Montreal: A Canadian man who killed three police officers in June was sentenced on Friday to life in prison with no chance of parole for 75 years — the harshest sentence in the country in decades.
Justin Bourque, 24, had pleaded guilty in August to five counts against him — three for premeditated murder and two others for attempted murder for the officers he wounded.
The shooting in Moncton, in the eastern province of New Brunswick, shocked Canada, which prides itself on being largely free of the gun violence that regularly plagues cities in the neighbouring United States.
It was the worst tragedy to hit the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 2005, when four of its federal agents were killed in the western province of Alberta.
During a 30-hour hunt for the suspect, Moncton’s 70,000 residents were forced to remain behind locked doors while police combed a wooded neighbourhood. Bourque eventually surrendered.
Bourque received a firm 25-year jail term on each of the three premeditated murder charges — cumulative sentences with no possibility of parole.
He therefore would not be eligible to request parole until he is 99.
“We have three wives, we have six children that will never get to know their dad,” said RCMP assistant commissioner Roger Brown, adding he was satisfied with the sentence.
“I am happy that those six children will absolutely never have to sit through a court hearing like we did this week and sit through a parole hearing.”
Until Canada’s criminal code was amended in 2011, the maximum sentence for multiple homicides was life imprisonment with no chance of parole for 25 years.
The last execution in Canada took place in 1962.
“Unfortunately, it was the only sentence that the judge could give, given all the law, given all the facts,” said Bourque’s attorney David Lutz, adding that his client was “resigned” to the heavy jail term.
The widows of the three dead officers each spoke in court, without conveying any animosity toward their husbands’ killer.
Lutz said the case should lead Canadians to reflect on gun control and “the type of guns that are available in this country, and the type of people who are entitled to use these guns.”
Bourque legally purchased the semi-automatic rifle used in the attack.
