Last Tuesday, the Toronto Sun came out with an exclusive story about schoolgirl killer Karla Homolka. For the first time since her release from jail, Canadians were told where she lived and where she was working. The story went into great detail about her relationship with her then boss, Richer Lapointe, and about alleged breaches of the conditions that were placed upon her subsequent to her release after serving a 12 year sentence for the deaths of Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French as well as the drugging and killing of her own sister, Tammy.
The argument can certainly be made that what The Toronto Sun did was, pardon the pun, overkill. In the paper’s initial story, they devoted 11 pages to Homolka. as well as being repetitive in places, the article was accompanied by 14 current pictures of the killer; 15 if you include the solo shot of her 7 week old puppy. There were pictures of Karla standing, Karla walking, Karla sitting, Karla eating an ice cream cone and Karla with her dog. There is no doubt that the Sun could have used a lot less ink and far fewer photographs to tell the same story.
But even if it was too much, reporters alan Cairns and Brodie Fenlon deserve credit for the scoop. and they have been getting the credit. The results of their investigative work have gone around the world, with other outlets crediting The Toronto Sun for the information and pictures. It is easy to forget in a world where entertainment poses as news, this is what real investigative journalism is all about.
The people who live or frequent the areas where Homolka lives and works (or lived and worked) have a right to know that a serious killer walks among them. Police frequently release such information all the time when dangerous and violent offenders, most of whom have committed far less serious offences than Homolka, are released from jail. The opinion that is held by some; that she has done her time and should just be left alone, ignores reality.
as with everything else, in something this lengthy and this controversial, there are always criticisms that can be levelled at The Toronto Sun. a minor point, but when Richer Lapointe accused Homolka of breaching the conditions of her release by associating with known serious criminals and by being alone in his store with his two minor sons, no attempt was made to get a response from Homolka. Nor did anyone appear to check with Correctional Services Canada (CSC) in response to Lapointe’s statement that Homolka had told him that she delivers a week’s worth of meals to her convict-boyfriend who is incarcerated in Laval. CSC later denied that this is true. It is possible that Homolka’s current association with criminals, much like her innocence and her victimization at the hands of Paul Bernardo, may be only in her mind. and the act of her boss dumping his two children with her while she was at work was, at best, a technical violation. Newspaper are unfair to people all the time (just ask Stephen Harper) so the fact that Cairns and Fenlon may have been a tad unfair to Killer Karla is hardly a valid criticism of their reporting.
There was no doubt an unintended consequence of the story. The more that came out, the more Richer Lapointe became a story in his own right. He supposedly gave a job to Karla because he wanted to rehabilitate her, ignoring the fact that the lack of a proper job or a good work ethic was never the problem. We also learned that he wrote 22 letters to Homolka’s lawyers until he finally got a response, showing an almost pathological interest in his now ex employee. Later it was revealed that Lapointe wants to move to St. Catharines Ontario, Kristin French’s hometown, because he feels "empathy" with that city’s residents.
It certainly appears that M. Lapointe is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic. He appears to be nothing more than a groupie who loves to hang around with and be associated with infamous murderers. Canadians already know as much about the way Karla Homolka’s mind works as they will ever know. But thanks to Cairns and Fenlon, we are getting some insight in the way people like Richer Lapointe think. For this, the reporting was good, even if it was a little on the overdone side.
The Toronto Sun and its reporters should be praised for their investigative work instead of accused of not leaving poor little Karla alone or even worse, of trying to sell newspapers. after all, that’s what newspapers do; they sell them.