Senator defends attending Homolka hearing
CTV.ca News Staff, Fri. Jun. 10 2005
Reviled by many, defended by few, Canada's most notorious female inmate won't even be greeted by her family when she is released in less than a month. But CTV News has learned Karla Homolka does have some support in high places.
Homolka made her first public appearance in more than a decade last week at a court hearing in Joliette, Que. After two days of testimony, a Quebec judge imposed restrictions on Homolka's movements for a year after her release from prison.
Liberal Senator Michel Biron, 71, was present in the Joliette, Que. courthouse last week. He sat beside Homolka's lawyer during the hearing in a show of support for the convicted killer.
According to witnesses, Biron exchanged a slight smile with Homolka.
Biron told CTV News he was not there as a senator; rather, that his presence there was "strictly personal."
Biron calls Ontario's application to place restrictions on Homolka when she is released from prison "unjustified" and compares it to something you'd see in a dictatorship.
An artist's rendition of Karla Homolka from inside the Joliette, Quebec courtroom.
Tim Danson called Biron's support of Homolka 'disappointing.'
"I have to give her a chance... I don't consider her dangerous," he said.
"I understand the distress and the sorrow of the families of the victims and I sympathize with them. In no way am I defending the crimes that Homolka has done," he told Canada AM Friday.
"What concerns me is the 810 part of the law," he said, adding in French that he doesn't believe the section has any usage in a modern society."
While Biron insists he has never met Homolka or communicated with her in any way, he supports her return to the workforce when she walks out of prison in less than a month.
CTV's Mike Duffy, who spoke to Biron Thursday, said the senator is adamant about his support of Homolka.
"He's so concerned about Karla Homolka and the way the authorities are treating her," Duffy said.
"He says he doesn't have a background in social work, but he took it upon his own initative to go to the hearing to try and reach out to her."
Biron told Canada AM that he hadn't at first planned to go to the hearing, but later decided to cancel his plans and attend.
"When I heard about the hearings, I decided to go to find out what was going on. I didn't have my Senate pins so the judge didn't know who I was."
Biron's colleagues on Parliament Hill expressed shock when informed of his trip to Joliette.
"I don't think most people would normally do that but I have no idea why he did it and I would certainly want to find out from him," said Senator Art Eggleton.
"To be attending these hearings, and to be, apparently by his presence, lending moral support to Karla Homolka -- I think that's repugnant and I'm shocked," Conservative Deputy Leader Peter MacKay said.
Tim Danson, lawyer for the victims' families, called Biron's support of Homolka "disappointing."
"The fact that a senator, I suppose using the prestige of the Senate, to support Karla Homolka and suggest that she doesn't represent a threat to public safety is disconcerting," Danson said.
"Certainly, on its face, it raises a whole bunch of questions that I consider disconcerting. But in fairness to the gentleman, let's hear what he has to say."
A former telecommunications entrepreneur, Biron was appointed to the Senate by Jean Chretien in 2001, the same year he became a member of the Order of Canada.
