Canada's top court finds life without parole "unconstitutional" in historic ruling

In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court of Canada has found the sentence of life without parole for mass murderers “unconstitutional,” unanimously striking down the punishment from the time it was enacted in 2011.

This decision came out of the Quebec City mosque shooter‘s sentencing on Friday and gives a number of sentenced killers hope of possible release.

Written by Chief Justice Richard Wagner, the ruling determined that the sentence violates section 12 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees the right not to be subjected to cruel and unusual punishment.

The SCC finds unconstitutional the section of the Criminal Code that permits consecutive parole ineligibility periods of 25 years in cases involving multiple first degree murders. Read our plain-language summary here: https://t.co/aBsZrRHBkS #criminallaw #Charter pic.twitter.com/vVwFOytmeE

— Supreme Court of Canada (@SCC_eng) May 27, 2022

For context, imprisonment without a possibility of parole can last for a period of 50, 75, 100, or even 150 years, for offenders found guilty of multiple first-degree murders.

“[This provision] authorizes a court to order an offender to serve an ineligibility period that exceeds the life expectancy of any human being, a sentence so absurd that it would bring the administration of justice into disrepute,” Wagner said in a statement.

The nine Supreme Court judges unanimously agreed that the punishment is “degrading in nature and incompatible with human dignity” because it suggests that the person is “beyond redemption and cannot be rehabilitated.”

This means that Alexandre Bissonnette, the gunman who killed six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017, must get a chance at parole after 25 years.

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Bissonnette pleaded guilty to all charges against him, including six counts of first-degree murder.

The Crown prosecutor asked Canada’s top court to order parole eligibility after 50 years for Bissonnette, but his counsel argued that that would be unconstitutional.  The judge agreed and ordered the offender a 40-year wait for a chance at parole.

Bissonnette then took his sentence to Quebec’s Court of Appeal, which also determined the sentencing was unconstitutional.

It ordered a 25-year wait for parole eligibility. When the Crown appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada, it was dismissed.