At his first application for bail release, in June 2003, it was proposed that Almrei, who has no family in Canada, could live with Dr. Diana Ralph and her partner Jean Hanson, who spent C$38,000 renovating their basement apartment to accommodate Almrei and offered C$10,000 in cash towards the bail amount. As evidence that Almrei was not an extremist, Ralph pointed out that he had accepted her, a Jewish lesbian, as a close friend and had told her that only God could judge people.