ONTARIO — Zakaria Amara, a leader in the thwarted Toronto 18 terrorist plot, has been granted full parole, The Canadian Press reported October 16, citing a written Parole Board of Canada decision issued that day.

CP says the panel credited rehabilitation and four years of supervised day parole without reported breaches or safety concerns. Its account describes the board’s assessment that Amara had moved away from extremist beliefs; that finding is attributed to the board, not an independent TNC assessment.

Release conditions include counselling, financial monitoring and limits on communications and online activity. Restrictions on associations with people involved in crime or extremism also remain, with a specified exception for consulting work in a specialized program, CP reports.

Amara pleaded guilty in connection with the 2006 plot to cause potentially deadly explosions and received a life sentence. The planned attacks were disrupted, not carried out.

Full parole does not erase the sentence

The Parole Board’s public guidance explains that full parole permits a person to live in the community while serving the sentence under supervision and conditions. It is not an acquittal or the cancellation of a conviction.

For someone serving a life sentence, supervision and parole conditions continue for life. The board can revoke parole and return the person to prison if conditions are breached. Full parole is also different from statutory release, which does not apply to life sentences.

Sources: Paola Loriggio, The Canadian Press via CHCH, October 16 at 6:58 p.m. Eastern; Parole Board: types of conditional release; Parole Board: sentence and lifetime-supervision explanation. TNC reviewed the full CP report and these public explanations, not the individual parole decision itself.

Lead image: TNC archive AI-generated illustration of courthouse doors, used as a general justice-system visual. It is not a photograph of Amara, his parole hearing or a particular Parole Board office.