Absolutely. As I said earlier, you have no idea how quickly two years goes by. There's the emotional trauma that the families go through to prepare their victim impact statements, to then attend at the hearings and give their victim impact statements, and then all of a sudden within a year and a half they're getting notice of the next parole hearing—which on average is every two years—without any change in circumstances for the offender.
In my view, they're entitled to their parole hearing—and we're talking about these offenders like Paul Bernardo, not the majority—but it shouldn't be every two years. I recommended anywhere between five and seven years.
Even at seven years, what I would propose in terms of any legislative amendments would be that, if the offender or their case management team within Correctional Service Canada believe there's been a breakthrough medically or a significant change in circumstances, the offender can apply to the Parole Board to have an earlier hearing. That's so that you have all of the constitutional protections and the due process protections in place.
I believe it should be seven years for someone like Bernardo, after their first hearing. However, they have to have the opportunity to apply to the Parole Board to move that up if there's a change in circumstances.
In this case, we've had two parole hearings for Bernardo. There's been no change in circumstances, so why put the families through this every two years?