By Canadian Press

Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette to learn sentence today

Feb 8, 2019 | 9:09 AM

QUEBEC — The man who murdered six worshippers in a Quebec City mosque in January 2017 will learn today whether he’ll spend the rest of his life behind bars.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Francois Huot has begun reading a lengthy decision that will determine how long Alexandre Bissonnette spends in prison before he is eligible for parole.

Huot told Bissonnette, wearing a blue blazer and white shirt, to leave the prisoners’ box and stand in front of him. The judge said the day of the murders “will forever be written in blood in the history of this city, this province, this country.”

Bissonnette, 29, pleaded guilty last March to six counts of first-degree murder and six of attempted murder after he walked into the mosque during evening prayers on Jan. 29, 2017 and opened fire. 

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The Crown has recommended that Bissonnette serve six consecutive sentences totalling 150 years, while the defence has argued he should be eligible for parole after 25 years.

The Criminal Code was amended in 2011 to allow a judge to impose consecutive sentences in cases of multiple murder.

Several of the survivors and the victims’ families have argued for a sentence longer than 25 years, noting the heinous nature of the crime and the lasting trauma it caused for the Muslim community.

Bissonnette’s parents and members of Quebec City’s Muslim community are present for the sentencing.

Morgan Lowrie, The Canadian Press