SOUTH DUNDAS – Convicted Iroquois property developer Edouard Bonamie – who has been allowed out on day parole release since November 2024 – has been denied full parole.
Bonamie, 76, was sentenced at an Ottawa court in April 2024 after pleading guilty to four charges related to an international yacht fraud scheme which bilked three people out of over $1 million.
He was sentenced to three years in prison, and credited for 10 months of pre-trial custody against that sentence – requiring 22 months to still be served.
Bonamie applied for day parole and full parole in November 2024. The Parole Board of Canada approved his application for day parole on November 27, 2024 and denied the application for full parole that same day. Since then, Bonamie has been allowed to leave prison on a daily basis, and is required to return to the prison each evening. Day parole was granted for a six month term.
The terms of his day parole release conditions included that he cannot be self-employed, not operate or own a business, not be responsible for investments or financial matters for another person, business, charity, or an institution.
The decision to deny full parole was appealed by Bonamie – on April 15, 2025 that appeal was denied.
In the original denial of full parole, the PBC said that the board believed there would be challenges for Bonamie if granted full parole because it reduced the “guidance and structure you require.”
The Appeals Board of the PBC upheld the decision to deny full-parole saying that all its information and policies were upheld. Bonamie’s appeal claimed there was inaccurate information in his files, and that certain information was not disclosed within the required time frame. After a review, the Appeals Board said the claims were “without merit.”
Bonamie was charged in December 2021 with multiple counts of fraud and uttering forged documents by the Ottawa Police Service, who also linked him and multiple aliases to the South Dundas Waterfront Development Corporation. That company was involved in multiple property development proposals in South Dundas and near Brockville.
The SDWDC is still involved with multiple civil law suits relating to those developments and currently has over $2.5 million judgments against it. More files are still proceeding through the civil court.
When sentenced for his criminal actions, Bonamie was ordered to pay restitution to one remaining victim. The two other victims in the case had already received full restitution prior to sentencing, which the presiding judge – Justice Ann Alder – said was a factor in only receiving a three-year sentence.
In his application for day and full parole late in 2024, the PBC said that the remaining $550,000 U.S. restitution had not been repaid.
Bonamie was first convicted of fraud in 1972, and has been sentenced to federal prison five times over the past 50-plus years. His convictions have spanned from British Columbia to Quebec. Outside of his most recent conviction, Bonamie has served over 10 years in prison.
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