Paul Bernardo, one of Canada’s most notorious criminals, is scheduled to have a hearing before the Parole Board of Canada later this month. Bernardo was convicted in 1995 of the murders of Tammy Homolka, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. He is serving an indefinite sentence as a dangerous offender. He was convicted of the kidnapping, sexual assault and murders of 15-year-old Kristen French and 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy in the early 1990s near St. Catharines, Ont. His trial for the murders shocked Canada because of the cold-blooded nature of the slayings. He was also convicted of manslaughter in the December 1990 death of his then-wife Karla Homolka’s 15-year-old sister, Tammy. Homolka pleaded guilty to manslaughter for her role in the crimes against French and Mahaffy and received a 12-year sentence. She was released from prison in 2005.
Bernardo has also admitted to sexually assaulting 14 other women.
The parole hearing is scheduled to be held on Nov. 26. It will be Bernardo’s third attempt at parole. When he was rejected in 2018, the parole board determined that he “showed minimal insight” into his crimes. In 2021, the National Post reported that Bernardo was rejected again after he asked for full parole and anti-sex drive medication, also known as chemical castration. His transfer last year to a penitentiary in Quebec touched off a controversy because he was moved from a maximum-security penitentiary in Ontario to a medium-security institution in Quebec. This created a political firestorm, and the commissioner of Correctional Service Canada was called to appear before a parliamentary committee to explain the decision late last year.
Bernardo's Troubling Transfer
Although his crimes were carried out in Ontario, Bernardo was transferred to a federal penitentiary in Quebec last year. The move from Millhaven sparked understandable outrage across the country. Most of us assumed he would live out the rest of his miserable days behind the bars of a maximum-security prison after he was declared a dangerous offender and sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years for kidnapping, torturing and killing 14-year-old Leslie in 1991 and 15-year-old Kristen in 1992. Bernardo was also found guilty of the manslaughter and sexual assault of his 15-year-old sister-in-law, Tammy Homolka, and has admitted raping 14 other women. If anyone seemed destined to be a lifer in maximum, it was the doughy former accountant.
Bernardo was nothing if not determined. He’d been trying to get out of a maximum-security prison since 1999, but his reclassification was overridden 13 times. In July 2022, though, he was suddenly considered successfully “integrated” with other inmates and reclassified in February 2023 to medium security. His transfer to La Macaza, near Mont Tremblant, was approved a month later.
But no one bothered to tell his victims’ families that after almost 30 years, their daughters’ remorseless killer was getting sprung from maximum. They were only informed on the morning of May 29, 2023, just hours before Bernardo was on his merry way to the comfortable medium-security prison which is also home to cannibal killer Luka Magnotta and Tori Stafford’s slayer, Michael Rafferty. A review by Corrections Canada concluded the transfer decision was “sound” but should have been shared earlier with Bernardo’s victims.
Will His Third Attempt at Parole Be Successful?
More than a year has passed, the furor has died down, so of course it was time for the narcissistic psychopath to toy with his victims again and schedule another stab at parole. At his 2021 hearing, his parole officer said Bernardo had made no progress since his first hearing in October 2018, and that he remained a high-risk sex offender.
Armed with a sheaf of papers, Bernardo offered a rambling, self-absorbed, jargon-filled, 30-minute soliloquy on why he was a changed man and yet so misunderstood. “Without a doubt, (I’m) low risk because I’ve stopped all sexual deviant behaviour,” he proclaimed. The reviled sex killer proposed moving to an Ontario halfway house to be closer to his elderly parents, but for the sake of his victims’ families, he’d consider B.C. where he was prepared to take any menial job, even picking fruit. After deliberating less than an hour, Bernardo’s second parole bid was denied. “Your understanding and insight remains limited, and as a result … you remain to be a high risk for sexual reoffending.”
The Families' Perspective
There is no mercy for the families he has destroyed as he drags them through yet another bid at freedom. “It seems that just as the ink had dried on our previous victim impact statement, Doug and I have to muster up the strength to prepare a second statement,” Donna French had said at Bernardo’s last parole hearing in 2021. And now she must prepare a third. “It feels like another exhumation, another violation, another loss,” Debbie Mahaffy told the board at that second hearing less than three years after the first. “What does resting in peace mean when we have to relive these horrors every two years or so for the rest of our lives?”
The Implications of His Transfer to Medium Security
Much has happened since the last time the notorious killer failed in his delusional attempt at release: Kristen’s father Doug died in April at the age of 92, the Supreme Court refused to hear the families’ request to win access to his prison records — despite their being used by the parole board to make its decisions — and most shocking of all, Bernardo was quietly transferred out of maximum security in 2023.
During the 2021 parole hearing, the French family described Bernardo as an “evil dark cloud” who continues to haunt their family. Bernardo's controversial transfer to a medium-security prison in Quebec last year sparked outrage and demands for changes to how dangerous offenders are treated. Following a review, Correctional Service Canada concluded all proper procedures were followed, but acknowledged that the families of the victims should have been better informed. The families of the victims have argued Bernardo shouldn't be able to apply for release so frequently because it forces them to relive his horrific crimes.
The Fight for Justice Continues
Will he have a more sympathetic parole board this time around? Will the third time be the charm? That sounds crazy. But so was imagining that this monster would ever get out of maximum security. The families are preparing for yet another emotional ordeal as they seek to ensure that Bernardo remains behind bars.
