as the release date for Karla Homolka, Canada’s most notorious torturer and killer approaches, coverage of her in the media are at a level not seen since 1995 when she testified against her then-husband, Paul Bernardo. Most of this extensive coverage centres on her release, where she is going to live, whether or not she poses a danger and the application by Ontario’s attorney General to have conditions imposed upon her after she leaves jail.
The Toronto Sun has supplied additional coverage, reporting on an interview with 29-year-old Jane Doe. When Jane was 15, she was drugged and then sexually assaulted on two occasions by Homolka and Bernardo. The first attack happened in June 1991, barely six months after Homolka’s sister Tammy died in a similar attack. During the second attack on Jane, she had stopped breathing and was revived by Bernardo. Jane Doe remembered nothing about these attacks and only learned of them after the infamous videotapes of the couple’s crimes were turned over by authorities by Paul Bernardo’s lawyer in September 1994. The agreement that was reached by Homolka and the prosecutors called for a sentence of 12 years and included the crimes that she committed against her sister, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy. Jane Doe complained in the interview with the Sun that she was never consulted about the fact that Homolka would not only not be charged with the offences committed against her but that those crimes would not be considered in Homolka’s sentencing.
The Toronto Sun article by Brodie Fenlon and alan Cairns has sparked a debate about whether Karla Homolka should now be charged with offences committed against Jane Doe and another then-teenaged girl referred to as Stef Doe.
The so-called "deal with the devil" was made between Homolka and the Crown in May 1993. It was agreed that Homolka would serve a 12 year sentence in exchange for her agreeing to testify against Paul Bernardo. Prosecutors were worried back then that without her testimony they might not have had sufficient evidence against Bernardo to secure convictions. In September 1994, the videotapes were turned over to the authorities. The tapes not only made Homolka’s testimony a lot less crucial; they revealed that Karla was a willing and eager participant in the crimes and not simply another one of Bernardo’s victims. a month after the tapes surfaced, Karla notified her lawyer that she had had a dream that she may have participated in other offences (those against Jane and Stef Doe). The plea agreement stipulated that Homolka was required to tell the complete truth about her criminal involvement, something that she clearly did not do. Unless her "I had a dream" utterance was fully believed, there was a good chance that the deal she had made could have been revoked. But no action was taken.
Now the issue of laying further charges against Karla Homolka has resurfaced. But it would be wrong to now charge her for the offences that she had committed against Jane and Stef Doe.
attorney General Michael Bryant was uncommitted in discussing whether or not Homolka would face further charges. If there ever was a Liberal in this day and age to feel sorry for, Bryant is it — he’s caught between a rock and a hard place. The Ontario aG seems like a decent guy who is undoubtedly just as outraged as everyone else at the short sentence that Homolka received. But he is also aware of the principle of the unity of the Crown. Once a prosecutor makes a deal, another prosecutor (or in this case, another attorney General) cannot come along and revoke it simply because he doesn’t agree with it and would have acted differently. Plea bargains, as unpalatable as they can sometimes be, are necessary and could never be entered into if another government official could come along and change it.
People can and do debate about whether the Charter of Rights gives criminals too many rights. But those rights that are given have to apply to everyone; they cannot be denied to someone like Karla Homolka because she happens to be so much more disgusting than most others that have committed serious crimes. The Charter provides that everyone, and that includes Homolka, has the right to a trial within a reasonable time. In this case, the authorities have had over 10 years to charge Homolka with these other offences crimes and never did so. They cannot justify charging her now simply because the public is angry that she is about to walk out the door.
as easy as it is to vent anger and frustration over the crimes committed upon Jane and Stef Doe on Karla Homolka, the real criticism should be levelled at the NDP government that was in power in the early 1990s. Steps should have been taken after the tapes surfaced to revoke her plea agreement and try her for all the offences that she committed. But the bleeding heart and feminist-obsessed government of Bob Rae could never fully understand that cute little Karla was anything other a battered wife that was forced to do Paul Bernardo’s bidding.
The refusal to take steps to revoke the deal with the devil and to properly make Karla Homolka accountable for her actions should be remembered by Ontarians the next time the NDP travel the province saying vote for us.