New media
Karla film release unchallenged
By GREG BONNELL The Canadian Press
TORONTO — The families of Karla Homolka’s victims will not fight the release of a Hollywood movie chronicling the depraved crimes of this country’s most notorious female offender, their lawyer said Wednesday.
“We’re not going to engage in some sensational, high-profile protest,� said Tim Danson, who represents the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
“We’ve satisfied ourselves it’s not illegal,� Danson said of the film. “There’s no legal basis to stop it.�
The film, entitled Karla and due in theatres this fall, tells the sordid tale of Homolka’s life with Paul Bernardo and the horrific crimes their ill-fated union produced.
Danson had vowed to take legal action on the grounds the film was child pornography, if the movie depicted the rapes and deaths of French and Mahaffy.
After a lengthy consultation with the film’s producer — including a clandestine viewing for Danson in a Toronto hotel room two weeks ago — scenes were cut that Danson felt “crossed the line� from free speech into child pornography.
“I believe that it would have (been child pornography) if not for the changes,� he said, adding the families have no desire to play critic or sensor.
“While my clients prefer no movie being made . . . that sensationalizes their daughters’ rapes and murders, they recognize we live in a free society,� said Danson.
As yet unseen by the public, Karla has created a firestorm of controversy in the province where the couple committed their deeds — with Premier Dalton McGuinty urging Ontarians to boycott the movie.
The film was also pulled from the Montreal World Film Festival after sponsors, including Air Canada, cried foul over its inclusion.
The film’s release follows months of Homolka, 35, dominating headlines in Canada — a media frenzy that saw journalists camp out outside a Montreal-area prison for days awaiting her July 4 release.
Homolka, who gave one television interview before going into hiding, was discovered working in a Montreal-area hardware store in late August after her boss, Richer Lapointe, went to the media and police with allegations the schoolgirl killer broke conditions of her release.
Police have yet to act on those allegations and Lapointe’s audiotaped conversations with Homolka remain in their hands.
Homolka, believed to be living somewhere in Montreal, faces a number of court imposed restrictions, including a ban on contacting anyone with a criminal record and coming into contact with children — two conditions that Lapointe alleges Homolka broke.
Breaching those conditions can put Homolka back behind bars for up to two years.
Under an infamous plea bargain dubbed “the deal with the devil,� Homolka served 12 years for the grisly rape and torture deaths of schoolgirls Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy.
The rape and choking death of her younger sister Tammy, at the hands of Homolka and Bernardo, was also taken into account during sentencing.
Bernardo was declared a dangerous offender and serves an indefinite prison term in solitary confinement.
