In Bold Defence

Sometimes the most unlikely people are  hailed for a heroic effort through actions which result in saving another person from harm. In the cause of Claude Bolduc, living in a halfway house in Montreal, the 66-year-old convicted murderer took action when he witnessed another convict in the halfway house assault a female social worker, in January.

While Mr. Bolduc's action did apprehend the assailant who was a convicted sex offender, from harming the social worker, he was himself turned on by the man whose attack on the woman he stopped. He was stabbed four times, necessitating that he undergo surgery. Sylvain Desrochers, 29, the attacker whose purpose Mr. Bolduc interrupted, faces seven charges, including attempted murder.

As for Mr. Bolduc, his selfless action so impressed the Parole Board of Canada that they have decided to grant full parole to Mr. Bolduc. It should, perhaps, be noted that Mr. Bolduc himself had sexually assaulted a young girl, in 1981. When his wife confronted him with her outrage at her discovery that her husband had committed a violent sexual assault on a child, he responded by murdering her.

He shot his wife in the head, killing her, and was convicted of murder, and given a life sentence, in 1982.  Mr. Bolduc had been diagnosed with bipolar schizo-affective disorder, which subsequent evaluations have confirmed. It is a disorder which affect on Mr. Bolduc can be paranoia and delusions based on religious views. He was evaluated in 2012 as immature, lacking the capacity for introspection, but of low risk of re offending-

He was never convicted of the sexual offence, but he did, at a later date, confesse that crime before the parole board.  "When questioned about your pedophilia you have recognized having been (mentally) disorganized at the time of (the murder and sexual assault) because of your mental health problems", wrote the author of the parole board summary.


He was permitted unescorted leaves in the hope of gradually releasing him into society. Permission for unescorted leaves had nine reviews before he was granted day parole in 2009. He has, since that time, lived at halfway houses while being given treatment for mental illness. His case continued to be reviewed, with the decision to prolong day parole.

The incident in which he prevented a female social worker from being attacked by a young man imprisoned for sexual predation and coming to physical harm in the effort, persuaded the Parole Board to advantage Mr. Bolduc with a full parole.

Society can but hope that this man, a pedophile and murderer, will remain committed to taking his medication to forestall the effects of his mental health condition from once again compelling him to acts of extreme violence.

The irony is that he obtained his freedom by intervening in an attack-in-the-making far less horrific in its nature than those he had himself committed, against a child and against his wife.