Thank you, honourable chair and members.
There were issues with my microphone earlier. If you're having trouble hearing me, please feel free to interrupt me, and I will use Marcia or Tennille's microphone. However, it seems everything is okay, so I'll go ahead.
Thank you for having me. For me, it's nearly impossible to fully express the impact Paul Bernardo and his crimes have [Technical difficulty—Editor]. For us as teenagers, dealing with the loss of our best friend Kristen French in such a brutal way was insurmountable and something we have never fully recovered from. At the time, trying to process such horrific events left us feeling immeasurable grief, sadness, anger, confusion and fear, in addition to the loss of our sense of safety and security.
The list of Bernardo's victims, however, is extensive. There are the many other women who were directly brutalized by him, the parents who lived in terror that their own child would be the next victim, and the loved ones who watched helplessly as people they loved were traumatized. There were also the first responders who searched and collected evidence from crime scenes, and even the legal personnel, including witnesses and jurors, who had to witness the horrifying images of these crimes on videotapes.
In the 31 years since then, many of these individuals, including us, have developed ongoing mental health issues, including post-traumatic stress disorder, severe anxiety, depression and substance abuse. Some people have also had difficulty forming healthy and secure relationships with their friends and partners, and they have struggled to raise their own children without the fear and hypervigilance that conditioned us.
When Bernardo was finally incarcerated and labelled a dangerous offender, I think we all felt some sense of relief, some sense that we could begin to move on from the nightmare. However, almost every year since his capture and incarceration, many of Bernardo's victims, along with their families and friends, have been retraumatized by the re-emergence of his name in the news, which inevitably comes with the rehashing of the brutality of his crimes. For many of these people, retraumatization involves terrible visual and emotional flashbacks, recurring nightmares, dissociation from their lives and loved ones, and severe anxiety and depression.
The latest news of his transfer to a medium-security prison was no exception. We are aware that there are protocols and guidelines for determining the classification and transfer of prisoners. However, one thing was blatantly missing: the careful and real consideration of the impact this transfer would have on all the people who have been directly affected by Bernardo's crimes. It genuinely appears to us that no one involved in this process stopped to consider, even for a moment, the requests, wishes or feelings of those people. Even the victims' families were not informed of his move until after it had already been completed.
Therefore, we are here to demand that the rights of his many victims be considered and respected now and moving forward. We are here to demand that decisions like this transfer, and any decisions that have the potential to retraumatize victims, cannot and will not happen in the future without careful and thoughtful consideration of these victims' rights.
It is also obvious to us that no consideration was given to Bernardo's original sentencing or designation as a dangerous offender in the determination of his prison security classification. Based on his crimes and behaviour, Bernardo was originally sentenced to 25 years in a maximum security institution, the harshest punishment possible and one—I think we can all agree—that at the time took well into account the rights of his victims and their families.
However, his most recent parole board hearing in 2021 found that he still displayed no remorse, no empathy and no insight into his crimes. Research shows that as a sadistic sexual psychopath, he likely never will. Therefore, it should follow that his original sentence should still stand. Bernardo is not an average prisoner who may be rehabilitated through programs and support. He should therefore be managed by his initial sentence. Bernardo should be moved back to a maximum security prison to honour the original sentence, which so clearly put the rights of his victims in high regard.
Going forward, any possible decisions regarding his incarceration should involve consideration of all these factors: his initial sentence, his dangerous offender designation and—perhaps most importantly—clear and comprehensive communication with his victims and their families. We can do better for his many victims, and we must.
Thank you.