Justin Bourque is depicted in an artist's sketch at his sentencing hearing at Moncton Law Courts in Moncton, N.B. on Tuesday, October 28, 2014. Bourque, who fatally shot three Mounties in 2014, has applied to the province's highest court to have his precedent-setting 75-year parole ineligibility period reduced to 25 years. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Carol Taylor
FREDERICTON – A New Brunswick man who fatally shot three Mounties in 2014 has applied to the province’s highest court to have his precedent-setting 75-year parole ineligibility period reduced to 25 years.
The notice of appeal for Justin Bourque cites the Supreme Court of Canada’s decision in May to strike down a 2011 law that made it possible for judges to extend parole ineligibility periods beyond 25 years for multiple murderers.
In its decision last year, the Supreme Court said the law violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms because it amounted to cruel and unusual punishment for offenders who faced no realistic possibility of being granted parole before they died.
The unanimous decision was in response to an appeal filed by Alexandre Bissonnette, who was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years after he fatally shot six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
In Bourque’s case, he was sentenced to three consecutive 25-year ineligibility periods, which at the time was the harshest penalty imposed by Canadian court since 1962, when the last state-sanctioned executions were carried out.
With the anticipated reduction in that sentence, Bourque – who was 24 at the time of the murders – should be able to apply for parole when he is 49 instead of 99.
Bourque’s lawyer, David Lutz, confirmed today that the New Brunswick Court of Appeal will deal with the matter on Feb. 15, but there will be no oral hearing at that time.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 5, 2023.
