Conservative Leader Pierre Poièvre has blocked the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy, who were tortured and murdered by Paul Bernardo, from speaking directly to their daughters’ killers next week as Parole Commissioner of Canada He questions the basis of the association.
Tim Dunson, a longtime lawyer for the French and Mahaffey families, said the reason given by the parole board was a lack of safety.
“They’re in an emotional turmoil. This puts everything back together,” Danson told CBC Thursday morning.
He noted that Bernardo’s family was able to make direct statements in 2018 while he was being held in a high-security facility.
Last year, Bernardo was transferred to La Macaza Institute, a medium-security facility in Quebec.
“It’s very, very disturbing,” Danson said.
The families of two teenage girls murdered by Paul Bernardo have been denied the chance to read victim impact statements in person at the killer’s parole hearing. Metro Morning host David Common spoke to the family’s lawyer.
Poièvre suggested on social media Thursday morning that the federal government did not want Bernardo’s family to see his new living arrangements.
“The families of Paul Bernardo’s victims have been told they are unable to attend his parole hearings, even though they have attended them in person in the past,” he wrote on X.
“Is this because the government doesn’t want the victims’ families to see what this monster’s life is like after it’s removed from a high-security facility?”
The Parole Board of Canada has not yet responded to CBC’s request for comment.
A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Dominic LeBlanc said the parole board is also part of the commission’s portfolio and that it is an independent body that makes decisions independently.
Bernardo ‘loves it’, lawyer says
Bernardo, who is serving a life sentence for kidnapping, sexually assaulting and murdering teenagers French, 15, and Mahaffey, 14, in southern Ontario, had the help of his then-wife Carla Homolka. It’s a crime committed.
Although designated as a dangerous offender (a label given to Canada’s most brutal criminals), Bernardo is unlikely to be released from prison.
Danson said her family has the right to confront their daughter’s killer directly.
The Corrections and Conditional Release Act states that the commission “shall make every effort to ensure that victims and their families fully understand the need to attend the hearing and witness the proceedings.”
The law allows parole boards to restrict attendance if “the safety and order of the facility in which the hearing is held could be adversely affected by the person’s presence.”
”[The families] “We don’t want this to be sanitized through a computer screen,” Danson said. “It’s important that they are there.
“Paul Bernardo loves this. To him, this is all entertainment, and he’s disappointed in the inability of families to deliver victim impact statements as effectively as they have a right to do. are making a profit.”
B.C. Conservative MP Frank Caputo says he wants answers as to why the Parole Board of Canada barred the victim’s family from attending Paul Bernardo’s upcoming hearing in person.
Conservative MP Frank Caputo called the parole board’s decision “absolutely and obviously terrible” and called for more information.
“This is just wrong on so many levels,” the Kamloops, Thompson and Caribou MP said Wednesday.
“This has to change.”
