Another triumph for press freedom (not)

Two decades ago, Canadians were transfixed and horrified by the ghastly trial of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka. The couple were accused, and later convicted, of the murder (and a lot more besides) of two teenage girls in southern Ontario.  Karla ratted out her husband in return for a reduced sentence: she received a 12-year jail term, while Paul was given a life sentence with no possibility of parole.

With a little time off for good behaviour, Karla was released in 2005. She took on a new identity, married the brother of one of her defense counsel, started a family and moved to the island of Guadeloupe.  That should have been the last Canadians ever heard of her, which would have been an entirely good thing; but no, a "reporter" with nothing better to do tracked her down in the Caribbean and blew her cover, so she, her husband and her small family had to start all over again.

And now the media have done it again.  It's emerged this week that Karla and her family have been living for at least a couple of years in the Montreal suburb of Chateauguay.  The reputable media, the CBC among them,  have apparently known this all along, but have kept quiet about it.  Now that someone has blown the whistle, cue the usual panic. Neighbours are aghast that "such a person" is living in the area, with two of her kids (who may still be too young to know Karla's awful back-story) in the local grade school.  People who had no idea she was even there are suddenly afraid of her and convinced that she can never be rehabilitated.

Most tasteless of all, TV cameramen filmed a couple of "reporters" doorstepping the family's residence.  Nobody answered, but how would the conversation have gone if someone had?  "Well Karla, or whatever you're calling yourself these days, I guess you're gonna have to move on again now, right?  Har har."

People who pitch up on TV demanding "justice" in this case or that never really want that: it's vengeance they're after.  Reporters who see fit to hound someone who paid the penalty the law imposed and is now, by all accounts, trying to build a normal life, simply enable that base sentiment.  It's hard to feel too sorry for Karla herself -- she came over at trial as a cold and calculating type -- but you'd think that the media might take at least a couple of seconds to ponder what effect all this might have on the children. Alas, it seems that's too much to hope for.  

UPDATE, 22 April: This Rosie DiManno column in today's Toronto Star strikes me as quite shameful. Rosie covered the Homolka trial back in the day, so she's seen a lot more of the appalling details than I have.  Even so, the complete lack of any recognition that Homolka can change -- indeed, seems to have changed -- is inhumane.