MURDER SENTENCES AND CONSECUTIVE PERIODS OF INELIGIBILITY OF PAROLE – A sentence of life imprisonment for first-degree murder is a life sentence. The convict is ineligible to APPLY for parole for 25 years. As in the McArthur case here, the court had to consider whether to make the periods of ineligibility for parole concurrent or consecutive. The judge has to consider, among many other things, the principle of faint hope, cruel and unusual punishment and the practicality of the result as well as the precedential value of the decision. It is, for sure, a controversial issue.

Bissonnette, who has already served two years in prison, will be eligible for parole when he is in his late 60s.

Source: Quebec mosque shooter Bissonnette sentenced to 40 years