Quebec mosque shooter sentenced to life in prison

A man who opened fire at a Quebec City mosque, killing six people in 2017, has been sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 40 years.

Alexandre Bissonnette, 29, pleaded guilty last year to six counts of first-degree murder and six counts of attempted murder in connection to the 2017 attack at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Center.

The prosecution had asked for a total of 150 years behind bars, which would have been the harshest jail penalty ever handed down in Canada.

Justice Francois Huot chose instead to allow for the possibility of parole within Bissonnette's natural life.

While reading his sentencing decision, the Quebec Superior Court judge said that "punishment should not be vengeance".

A first-degree murder conviction in Canada carries an automatic life sentence with no chance of parole for 25 years.

Witnesses said Bissonnette stormed the mosque during evening prayers on a Sunday and began firing indiscriminately into the crowd of men, women, and children.

In March, Bissonnette admitted to killing Khaled Belkacemi, 60, Azzedine Soufiane, 57, Abdelkrim Hassane, 41, Mamadou Tanou Barry, 42, Aboubaker Thabti, 44, and Ibrahima Barry, 39, in the January attack.

He also pleaded guilty to six counts of attempted murder, including one count for the 35 people who were present in the mosque at the time of the shooting but who were not injured.

"I am ashamed of what I did," he told a Quebec courtroom at the time. "I am not a terrorist, I am not an Islamophobe."

During the sentencing hearing Friday, Superior Court Justice Francois Huot described the attack as a hate crime.

"His (Bissonnette's) crimes were truly motivated by race, and a visceral hatred toward Muslim immigrants," Huot said.

Bissonnette will be 67 before he is eligible for parole.

During the sentencing phase, investigators said Bissonnette's online activity showed he was fascinated by serial killers and the alt-right movement and was a fan of US President Donald Trump's immigration policies.

Bissonnette told an investigator that he carried out the attack after seeing reports that the Canadian government would welcome more refugees into the country.