Court to wait until 2022 to sentence man who killed 10 people in Toronto van attack

TORONTO — The man who deliberately killed 10 people by driving a van down a Toronto sidewalk will be sentenced in 2022.

A judge found Alek Minassian, of Richmond Hill, Ont., guilty of 10 counts of first-degree murder and 16 counts of attempted murder earlier this year.

Justice Anne Molloy says the court is waiting on a decision from the Supreme Court of Canada about serving murder sentences consecutively before proceeding.

In 2011, Stephen Harper’s Conservative government introduce a provision to allow periods of parole ineligibility for multiple murders to be stacked on top of each other.

The Quebec Court of Appeal overturned the 40-year period of parole ineligibility for Alexandre Bissonnette, who pleaded guilty to six counts of first-degree murder after killing six people at a Quebec City mosque in 2017.

The Crown appealed to the Supreme Court after the appeal court found the consecutive sentencing provision to be unconstitutional.

The Crown in the Minassian case says the victims and their families also want to be able to read their victim impact statements in person, which is not currently possible due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Minassian is next scheduled to appear in court on Jan. 11, 2022 to possibly set a date for sentencing.