Toronto man sentenced to 5 1/2 years for arson fire that killed 4 pets

A Superior Court judge has sentenced a Toronto building superintendent to five-and-a-half years in prison for deliberately setting a fire at the Yonge Street apartment where he lived, calling the incident “a heinous act of petty revenge to get back at his domestic partner.”

Four animals the man’s girlfriend kept in the apartment were killed in the March 2018 fire.

Madam Justice Anny Molloy found Bradley Oliver applied an open flame to a materials in a room his girlfriend used as an office, where she kept items valuable to her. Along with clothing and other debris, the room contained a dog bed and a dried up Christmas tree.

The fire spread quickly and engulfed the room. Molloy said, “it was nothing short of miraculous” that the 11 residents who lived in the eight units of the three-story building escaped without injury. Molloy noted some of the tenants still suffer significant emotional trauma. Many lost their belongings were left homeless.

Molloy found Oliver guilty of arson – endangering life on April 11, 2023, but acquitted him on other charges, including assault and four counts of wilfully causing an injury to an animal.

The judge ruled that Oliver, who was 34-years-old at the time of the offence, set the fire after a loud and hostile argument with his girlfriend, who announced she was leaving and walked out. Olivier was also drunk and admitted on the stand that he consumed about 26 ounces of alcohol every day.

There were six animals in the apartment including two dogs, two cats, a rabbit and a gecko. The dogs somehow escaped the fire, but all four of the other animals, which belonged to Olivier’s girlfriend, were killed. The gecko and the rabbit were in cages. The judge said it was unknown how the dogs got out. Video surveillance shot by Global News at time appears to show Bradley Oliver being led away from the scene clutching a dog in his arms.

“After setting the fire, Oliver left the unit and sat in the stairwell near the exit door to the street. He didn’t call 911 nor made any attempts to contact other residents,” Molloy said.

A number of the residents on the third-floor of the building had to break the windows of their apartments to get out and were rescued with extended ladders. Three tenants on the main floor tried to run down the hall, but were driven back by smoke. They ran to a second floor deck area, where they had to hug the edge of the stairs to avoid the flames.

“I heard testimony from four residents who escaped the flames that night. All said they were terrified and lost all of their belongings,” Molloy told the court.

Oliver’s girlfriend told court that she looked back at the apartment 10 minutes after leaving and could see her room engulfed in flames.

“When she saw Mr. Oliver in the stairwell, she was hysterical about the animals. At this point, he went back into the building, ostensibly to rescue the animals. He was overcome by smoke. Firefighters had to go into the burning building to find Mr. Oliver, crawling with their hands. He was found unconscious. Apart from smoke inhalation, he was uninjured,” Molloy said, adding that when officials talked to him “the only thing he seemed to care about what was happened to his two dogs. He said nothing about the other animals, all of who perished in the fire.”

Molloy said that Oliver set the fire to punish his girlfriend. “He did not deliberately set out to kill her animals, however, he had to have known the animals would suffer and their deaths would be easily forseeable.” Molloy called the deaths of the animals and the suffering they endured seriously aggravating factors.

Molloy also deemed the fact the fire was set in the middle of the night an aggravating factor. “This was a fire on a busy street in Toronto. It represented a threat of harm to many people, to firefighters who battled the fire in dangerous conditions, including having to enter the blazing building to have to rescue Mr. Oliver.”

While Oliver is a first-time offender, other than an impaired driving conviction, the judge noted that he doesn’t accept the verdict and maintains his innocence.

“At trial, he acknowledged he caused the fire. His first version of events, given in an ambulance, he dropped the cherry off his cigarette and then he couldn’t find it. The second version (at) trial, he tipped over an ashtray full of butts, including one lit cigarette, and he couldn’t find the lit cigarette,” Molloy said she rejected both versions.

The judge also criticized Oliver’s elocution to the court before sentencing, saying he spent his time bemoaning his youth and blaming others for his own conduct. “He blamed it on his ‘insobriety.’ The critical point he seems to have missed is that he caused the fire,” Molloy said. She said she was also shocked that he spent the time congratulating himself on being sober since the day of the fire.

“Mr. Oliver is seriously lacking in insight and has a considerable way to go towards rehabilitation. There are programs available in the correctional system that may well assist him in the future.”

Crown attorneys suggested an eight-year sentence would be appropriate for Oliver. Defence counsel had suggested two years in prison less a day followed by three years probation.

“This was an extremely serious offence with grave danger to human life. There are few mitigating factors other than that he has no criminal record and he has stayed sober since then,” Molloy concluded, calling Olivier’s action “an impulsive act in a fit of childish revenge.”

Oliver spent 218 days in pretrial custody and the remaining time living under house arrest at his parents home.
After credit for pretrial custody, Oliver will be eligible for parole in three years and 11 months. Molloy also asked for a weapons ban, a DNA order, and told Olivier he is forbidden from having any contact with his ex-girlfriend.

Olivier hugged his mother before being walked away in handcuffs.