The Parole Board of Canada says it is “working to accommodate” the families of the victims murdered by notorious serial killer and rapist Paul Bernardo to appear at his upcoming parole hearing in person, after the families’ lawyer said they had been barred from attending.
Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence and was transferred from maximum- to medium-security prison last year, is scheduled to appear for a parole hearing next week at Quebec’s La Macaza prison.
“The Board is currently working to accommodate the in-person presentation of statements by victims at the November 26 hearing of Paul Bernardo, for those victims who wish to do so,” said a statement from the Parole Board of Canada to Global News late Wednesday.
The statement came hours after Global News reported on a letter from Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, who were murdered as teenagers by Bernardo, that claimed his clients’ legal right to attend the hearing and read their victim impact statements in person had been denied.
The letter, shared with Global News, was dated Tuesday and addressed to Joanne Blanchard, the chairperson of the Parole Board of Canada, Correctional Service of Canada commissioner Anne Kelly and Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc.
“We have just been advised that the families’ statutory right to be physically present at Mr. Bernardo’s November 26, 2024 parole hearing and to read their Victim Impact Statements in person, in the physical presence of Mr. Bernardo and the Parole Board panel, has been denied,” Danson wrote in the letter.
“Other than a bald reference to the PBC being ‘unable to ensure safety and security of all hearing attendees,’ we have not been provided with any further details.”
Danson argued that this does not meet the criteria stated in the Corrections and Conditional Release Act.
According to the act, the parole board can deny a person from attending a review hearing 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.”
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The parole board’s statement Wednesday did not say why the families’ requests to speak in person were denied. It said the board “must take into consideration a wide range of factors” when scheduling hearings, including “the Board’s ability to accommodate all observers” in a hearing room, “to ensure the safe proximity of all attendees during the hearing, or operational considerations such as hearing management.”
The statement said victims who wish to participate remotely can also do so by videoconference.
“Victim statements, whether submitted in writing, via video or audio recording, or presented at a hearing in person or by videoconference, carry the same weight and are considered in the same way by Board members in their decision-making,” it said.
Danson wrote the denial of an in-person appearance was “unacceptable” and “remarkably insensitive” to the Mahaffy and French families.
“It was nothing short of gut-wrenching to experience the painful and heartbreaking reaction of Debbie Mahaffy and Donna French when they learned that the PBC was prohibiting them from representing their daughters (and themselves), and denying them the right to confront Paul Bernardo, in person, through the reading of their Victim Impact Statements,” the letter said.
“This was truly a shock to their system. It was bone chilling – an insult so deep and hurtful that, (figuratively speaking), it set victims’ rights back to the stone age.”
“It is incredible how the ‘system’ is there to assist and benefit Canada’s most notorious sadist, sexual psychopath and murderer, but not his victims, who suffer every day,” Danson wrote.
Danson urged that Bernardo’s parole hearing be adjourned to December or a later date to accommodate the families and counsel so they can travel to La Macaza.
In an emailed statement to Global News Wednesday, Gabriel Brunet, a spokesperson for LeBlanc, said the parole board is an arms-length quasi-judicial body and its “decisions are made independently.”
“Our hearts go out to the families of the victims, who continue to live with the trauma caused by this individual’s abominable crimes,” Brunet said.
“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.”
During question period Wednesday, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre accused the Liberal government of “blocking” the French and Mahaffy families from the hearing and asked why LeBlanc didn’t intervene in the parole board’s decision.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by saying Poilievre was using the issue for political purposes.
“The leader of the opposition knows full well these are decisions taken by the arms-length parole board and the minister is engaged on this issue,” Trudeau said. “But it won’t prevent him from instrumentalizing the grief and anguish of families who are victims of crime for his own narrow personal gain.”
Bernardo has been serving a life sentence for the kidnappings, tortures and murders of French and Mahaffy in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ont. He and his then-wife Karla Homolka also killed her younger sister, Tammy Homolka.
Bernardo, 60, was transferred to a medium-security prison in Quebec in June last year, a move that set off a firestorm across the country, and engulfed the Liberal government in controversy.
Bernardo had been living out his sentence in maximum-security prisons until then.
A review into his controversial transfer concluded that the decision to move Bernardo was “sound.”
At the time, Danson said his clients were not told about the move beforehand. The incident ultimately prompted a review into the Correctional Service of Canada’s victim services, including its notification protocols.
—With files from Global’s Shallima Maharaj
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