Montreal Jewish School Firebomber to be Released

The seven-year prison sentence for a man guilty of hate crimes will expire in just three days, as the 27-year-old responsible for setting a fire in a Montreal Jewish school will be released, however with extraordinary conditions, according to the Montreal Gazette.

Omar Bulphred received his sentence in 2009 after pleading guilty to uttering threats, setting a fire at the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School in Outremont in 2006 and trying to set off an explosion outside a Montreal Jewish community centre in 2007. The sentence is set to expire on June 11, as the time Bulphred spent in jail before his sentence left him with only three years left to serve.

While investigating the charges in 2009, police discovered letters in which Bulphred and another individual declared jihad and indicated that the crimes were committed in support of 18 men arrested in 2006 for suspicions of creating terrorism plots in Toronto.

While serving his sentence, Bulphred, who is believed to suffer from a personality disorder with signs of narcissism and paranoia, often posed problems for Correctional Service Canada (CSC) staff, the Gazette reports.

He allegedly threatened to kill a fellow inmate while at a halfway house in 2011 and was later returned to the Leclerc Institution, a medium-security penitentiary in Laval. There, Bulphred made malicious comments toward people on his case-management team, who tried to prepare him for his release, according to his most recent parole board decision.

Due to his behavior while in prison, Bulphred was ordered to serve his entire sentence, a rarity for inmates at federal penitentiaries.

While at a Laval courthouse earlier this week, Quebec Court Judge Gilles Garneau ordered that Bulphred follow a series of unusually strict conditions for the next two years following his release, citing the school firebombing as a reason.

He is not allowed “to communicate directly or indirectly with a member of the personnel of a detention establishment when he is released from [a penitentiary].” He is also not allowed “to follow” anyone who works for a detention establishment for the next two years and must stay at least 200 metres away from a halfway house in Quebec City.

Bulphred is also required to provide the Sûreté du Québec (SQ), with the address of where he will reside after he is released, follow a curfew and give the police 24 hours notice of any trip he makes outside of Quebec.

Two of the eight conditions Bulphred must adhere to stand out as they indicate CSC staff fear for their safety when Bulphred is released.

He allegedly told a parole officer that he had “asked a private investigator to clarify a situation and indicated members of (CSC) personnel might have been followed [outside of work], according to a written summary of a decision the Parole Board of Canada made in February.

“[Bulphred] added that if they have done nothing wrong, there will be no problems,”the summary of the decision states.

His case-management team interpreted the comments as indirect threats, according to the Gazette.