New charge probable for school firebomber
Accused of violating earlier conditions
A sentencing hearing for a man accused of violating conditions imposed on him after he completed his sentence for firebombing a Jewish school in Outremont was delayed Thursday when the court was informed Omar Bulphred probably faces an additional charge.
Last July, eight charges were filed against Bulphred, 27, for alleged violation of conditions placed on him in June, before he finished serving the entirety of the 40-month term he was left with in the firebombing case.
In 2009, he pleaded guilty to setting a fire outside the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School in Outremont in 2006, and an attempt 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 either fire.
While investigating the fires, Montreal police found letters written by Bulphred’s accomplice, in which both men declared jihad while demanding the liberation of 18 men arrested in 2006 on terrorism charges in Toronto.
Bulphred was a serious problem for the Correctional Service of Canada while serving his sentence. He allegedly attacked a fellow resident of a halfway house and made an indirect threat to parole officers by implying he had hired a private investigator to follow CSC staff to their homes.
As his sentence neared its end, last June 11, Bulphred agreed to sign a peace bond that included the condition he not communicate with CSC staff. He was arrested less than a month later and charged in the current case.
On Dec. 20, Bulphred appeared before Quebec Court Judge Louise Bourdeau for what was supposed to be a formality hearing and pleaded guilty to uttering threats. The seven other charges filed against him in July — violating his peace bond and five counts of loitering — are still pending.
On Thursday, defence lawyer Charles Montpetit asked for a delay in the sentencing because he was informed by prosecutor Steeve Larivière that Bulphred will likely face a new charge next week. The charge involves a letter Bulphred recently sent to a corrections officer, which would be a violation of his peace bond.
Bourdeau agreed to delay the case to Feb. 5.