The Supreme Court of Canada struck down a Criminal Code provision Friday that meant multiple murderers might have to wait 50 years or more to apply for parole.
The unanimous high court decision came Friday in the case of Alexandre Bissonnette, allowing him to seek parole after serving 25 years behind bars for fatally shooting six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.
Here is a look at some other cases where the law has been applied.
December 2018
Dellen Millard of Toronto is sentenced to a third life sentence for murder in the death of his father, Wayne Millard.
He was previously convicted along with his friend, Mark Smich, in the murders of Laura Babcock and Tim Bosma. He must serve 75 years before he can apply for parole.
February 2018
Benjamin Hudon-Barbeau, who infamously escaped from a Quebec detention centre by helicopter, is sentenced to life with no chance of parole for 35 years for ordering two murders and two attempted murders at the hands of a hit man.
December 2017
Basil Borutski, convicted of killing three women during an hour-long rampage in the Ottawa Valley in 2015, is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 70 years.
Borutski was found guilty of first-degree murder in the slayings of Anastasia Kuzyk and Nathalie Warmerdam, and of second-degree murder in the slaying of Carol Culleton.
August 2017
Derek Saretzky of Blairmore, Alta., is sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years.
A jury convicted him of three counts of first-degree murder in the 2015 deaths of Terry Blanchette, Blanchette's two-year-old daughter, Hailey Dunbar-Blanchette, and Hanne Meketech.
February 2017
Douglas Garland is sentenced to life in prison without parole for 75 years for killing Alvin and Kathy Liknes and their five-year-old grandson, Nathan O'Brien.
Court heard Garland attacked the three victims in a Calgary home, then took them to his nearby farm, where he killed and dismembered them and burned their remains.
June 2016
John Ostamas, a homeless Winnipeg man who brutally beat three other transient men to death in separate attacks, is sent to prison for life with no chance of parole for 75 years.
Ostamas pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder for the 2015 killings that prompted police to warn the city's homeless population to be careful.
October 2014
A judge in Moncton, N.B., sentences Justin Bourque to serve at least 75 years before he can request parole.
Bourque shot and killed three RCMP officers and wounded two others in June 2014.
He pleaded guilty to three counts of first-degree murder and two counts of attempted murder.
September 2013
A judge in Edmonton sentences Travis Baumgartner, an armoured-car guard, to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years for killing three colleagues during a bank machine robbery at the University of Alberta in 2012.
A fourth guard was badly hurt but survived.
Baumgartner pleaded guilty to one count of first-degree murder, two counts of second-degree murder and attempted murder.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 27, 2022.
The Canadian Press
