On the evening of January 29, 2017, the Respondent, 27-year-old Alexandre Bissonnette, left home with two firearms and ammunition, heading to the Great Mosque of Québec. On arrival, he fired at the worshippers for 2 minutes, resulting in fatalities and severe injuries. He would go on to plead guilty on 12 counts, including six of first-degree murder. At sentencing, Mr. Bissonnette challenged the constitutional validity of s. 745.51 empowering a judge to order parole ineligibility periods of 25 years for each murder, to be served consecutively, The sentencing judge concluded the provision infringes ss. 12 and 7 of the Charter, and that the limits on the protected rights had not been shown to be justified in a free and democratic society. He found the appropriate remedy would be to “read in” a new wording that would allow a court to impose consecutive periods of less than 25 years. Mr. Bissonnette appealed to the Quebec Court of Appeal, which unanimously held that s. 745.51 does infringes ss. 12 and 7 of the Charter. However, the Court found that the constitutional incompatibility identified by the sentencing judge goes to the very heart of the provision and that reading in is, therefore, not appropriate. It accordingly declared s. 745.51 of the Criminal Code is invalid and of no force or effect. As a result, it ordered a total period of parole ineligibility of 25 years.

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