Please ignore Karla movie
Toronto Star, JENNIFER HOLLETT, GUEST COLUMN, Jan. 23, 2006
It's official. Karla is a one-name celeb. You know, like pop stars Britney and Beyonce and Madonna. Only the first name is needed.
But Karla is not a pop star.
She's a serial killer. And on Friday, Karla was released in Canadian theatres.
I was hoping that the movie premiere about the schoolgirl killings by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka would just keep getting delayed, and that maybe the film would never reach an audience. No such luck, but at least it won't appear in Niagara; theatre owners there know better.
I refuse to see the movie, with its playful Internet Movie Database tagline, "Until death do us partake." I'm not even tempted to see the trailer. I believe in boycotts and I don't think I could actually watch it.
I went to high school with Kristen French, Holy Cross Secondary School. I knew of her. That's the real shame as I didn't have the chance to get to really know her. I'll never forget the rainy Holy Thursday when she was abducted from the church parking lot on her way home from school.
I remember friends receiving calls that night about Kristen's whereabouts. I remember wondering why police cars were at my school. I remember circulating missing poster signs, combing the city for clues. The media circus, wearing a green ribbon, attending the funeral, looking for a cream-coloured Camaro, showing up outside Paul Bernardo's and Karla Homolka's house when their arrest hit the news.
In high school, I also remember protesting serial killer cards, because they glamourized horrendous crimes. This is the same issue I take with Karla. It's the same reason I refused to see Monster, the Academy Award-winning movie based on the life of serial killer Aileen Wuornos.
What about the victims and their families? Let's not forget their names, stories, or dignity.
I often think about the French family. I think about popping by their home and telling them that I still cry and that I'll never forget their daughter. I also think of the Mahaffys, as well as the Homolkas and the other victims.
When does it stop? The abductions, the bodies, the arrest, the trial, the release of Karla Homolka from prison, the commercial movie?
I'm a storyteller and I'm usually in favour of an interesting story, but everyone in Canada knows this story. The media were all over it. It was international news. We don't need the help of That '70s Show star Laura Prepon to get it out.
There's nothing entertaining about these crimes. I understand the fascination with the minds of serial killers, but I'd rather spend my energy focusing on the hearts of the victims and their family and friends.
I am distressed with the business of Karla. The point of this movie is to make money. A successful film cashes in at the top of the box office, or later in DVD sales. The spin is "a controversial journey," according to the official movie website.
"Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka's psychological dance with death and depravity faithfully re-created here in stunning performances by Misha Collins and Laura Prepon will haunt you forever ... because it's true."
Dance? Faithfully re-created? Stunning? The media release for this movie will haunt me forever!
Some might argue that I should see the movie before critiquing it. I can't even get past the idea of a casting call for the victims' roles or the filming of the sex scenes, omitted after Tim Danson, lawyer for the French and Mahaffy families, raised the issue that any nude scenes depicting the teenaged victims might constitute child pornography.
The images are of a nightmare, not a movie.
I am humbled by the fact that the families did not try to block the movie's release. I am comforted by Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty's outrage and the TV ad spots being pulled. I hope for poor Canadian ticket sales.
Everyone in St. Catharines felt like Kristen was their daughter, their sister, their friend. Would you watch this movie if it was about the gruesome sex-slaying of your daughter, your sister, your friend?
Please see Narnia instead. Or spend some time with your family. Feed your soul, not your curiosity.
Jennifer Hollett is a freelance journalist best known for her work as a MuchMusic VJ. She is currently volunteering with CARE Canada on a youth project in Kenya.
Fathers demand mandatory paternity testing
A men's rights group has called for mandatory paternity testing of all babies after government figures revealed almost 600 instances of men compelled to financially support children they did not father.
Since changes to child support laws four years ago, there had been 586 cases of men successfully using DNA testing to show they were not biologically related to children they had been financially supporting, the federal government has revealed to The Australian.
DNA test confirms fraud, annulment granted: judge
The Visayan Daily Star, Bacolod City, Philippines, BY CARLA GOMEZ, February 28, 2009
Bacolod Regional Trial Court Judge Ray Alan Drilon has annulled the marriage of a Negrense couple after a DNA test showed that the child borne by the wife was not the biological offspring of the husband who works abroad.
The family court judge ruled that the marriage of the couple, whose names are being withheld by the DAILY STAR on the request of the court, was null and void.
Due to fraud committed by the wife in getting her overseas worker husband to marry her, properties acquired during their marriage are awarded in favor of the husband, the judge said in his decision, a copy of which was furnished the DAILY STAR yesterday.
The judge also declared that since the overseas worker is not the biological, much less the legitimate father of the child of the woman, the Civil Registrar is ordered to change the surname of the child to the mother's maiden name and remove the name of the plaintiff as father of the child.
