of being granted parole before they die.
Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six charges of first-degree murder in the January 2017 assault that took place just after evening prayers.
A judge found the parole ineligibility provision unconstitutional but did not declare it invalid, ultimately ruling Bissonnette must wait 40 years before applying for parole.
Quebec’s Court of Appeal subsequently ruled the provision invalid on constitutional grounds and said the judge erred in making the ineligibility period 40 years.
It said the court must revert to the law as it stood before 2011, meaning the parole ineligibility periods are to be served concurrently, resulting in a total waiting period of 25 years in Bissonnette’s case.
In its decision, the Supreme Court said that in order to ensure respect for the inherent dignity of every individual, the Charter requires Parliament to leave a door open for rehabilitation, even in cases where this objective is of secondary importance.
In practical terms, this means that every prisoner must have a realistic possibility of applying for parole, at the very least earlier than the expiration of an ineligibility period of 50 years, Chief Justice Richard Wagner
wrote on behalf of the court.
Officials at the Quebec City mosque said they were disappointed by the ruling, noting a concern among families that the orphaned children of the six men who died in the attack could possibly come across their fathers’ killer in the street one day.
An official at Quebec’s director of criminal prosecutions declined to comment on the decision.
The decision will reverberate far beyond Bissonnette’s case.
The top court has declared the Criminal Code provision invalid immediately, retroactive to 2011 when it was enacted.