THE BUG
 
On Air Now:
 
 

No early parole for convicted firebomber targetting Jewish institutions

Thu, 2009-07-30 16:26.
Shuyee Lee

No early parole for a 23-year-old Montreal man sentenced to seven years in prison in the firebombings of a Jewish community centre and an orthodox boys' school in Montreal.


The National Parole Board has refused Omar Bulphred's request.

The Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys school in Outremont was attacked in September 2006 and the Ben Wieder community centre in Snowdon was targeted in April 2007.
 

Police seized letters that claimed the crimes were committed in the name of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that has vowed to destroy Israel and set up an Islamic Palestinian state. The letters hinted that further acts were forthcoming. The letters were traced to Bulphred and his accomplice Azim Ibragimov. Wiretaps revealed plans Bulphred and Ibragimov had to kill someone coming out from the annual gay and lesbian rave party Bal en Blanc, by carving him up like a chicken.


Bulphred was considered the mastermind of the plots.

He was sentenced in February and it seems early for parole but Bulphred was already in detention for two years which counts as double, so he's technically served half his sentence.


And parole officials say the time inside has made Bulphred a little scarier.


Their report says they found a pile of things he wrote about fantasy killings, dismemberment, conversations about the ecstasy of murder and his desire to start again, the Polytechnique and Dawson shootings, and the renaissance of terrorism.


They also point out that while he was in preventive detention, he tried to hit a prison guard with a pointed wooden stick; when he was younger he was convicted of armed assault; he threatened his janitor by saying he could kill someone with a container of pills he was holding, telling him it was arsenic.


The parole board concluded that Bulphred represents a high risk of re-offending and that it's better he remain behind bars.