New Brunswick’s highest court had reduced the sentence of Justin Bourque, the man who used a rifle to murder three RCMP officers in Moncton in 2014. The New Brunswick Court of Appeal said it had "no choice" but to reduce his sentence from the record-setting 75 years to just 25 years..The appeal panel said the ruling was based on last year’s Supreme Court of Canada decision involving Quebec City mosque shooter Alexandre Bissonnette, which struck down a 2011 federal law that made it possible for judges to extend parole ineligibility periods beyond 25 years for people convicted of multiple murders..“The Supreme Court’s decision in Bissonnette makes the sentence imposed on Mr. Bourque one that is neither permitted by law nor constitutional,” New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal said. It added that all other aspects of his sentence remain unchanged..In August 2014, Bourque pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder after shooting RCMP officers on the night of June 4, 2014. He used a semi-automatic rifle to kill Constables Dave Ross, Fabrice Gevaudan, and Douglas Larche, and injured Constables Eric Dubois and Darlene Goguen..At his sentencing hearing, a video was shown to the court where Bourque said he wanted to encourage people to rise up against the “soldiers” that defend federal institutions and protect the rich from the poor..He was automatically sentenced to life in prison — a minimum 25-year term. But the judge decided that the 25-year parole ineligibility period required for each first-degree murder conviction would be applied consecutively, meaning Bourque would have to wait 75 years before he could apply for parole. It was the harshest penalty imposed by a Canadian court since 1962..However, in May 2022 the Supreme Court decided that consecutive sentences violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, as they amounted to cruel and unusual punishment for offenders who faced no realistic possibility of being granted parole before they died. The top court also declared the 2011 law was invalid retroactive to when it was enacted..Bourque appealed his sentence, and on Thursday New Brunswick’s Court of Appeal said it had no choice but to grant the accused’s application. The killer, who was 24 at the time of the murders, should be able to apply for parole when he is 49-years-old..A statement from the National Police Federation, representing about 20,000 RCMP officers, said it respects the authority of the Supreme Court of Canada “even if we disagree with this specific decision regarding broader public safety needs.”.The police union said the federal government “should consider reviewing and modernizing sentencing guidelines in order to reflect modern public safety needs, which polling data from 2022 shows that a majority of Canadians would also support.”
