School bomber faces new trial

Omar Bulphred, who firebombed a Jewish school, served the entirety of his sentence and was re-arrested soon after his release, has been found fit to stand trial.

He was arrested for an alleged violation of his conditional release.

The 27-year-old appeared briefly before Quebec Court Judge Louis Legault at the Montreal courthouse Tuesday. His lawyer, Luc Vaillancourt, announced that a psychiatric evaluation requested in July is still not ready, but did determine that Bulphred is fit to stand trial.

Vaillan court waived Bulphred’s right to a bail hearing while acknowledging that if a bail hearing were held, there is enough evidence to keep his client detained.

The case will return to court on Nov. 20, at which point the psychiatric evaluation is expected to be ready.

Bulphred was arrested in July, less than a month after having served all 40 months of the prison term that remained when he was sentenced in 2009 to seven years. He pleaded guilty to five charges related to a fire set outside the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School in Outremont in 2006, and to attempting to set off an explosion at the YM-YWHA Ben Weider Jewish Community Centre, also known as the Snowdon Y, in 2007. No one was injured in the incidents.

While serving the sentence, Bulphred became a problem for Correctional Service Canada staff. He is alleged to have attacked a fellow resident at a halfway house and made subtle threats to the people who tried to prepare him for release.

As his sentence neared its end in June, Bulphred saw conditions imposed on his release, through a peace bond, in part because correctional service personnel feared for their safety.

A few weeks after his sentence expired, Bulphred was arrested by Montreal police and charged with uttering threats, five counts of loitering at residential addresses and with breaching his peace bond twice.