Homolka finds sympathy

Quebec press council denounces anglophone coverage as excessive

The Chronicle Herald, Halifax NS, The Canadian Press, various Canadian newspapers, By LES PERREAUX, July 6, 2005

Radio-Canada / CP

'I don't want people to think that I am a dangerous person who's going to do something to their children,' Karla Homolka, Canada's most notorious female offender, said in a televised appearance in Quebec on Monday.

MONTREAL - Karla Homolka's calculated appeal to French Canada appeared to hit her target audience Tuesday, with many francophone Montrealers ready to give the sex killer a second chance in her adopted province.

Homolka may be one of the most despised figures in Ontario and the rest of English Canada, but many Quebecers say they see a repentant woman who is clearly haunted by her crimes.

The ex-convict went on Radio-Canada on Monday with a French-only plea for the breathing room to start a normal life a few hours after completing her entire 12-year sentence for manslaughter.

Homolka helped her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo, rape and kill Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French and her own sister, Tammy Homolka.

She got a sympathetic audience in downtown Montreal, where most people had seen at least part of the interview.

Jeff Dobeau, a pierced and tattooed man in his 20s, predicted an easy transition for Homolka, who has a competent handle on the French language.

While doing her time, Homolka even picked up elements of a working-class Quebecois accent mixed with her anglophone pronunciation.

"I don't know Toronto, but I think we Quebecers are more ready to accept her," Dobeau said.

"There is an openness of spirit. We forgive more easily. But at the same time, we remember. And I know it's a bit strange to say, but I find her French charming."

Waiting at a bus stop, retiree Pauline Benoit said people should just leave Homolka alone.

"She looks repentant to me, I think she wants to do better," said Benoit.

"But they must leave her alone. Right now they're running after her, everyone wants her. We have to stop hunting her."

Tim Danson, the lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, said Homolka was probably right in saying she has a better chance of a new life in Quebec.

"The profile of Karla Homolka's crimes are much, much significantly more reduced than they are in Ontario and the rest of Canada," he said in Toronto.

"There are large parts of Montreal where there are large members of the public who haven't even heard of her."

Homolka's release and the five-day vigil outside the prison by news organizations - mostly Ontario-based - were the subject of curiosity more than anger in Quebec and Montreal, the city where Homolka has said she wants to live.

In Quebec, the bigger outrage of the week was the perceived attempt by Ontario to steal the new Shriners children's hospital from Montreal using a campaign of slander against Quebec's biggest city.

While the rest of Canada analysed Homolka's release and first televised interview, Quebecers rejoiced collectively Tuesday at winning the hospital battle.

Sociologist Jean-Marie Tremblay said Quebecers are simply less outraged by crime than most Canadians.

Studies have suggested Quebecers believe in rehabilitation and dismiss the get-tough approach that is more popular outside Quebec.

When westerners lobbied for harsher penalties for young offenders, Quebec demanded an approach that concentrated on reintegration.

"First of all, the crimes were committed in Ontario, not here, so it makes sense that the reaction is stronger in Ontario," said Tremblay, who teaches at a junior college and runs a large sociology online library.

"But Quebecers have a different mentality when it comes to crime. They're always more favourable to integration rather than incarceration."

Tremblay dismissed a suggestion Quebecers might be inclined to accept a woman just because she has been shunned by her home province of Ontario.

"I don't think that's a factor," Tremblay said. "If people in London are denigrating Montreal to get a hospital, that will make Quebecers dance in the streets when they win.

"In the case of Madame Homolka, it's all about attitudes toward crime, not so much politics."

The Quebec press council denounced English-language media coverage of Homolka's release, particularly the desire of some news organizations to follow Homolka. The council said it demonstrated ethical differences between Ontario and Quebec news organizations.

Council president Raymond Corriveau said every person has a right to privacy no matter how they achieved fame.

French-language papers gave Homolka a similar volume of coverage as did their English counterparts, but she received a more mixed treatment.

Le Journal de Montreal, a crime- and sports-dominated tabloid, described her sympathetically in its lead article as "visibly haunted" by the rapes and killings.

One columnist in Montreal La Presse said he's not afraid of Homolka but doesn't trust her.

Quebec has hosted its own media circuses, but most don't travel very far in the anglophone Canadian press.

Entertainment impresario Guy Cloutier's recent conviction for sexual abuse provoked a storm that eventually led a TV network to pay $100,000 to a charitable foundation to get an interview with his victim, former child star Nathalie Simard.