Parole board open to allowing victims' families to confront Paul ...

Catharine Tunney · CBC News

· Posted: Nov 20, 2024 1:59 PM EST | Last Updated: 36 minutes ago

The Parole Board of Canada says it will now try to accommodate the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy — teenagers who were tortured and killed by Paul Bernardo — so they can confront their daughters' murderer in person next week.

The swift reversal follows a wave of mounting backlash after the families' lawyer revealed late Tuesday that the victims' mothers had been blocked from delivering their victim statements in person at Bernardo's upcoming parole hearing. 

Tim Danson, longtime lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, said the reason the parole board gave was that it couldn't ensure safety. 

"[The families] are in emotional turmoil. This brings back everything," Danson told CBC Wednesday morning. 

He noted the families were able to deliver their statements in person back in 2018, when Bernardo was being held at a maximum security facility.

Bernardo was moved last year to La Macaza Institute, a medium security facility in Quebec.

"It's very, very disturbing," said Danson.

In a statement issued Wednesday evening, a spokesperson for the parole board said the tribunal body is "working to accommodate the in-person presentation of statements by victims" ahead of Bernardo's Nov. 26 hearing. 

The board did not further explain the safety concerns it mentioned to Danson.

"When scheduling hearings, the PBC must take into consideration a wide range of factors," said spokesperson Iulia Pescarus Popa in a media statement.

"These may include the board's ability to accommodate all observers in an institutional hearing room, to ensure the safe proximity of all attendees during the hearing, or operational considerations such as hearing management."

The federal government has maintained that the parole board is independent. That didn't stop MPs from speaking out. 

Defence Minister Bill Blair, who was a Toronto police officer during Bernardo's serial rapes and murders, said he disagrees with the board's decision in this case.

"I think, like most Canadians ... the French and Mahaffy families have every right to make the impact those terrible crimes have had on their families, they have a right to be heard," he said.

"I would strongly support revisiting that particular decision."

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called on the federal government to intervene and accused it of not wanting the families to see Bernardo's new living conditions.

WATCH | Mothers of Bernardo's victims have been let down by justice system again, lawyer says 

"The families of Paul Bernardo's victims are being told they cannot attend his parole hearings in person, despite having done so in the past," he posted to X.

"Is this because the government doesn't want his victims' families to see what this monster's life is like after he was moved out of a maximum security facility?"

During an exchange in question period Wednesday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused Poilievre of using the families' grief for political gain.

Earlier in the day, Gabriel Brunet, a spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc, said the minister was told by the board's chair, Joanne Blanchard, that the tribunal was reviewing its decision. 

"Minister LeBlanc has been assured by the chairperson of the Parole Board she is reconsidering and exploring all possible alternative options to ensure the victims have the ability to read statements in person," Brunet wrote in an email to CBC News.

Bernardo is serving a life sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering southern Ontario teenagers French, 15, and Mahaffy, 14 — crimes he committed with the help of his then-wife Karla Homolka. 

Designated a dangerous offender — a label reserved for Canada's most brutal criminals — Bernardo is not likely to ever be released from prison.

Danson has argued that the laws should be changed so that victims don't have to go though the parole board process every few years. Until that happens, he said, the families have the right to confront their daughters' killer in person.

The Corrections and Conditional Release Act says the board "shall make every effort to fully understand the need of the victim and of the members of his or her family to attend the hearing and witness its proceedings."

The act does allow the parole board to restrict attendance if "the security and good order of the institution in which the hearing is to be held is likely to be adversely affected by the person's presence." 

"[The families] don't want this to be sanitized through a computer screen," Danson said. "It's important that they're there.

"Paul Bernardo is loving this. This is all entertainment for him and he benefits by the families not being able to deliver their victim impact statements as effectively as they have a right to do."

WATCH | 'It is completely wrong' to bar victims' families, Conservative MP says 

Liberal MP Chris Bittle represents St. Catharines, Ont., where French was killed. He called the original decision "completely unacceptable" and said it "ignores the pain of victims and undermines public trust in the board."

Conservative MP Frank Caputo called the parole board's decision "absolutely and positively awful."

"It's just so wrong on so many levels," said the Kamloops—Thompson—Cariboo MP Wednesday.

"This has to change."

The matter was also raised in the Senate on Wednesday.

Conservative Sen. Don Plett  questioned how this decision could be made and called the teens' murders "one of the most horrific crimes that our country has ever known." 

Sen. Marc Gold, the government's representative, pointed out that the parole board operates independently but said the government of Canada "disagrees with the decision."

Bernardo was also convicted in 1995 in the death of his 15-year-old sister-in-law, Tammy Homolka.

Karla Homolka initially portrayed herself as an unwilling participant who feared her abusive husband. It later emerged — after she made a plea deal with prosecutors to testify against Bernardo — that she played an active role in the torture and deaths of French, Mahaffy and her sister.

Homolka served 12 years for the lesser count of manslaughter in the French and Mahaffy slayings — a sentence described in the media as "a deal with the devil."