Can a 'psychopath' get better? Man with terrorism history who threatened death to corrections staff released from custody
Daniel Khoshnood convicted of threatening parole officer at Kent released in Chilliwack Tuesday, required to leave town, and be on an Air Canada flight to Toronto within 24 hours
First the bad news: A man connected to terrorists once found to have a “high degree of psychopathy with a significant tendency to reoffend violently,” and who threatened his parole officer inside Kent Institution with violent murder was released Tuesday (Feb. 18, 2025) from custody in Chilliwack.
The good news (for British Columbia and his victim at least): One of the conditions of Daniel Khoshnood's release is that he will report to a probation officer immediately in Chilliwack if the office is still open. He will then be escorted by his lawyer to get his belongings from Surrey Pretrial, be taken to Vancouver Airport where his lawyer will wait with him until he gets on an Air Canada flight to Toronto.
Justice Andrea Ormiston ordered that by 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Khoshnood be out of Chilliwack. He's also now allowed to be in B.C.
“Is he an unrepentant psychopath or is he a person who can move forward in his life in a positive way and not make people fearful?” Crown counsel Aaron Burns asked rhetorically at the sentencing hearing in BC Supreme Court in Chilliwack.
"There is some argument on both sides of the coin."
UPDATE: Khoshnood posted this photo of himself after 8 p.m. on Feb. 19, 2025, one day after he was ordered out of British Columbia and to be on a plane to Toronto by a justice in the BC Supreme Court, convicted of intimidating a justice system participant for repeatedly threatening death to his parole officer at Kent Institution in 2016 and 2017.
Khoshnood also followed yours truly minutes later and left comment: "Thank you for supporting me. Love you all." He then confirmed after asking that he made it "home," presumably meaning Toronto.
Khoshnood, whose mother and father were refugees from Bulgaria and Iran respectively, was born in Toronto, spent the ages of three to approximately eight in Bulgaria after which he came back to Toronto. He had a tumultuous youth and the now 33-year-old has spent most of his adult life behind bars, most recently serving a seven-year sentence for entering a hotel in Toronto with a gun and bear spray and spraying two men. He was arrested at a jewelry store nearby before he could reach for his gun. He had apparently wanted to shoot a police officer.
While Khoshnood was serving that sentence in Ontario, his bad behaviour got him shipped to Kent Institution, a maximum security institution in Agassiz. As he was approaching the statutory release date in 2016, his parole officer at Kent, who can't be named at this time because of a publication ban, was planning to recommend his release.
A psychological assessment, however, found "a very high degree of psychopathy with a significant tendency to reoffend violently and generally at a very high rate." This changed the parole officer's mind about his statutory release. Khoshnood wasn't happy.
After the psych report killed his chance of an early release, while meeting with his parole officer on July 15, 2016, he claimed that Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) staff were increasing his risk to injure those very CSC workers. He made various overt and veiled threats to staff. Speaking to his parole officer, the victim in the case. He expressed his admiration for the Tunisian man who drove a cargo van into a crowd in Nice, France, killing 86 people one day prior to the conversation, on July 14, 2016.
“You will not win,” Burns quoted Khoshnood as saying to staff that day. “You will not win. Islam will spread to all four corners of the world. We will win this war.” And then he said something in Arabic.
Months later he suggested he would punch out a correctional officer when he was denied a request to be put in segregation. He later said he should be released and when that happened, he would be able too come back and do "whatever he wanted."
He said he could come back with an assault rifle and start shooting people in the parking lot, which helped further lead the parole officer to became afraid and recommend his continued detention.
The victim was not in the courtroom, but I spoke with her in the courthouse hallway. She was visibly shaken and told me that "it is true" how Khoshnood threatened her for years.
The court heard that he wrote a disparaging letter about her, calling her "the worst subhuman I've ever met," telling her that in "my country women like you wear face veils," and "you feminist women make me sick." He said in his country, presumably meaning Iran, women don't talk back to men.
"It’s about time you learned some manners and some respect," Khoshnood told his female parole officer according to Burns.
"She felt this was threatening."
His behaviour continued until January 2017, when he also told correctional managers he was going to kill them.
"I fucking know where you work," he said to one correctional manager. "I will shoot you in the face."
A little man with big, horrific threats
The diminutive Khoshnood was escorted by a sheriff into the courtroom wearing leg shackles and handcuffs. He wore socks with no shoes, black cargo pants, a blue hoodie. He had very short black hair a short black beard. The top of his head was at the sheriff's shoulder, I'd estimate he is 5'2" at most.
All of the threats that were the subject of this case happened years before he was released from Kent in October 2019. Khoshnood was not arrested or charged with the 2016-2017 threats to the parole officer at that time. Like this week, he was shipped to Ontario where he was quickly found in the company of known terrorists. In April 2021, a warrant allowed police to search his phone where they found terrorist propaganda in addition to the cellphone number of the psychologist who diagnosed him at Kent.
Most disturbingly and something that cause crippling fear for the parole officer is that he had her home address on his phone.
This prompted a duty to warn the parole officer back in B.C. That is when the evidence of the criminal threats were discovered. At that time, Khoshnood was on a terrorism peace bond, which elapsed on June 6, 2022, after which he was arrested by RCMP and charged with one count of intimidating a justice system participant and four counts of uttering threats and he was shipped to B.C.
On Tuesday in B.C. Supreme Court in Chilliwack, Khoshnood pleaded guilty to the one count of intimidating a justice system participant.
He has been living at Surrey Pretrial from June 6, 2022 until the release on Feb. 18, 2025. With a joint sentencing submission of 36 months, he had already served 32 months in Surrey, which equates to 48 months with the standard 1.5-to-one credit for time served.
Justice Ormiston asked Crown if involvement from the Attorney General of Canada was required to move him from province to province when released from custody. Crown counsel Wray explained the complicated circumstances of the release that included a level of "courtesy supervision" in Toronto.
"Is there a possibility this could go all wrong? Yes," she said. "If Mr. Khoshnood decides he is not going to comply... there are avenues."
She said if he does not comply, it's possible to lay a criminal breach charge in B.C. even though the breach would be in Ontario.
"If he chooses that, he is going to disregard this opportunity that he is given," she said. "Part of our concern in all of this was getting him out of B.C. to Toronto. That gives the greatest protection to the victim.
"We are all optimistic that Mr. Khoshnood is going to comply with the plan. "
The criminal charges discussed in court this week relate to matters from eight years ago, and the court heard that he has changed. While he violated his release orders leading to the peace bond in 2021, he has been in custody now for more than two years where he has been doing quite well.
His defence counsel presented numerous letters from people who spoke to his efforts to move on with his life.
As for the practical considerations of him being released from custody with an order to leave the province, Burns explained that his lawyer planned to take him to Chilliwack community corrections to report, then they would leave the city and not return. He said they would go to Surrey Pretrial to get his belongings, she would take him to the airport and wait there until he gets on his flight. A variation was later made in case the probation office in Chilliwack is closed so that he can report in Scarborough, which is a neighbourhood to Toronto where he will be living.
Burns said further that security staff at the Vancouver Airport have been briefed with respect to the situation, his identification, and they have cleared him in advance so as to not hinder the probation order.
The parole officer who currently can't be named because of a court-ordered publication ban spoke to me and wants to tell her story about how she was treated by CSC in this case. Crown will be seeking a mandatory desk order to have the ban on her name lifted because she wants it lifted.
I'll be sitting down with her in the coming days and hope to tell her story.
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Paul J. Henderson
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