In a ruling that could set a sentencing benchmark for the most serious crimes in the country, the Supreme Court of Canada is set to announce the number of years the gunman who killed six people in a Quebec City mosque will have to spend in prison before becoming eligible for parole. Alexandre Bissonnette pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder for his attack on worshippers at the Islamic Cultural Centre on Jan. 29, 2017. In deciding the minimum number of years Bissonnette should spend in prison before he is eligible for parole, the Supreme Court of Canada examined the constitutionality of a sentencing provision introduced in 2011 by Stephen Harper's Conservative government. That provision gave judges discretionary powers to hand out consecutive blocks of parole ineligibility periods for multiple first-degree murders. Initially, Bissonnette was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 40 years — the longest period of parole ineligibility ever imposed in Quebec. That decision was overturned in November 2020 by the Quebec Court of Appeal, which cut Bissonnette's wait for parole eligibility to 25 years. Crown prosecutors are now asking that Bissonnette wait 50 years before being eligible for parole