Justin Bourque may apply for parole after 25 years in prison
Justin Bourque, the man who killed three RCMP officers in June 2014 in Moncton, New Brunswick, will be eligible for parole after 25 years in prison.
The New Brunswick Court of Appeal released the decision Thursday. Justin Bourque's lawyer had filed a motion last January requesting that the parole ineligibility period be reduced from 75 to 25 years.
Justin Bourque was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for 75 years, a 25-year inadmissibility period for murder.
Last spring, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that such consecutive sentences are unconstitutional. This decision was made in the case of Alexandre Bissonette, a man who was sentenced to life in prison without parole for 40 years for killing six people in a Quebec mosque in 2017.
The judges of the Supreme Court of Canada then affirmed that consecutive sentences are cruel and unusual and that they do not allow the rehabilitation of criminals.
Thus, Justin Bourque may apply for parole in 2039, but this request will not be automatically granted.
The Bissonnette decision binds us and governs the outcome of this appeal. We are required to modify the sentences so that the period of ineligibility for parole corresponds to periods of 25 years to be served concurrently. In all other respects, the sentences imposed remain unchanged, reads the judgment rendered by the New Brunswick Court of Appeal on Thursday.
