The Parole Board of Canada says it’s now working to permit victims’ households to attend Paul Bernardo’s parole listening to and ship their sufferer influence statements in particular person.
The Parole Board of Canada says it’s now working to permit victims’ households to attend Paul Bernardo’s parole listening to and ship their sufferer influence statements in particular person.
A lawyer representing the households of two teenage ladies murdered by infamous killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo stated that they had been denied the best to ship their statements in particular person at Bernardo’s upcoming parole listening to. The difficulty was raised by Conservative Chief Pierre Poilievre throughout query interval within the Home of Commons Wednesday.
Nonetheless, in a press release late Wednesday, the parole board it’s now “at the moment working to accommodate the in-person presentation of statements by victims” who want to seem on the Nov. 26 listening to.
In a letter despatched to the Parole Board of Canada chairperson and others, lawyer Tim Danson had stated he was just lately knowledgeable the victims’ households wouldn’t have the ability to attend the listening to on the medium-security La Macaza Establishment in Quebec as a result of the board was “unable to make sure security and safety of all listening to attendees.”
Danson had stated the households demanded the listening to be adjourned to subsequent month or another date in order that they and their legal professionals can journey to La Macaza and skim their sufferer influence statements in particular person.
In its assertion, the parole board stated it takes a variety of things into consideration when scheduling hearings, together with the board’s “potential to accommodate all observers in an institutional listening to room, to make sure the protected proximity of all attendees throughout the listening to, or operational concerns reminiscent of listening to administration.”
It stated it “makes each effort to accommodate a sufferer’s requested technique of attendance.” The assertion added that each one victims’ statements carry the identical weight, whether or not they’re delivered in particular person or not, and famous that the majority of its hearings are held nearly.
Bernardo was transferred from the maximum-security Millhaven Establishment in Ontario to the medium-security La Macaza final 12 months, a choice that prompted public outcry.
Bernardo, who’s designated as a harmful offender, is serving an indeterminate life sentence for the kidnapping, sexual assault and homicide of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy within the early Nineties close to St. Catharines, Ont.
He was additionally convicted of manslaughter within the December 1990 dying of his then-wife Karla Homolka’s 15-year-old sister, Tammy.
In a press release, a spokesperson for federal Public Security Minister Dominic LeBlanc stated the Parole Board, as a quasi-judicial physique, makes its choices independently.
“Our hearts exit to the households of the victims, who proceed to reside with the trauma brought on by this particular person’s abominable crimes,” LeBlanc’s press secretary Gabriel Brunet wrote.
Chatting with reporters on Parliament Hill on Wednesday morning, Conservative MP Frank Caputo stated the choice to disclaim the households the best to attend was “so unsuitable on so many ranges.”
“Why is it that the security and safety of the jail on this occasion is stopping individuals from exercising their rights beneath the Victims Invoice of Rights?” stated Caputo, one of many celebration’s critics for justice and public security.
The federal ombudsperson for victims of crime, Benjamin Roebuck, stated in a press release that victims’ preferences about attending a listening to in particular person or nearly are taken under consideration, however not assured.
“Parole hearings occur inside extremely secured environments, so if there are particular security or safety issues which have been used to find out the format of a listening to, they need to be clearly defined,” Roebuck stated.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Nov. 20, 2024.
The Canadian Press
