By The Canadian Press

New charges against man with al-Qaida ties as lawyer raises mental health concerns

Jan 8, 2026 | 9:43 AM

MONTREAL — A homeless man who had attended al-Qaida training camps and is charged with allegedly threatening to bomb public transit in Montreal is now also accused of issuing a threat from jail to blow up Passport Canada offices.

Mohamed Abdullah Warsame, a 52-year-old Somali-born Canadian citizen, appeared at the Montreal courthouse via video conference on Thursday. Warsame’s lawyer, Leonard Waxman, told reporters after the brief hearing in Quebec court that his client has had numerous mental health struggles and had been recently diagnosed with schizophrenia.

“He really has deep psychiatric problems,” Waxman said.

“We know that he’s sick … that doesn’t mean he won’t go to jail, but I want to see if I can do something psychiatrically for him because he’s not a well person and that’s the story.”

Warsame was arrested in June by the RCMP and charged with uttering threats for allegedly telling a staff member at Montreal’s Old Brewery homeless shelter that he was going to detonate bombs in the city’s public transit system.

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And earlier this week he was charged with uttering threats and perpetrating a terrorist hoax for allegedly using a jail phone in November to threaten to blow up the Passport Canada offices in Montreal and Quebec City.

Warsame pleaded guilty in Minnesota in 2009 to providing material support to the terrorist organization al-Qaida. According to his 2009 plea agreement, he travelled to Afghanistan in 2000 to attend al-Qaida training camps, where he met the organization’s founder, Osama bin Laden. He later sent money to one of bin Laden’s training camp commanders.

Warsame then relocated to Minneapolis, where he continued to provide information to al-Qaida associates throughout 2002 and 2003. He was arrested in December 2003 and spent five-and-a-half years in solitary before pleading guilty. And in 2009, Warsame was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison with credit for time served.

He was deported to Canada in October 2010.

On Thursday, Waxman said Warsame has no current links to terror groups. “Absolutely zero,” Waxman said, insisting his client did not pose a threat and lacks the means to carry one out.

“He can mouth off that he’s going to blow this up, blow that. I don’t even think he has a match to do it.”

Waxman noted that Warsame has no fixed address, lives on the street and has no assets. He doesn’t have a medicare card for Quebec or Ontario.

“He’s been homeless wandering around from city to city,” Waxman said. “He’s without revenue and he was living on the street, so that’s in his prospects: they’re going to send him to jail, he’s going to come out and be back on the street.”

Warsame was psychologically evaluated following his June 2025 arrest, but the results remain under seal. A month after his arrest, the federal Crown invoked a little-used Criminal Code provision on terrorism that would lead to Warsame facing life in prison if convicted on the uttering threats charge against Montreal’s metro system. The maximum sentence for uttering threats is usually five years.

In court on Thursday, Waxman asked for the case to be delayed so that the parties have time to negotiate.

Following the hearing, federal Crown prosecutor Samuel Monfette-Tessier said, “Everything is on the table, we are negotiating with defence counsel right now and we will pursue those negotiations.”

Warsame is scheduled to return to court March 9.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Jan. 8, 2026.

— With files from The Associated Press.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press