White supremacist pleads guilty to Quebec mosque murders

QUEBEC CITY: A white supremacist on trial for the 2017 attack on a Quebec mosque pleaded guilty Wednesday to the killing of six worshipers and six other charges of attempted murder. Alexandre Bissonnette, 28, had initially pleaded not guilty at the start of the trial on Monday, but changed his mind only a few hours later. A publication ban prevented reporting of those court deliberations at the time. “I’ve decided to plead guilty to all of the charges ... in order to prevent the families of the victims from having to relive” the horrors of the attack, he had said. Sobs erupted in the courtroom as Judge Francois Huot accepted Bissonnette’s change of heart, following a court-ordered psychiatric assessment. He could now face a life sentence, or a minimum of 25 years in prison.