Bernardo parole hearing today
“You have no right ever to be released.”
Justice Patrick LeSage handed those words down to serial sex killer Paul Bernardo 23 years ago along with a dangerous offender (DO) designation and a possibly infinite sentence.
While it is true that Canada’s most infamous offender has no given right to ever walk among us again, he does have a right to ask for his freedom.
Today, he is set to do just that. Bernardo, a 54-year-old diagnosed narcissist, sexual sadist and psychopath, is scheduled to have a Parole Board of Canada (PBC) hearing at Bath Institution, a medium-security prison just outside of Kingston.
In what is perhaps still the most notorious trial in Canadian history, Bernardo was found guilty in 1995 of the rapes and murders of Leslie Mahaffy, 14, of Burlington and Kristen French, 15, of St. Catharines.
Both girls would be 42 now. Their school photos — iconic now — are immediately recognizable to all of us old enough to remember the desperate and sweeping searches after their abductions, the panic throughout Southern Ontario and the sickening details of their murders that leaked past unprecedented publication bans.
Bernardo raped, tortured and killed Leslie in June 1991 at his Port Dalhousie home, then dismembered her and encased her remains in blocks of cement, which he threw into Lake Gibson in Thorold.
He kept Kristen captive for three days in April 1992, repeatedly raping her before torturing and killing her.
He was found guilty of two counts each of first-degree murder, kidnapping, forcible confinement, aggravated sexual assault and one count of committing an indignity to a human body.
Bernardo always maintained that while he raped the teens — much of it recorded on video — he did not kill them. He claimed that was done by his accomplice and wife, Karla Homolka, who served a mere 12 years for two counts of manslaughter (a plea deal made before the videotapes were discovered) and is now living with her husband and three children in Montreal.
At his DO hearing, Bernardo furthermore admitted to raping and fatally drugging his 15-yearold sister-in-law Tammy Homolka. And he confessed to another 32 rape-related crimes, including sexual assault and robbery, involving 14 young women in Scarborough.
Later still, he admitted to his
lawyer that he raped another 10 women.
Before I go much further, let me say this — it is highly, highly unlikely Bernardo will ever be granted any kind of release. Ever. He will almost certainly die in prison.
DOs are under the jurisdiction of the Correctional Service of Canada for life. They will not be conditionally released “unless and until they are deemed to no longer pose an undue risk to the community,” says the PBC.
One of the many, many factors that may cause the board members to deny his parole will be his denial stance. Murderers, such as Hamilton triple-killer Jon Rallo, are frequently denied parole requests if they refuse to take responsibility for their crime. Parole board members say they cannot set proper conditions and order treatment for an offender if they don’t have insight into what motivated the crime in the first place.
At the end of 2017, there were 747 DOs in Canada. Between April 1, 1994, and April 8, 2018, just 52 DOs were supervised in the community under some form of release, according to the PBC.
On Feb. 17, 2015, Bernardo became eligible for unescorted temporary absences into the community and day parole. He has had neither. On Feb. 17 of this year, he became eligible for full-parole after serving 25 years, some of which was spent in jail between his arrest and conviction.
He has scheduled hearings several times in the past, but cancelled before they happened. The PBC has warned approved observers for this week’s hearing that “offenders have the option of waiving their right to a hearing or postponing the hearing, even up to the last minute.”
Once Bernardo has actually had a hearing, the Criminal Code of Canada will require the parole board to review his case every two years.
This hearing and even Bernardo’s cancellations are hell for the Mahaffy and French families. In the past their lawyer, Tim Danson, has said they have gone through the agony of preparing victim impact statements and booking hotel rooms, only to have the hearing called off.
While the usual process for a hearing is for everyone to be in the same room, this time “due to capacity issues, members of the media will be permitted to observe the hearing by way of video conference,” the PBC says. Journalists will be locked into the prison, but will not be in the same room as Bernardo.
No photos or recordings of Bernardo will be allowed. Journalists are permitted a pen and notebook only.
While the hearing is happening at Bath Institution, Bernardo lives in solitary confinement next door at maximum security Millhaven Institution. Offenders are permitted to have a lawyer or agent sit beside them at the hearing to support them and even speak on their behalf.
Earlier this month, Kingston lawyer Fergus O’Connor represented Bernardo when he faced a new criminal charge after a homemade shank made from a screw and a pen were found in his cell.
Bernardo appeared via video in a Napanee courtroom while O’Connor told the judge his client has been well behaved in “very hard conditions of confinement” and has the support of his “loving parents” who visit him regularly.
He added that Bernardo has made a “determined effort not to make up for what he’s done — for that can never be done — but to improve himself.”
The charge was ultimately withdrawn because the Crown said there was no reasonable prospect of conviction. There was a suggestion that the shank was planted in Bernardo’s cell.
Calls to O’Connor to inquire if he will represent Bernardo at his parole hearing were not returned.
Toronto lawyer Tony Bryant, who has represented Bernardo in the past, says he is not involved in the parole hearing.
Occasionally, news of Bernardo’s prison life has surfaced. There was a beating he took by another inmate. And a woman who claimed to have had Bernardo’s child. And a long and badly written thriller he wrote and self-published on Amazon, a novel which includes a murder plot that Danson once said he would scour for scenes of violence to use against Bernardo’s parole applications.
Because although the chance is remote of Bernardo ever walking among us again, that chance is horrifying.
Susan Clairmont’s commentary appears regularly in The Spectator.