Former Montreal mayor Michael Applebaum has been granted parole on the sentence he received earlier this year for having received bribes for decisions made when he was a borough mayor.
Applebaum received a 12-month sentence which meant he was eligible for parole after having served two months, or one-sixth of the prison term.
The provincial parole board granted Applebaum a release after a hearing. He is required to follow a series of conditions for part of his release. One condition is that he carry out 20 hours of volunteer work a week.
He will also be required to report to a police station twice a week, is not allowed to be inside bars (a standard condition in all parole decisions) and he has to provide records of his finances to his parole officer.
The conditions are part of a process Applebaum will have to follow until July 27. According to the summary, if he violates any of the conditions he will be brought before the provincial parole board again to explain how he merits a release.
According to a summary of the decision made by the parole board, Applebaum took part in “zootherapy” during his two months behind bars and attended Alcoholics Anonymous meetings even though he is not known to have a drinking problem.
The summary also notes that Applebaum plans to return to his family, hopes to find a job and currently owes a large amount of money to his lawyer.
In January, Applebaum was convicted on eight charges including conspiracy to commit fraud against the government and breach of trust. Evidence presented during his trial revealed he accepted more than $55,000 in bribes related to Project Troie — a plan to build student residences near Université de Montréal at the corner of Troie and Decelles Aves., just north of Queen Mary Rd., that required a zoning change — and a contract to maintain an aquatics centre in NDG.
Quebec Court Judge Louise Provost called Applebaum’s crimes “a reprehensible breach of the fundamental values of our society.”
The crimes were committed between January 2006 and Dec. 31, 2010, a period during which Applebaum was the mayor of the Côte-des-Neiges—Notre-Dame-de-Grâce borough. He was arrested on June 17, 2013, while serving as interim mayor of Montreal since November 19, 2012.
He was arrested with Saulie Zajdel, a city councillor and Jean-Yves Bisson, the borough’s former inspections director. In 2015, Zajdel pleaded guilty to breach of trust by receiving between $10,000 and $15,000 for helping the developers. Bisson pleaded guilty to 121 The borough council approved the demolition of a building in 2007 and changed its zoning in 2011.
On March 30, he was sentenced to a 12-month prison that will be followed by two years of probation. Because the sentence was below two years it had to be served in a provincial detention centre which meant he was eligible to for parole after having served one-sixth of the term.