The complainant said he was working as an electronics engineer in the United Arab Emirates and on his return to the Philippines in 2001, his girlfriend of 10 years with whom he had sex, showed him a pregnancy test result showing that she was pregnant.
On receiving the news he was overjoyed and offered to marry her. Shortly after he went to Saudi Arabia to work, and his wife gave birth to a baby girl in the same year.
The birth of the child only five months after their marriage puzzled him but his wife told him that the baby was born prematurely, so he believed her, the husband said. Read More ..
Courier-Mail Newspaper
Australia
Unfaithful mother fined $120,170
From correspondents in Rio de Janeiro
Agence France-Presse
September 18, 2007
A BRAZILIAN woman has been ordered by the country's Supreme Court to pay a hefty fine to her husband for failing to mention that he was not the father of two of their children.
The Rio de Janeiro woman, whose identity was not disclosed, was ordered to pay her husband over $US100,000 ($120,170 Australian Dollars) for having hidden from him for almost two decades that the children in question were fathered by a lover, the court's offices said yesterday.
The husband also had sought damages from his wife's lover, the court said.
Man Can Sue Woman For Sperm Theft Distress
Associated Press, U.S.A.
Feb. 24, 2005
CHICAGO (AP) A woman accused of using her lover's sperm to impregnate herself without his knowledge can be held liable for the unwitting father's emotional pain, the Illinois Appellate Court has ruled.
In the ruling released Wednesday, a three-judge panel reinstated part of a lawsuit against Sharon Irons, a doctor from Olympia Fields. The ruling sends the case back to Cook County Circuit Court.
Irons was sued by her former lover, Chicago family physician Richard O. Phillips, who accused her of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" of him after a brief affair they had six years ago.
Australian Father Wins Paternity Fraud Case
Woman failed to tell man he was not father
West Australian News
21st December 2005
A pregnant woman has a duty of care not to tell a sexual partner he is the father of her unborn child if it is possible another man is the real father a District Court judge has ruled.
And mother-of-three, Kellie Gray, of Pinjarra, was negligent in not having a paternity test done as soon as her son was born, Judge John Wisbey said in his judgement in a damages action by a father who turned out not to be the father.
Rodney Macdonald, of Kewdale, claimed damages of about $70,000AUD from Ms Gray on the grounds that he was tricked into believing he was the father of her son. He gave up a well paid mining job to move to Perth to be nearer the child.
Fathering Magazine
A Woman's Right to be Criminal
December 5, 2002
I read a USA Today article on child support by Martin Kasindorf entitled, Men wage battle on 'paternity fraud'. Paternity fraud is when a woman names the wrong man as a father for the purpose of forcing him to pay child support. The words 'paternity fraud' were in quotes as if they referred to someone's questionable characterization rather than a straightforward fact. This might have moved me to let out a long sigh except that I knew it would not have been worth the trouble. I know from experience that 'paternity fraud' would not have been in quotes unless we were being prepared for some unadulterated bullshit.
South Korean Husband Wins Paternity Fraud Lawsuit
Associated Press, USA
June 1, 2004
South Korean husband successfully sues wife for Paternity Fraud and gets marriage annulled. Wins $42,380 in compensation
Adulterous woman ordered to pay husband £177,000 in 'moral damages'
The Daily Mail, UK
18th February 2009
An adulterous Spanish woman who conceived three children with her lover has been ordered to pay £177,000 in 'moral damages' to her husband.
The cuckolded man had believed that the three children were his until a DNA test eventually proved they were fathered by another man.
The husband, who along with the other man cannot be named for legal reasons to protect the children's identities, suspected his second wife may have been unfaithful in 2001.
Paternity fraud: Is it or should it be a criminal offence under the Criminal Code of Canada?
You be the judge.
Man jailed for not supporting kid who isn't his
Mistaken-identity victim forced to pay $12,000 to someone else's daughter
Associated Press, USA, December 6, 2008
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A Philadelphia man was forced to pay more than $12,000 in child support for another man's daughter and spent two years in jail for falling behind on payments.
Dauphin County prosecutor Edward M. Marsico Jr. told The Patriot-News of Harrisburg that he is examining the case of Walter Andre Sharpe Jr., who has been unable to recover the money even after establishing that he isn't the girl's father. Read More ..
Former U.S. Army Paratrooper Faces Paternity Fraud
Former Army paratrooper, Walter "Buddy" Everhart, of Powder Springs, Ga., was married for fourteen years in a union that produced five children, or so he thought. After his divorce, his world was turned upside down when he learned that three, and possibly four, of the children he thought were his biologically, are not. DNA testing has conclusively proved it, according to the National Family Justice Association.