I haven’t weighed in on Karla Homolka’s impending release – enough words have been wasted on this piece of sub-human trash.
However, I do have a question for you all – without diminishing the horrific nature of her crimes and the evidence that she’s a true psychopath – just what about Karla Homolka’s release merits more concern for the public than any number of other cold-blooded, casual murderers who are released without fanfare on any other given day?
Other than the breathless publicity the case received – the innumerable replays of the wedding video clip. Happy, shiney, blonde evil.
Would we even have heard her name had she been born at White Bear First Nation, and committed her crimes in an alley behind 20th Street in Saskatoon? How many reporters from the Toronto Star and CBC and CTV would be covering that story?
Speaking of criminal intent – Norma Jean Mooswa, who supposedly recieved a 10 year sentence last December for the vehicular murder of 6 people on July 1, 2004 (multiple drunk driving convictions) has been moved to a “healing lodge” in Southwestern Saskatchewan.
Think college campus with nicer scenery.
A murderer is a murderer. I saw some pics on the web of her in prison and boy oh boy, she just looked to be the happiest person on the planet. She has it GOOD.
I wouldn’t argue too strongly about country club prisons for say embezzlement – but for crimes of violence, those people need to be put in hell on earth.
Kate,
To quote Wells, “A gentle answer to Kate”
Pray you never have a couple like the Bernado’s in Sakatchewan. Bernardo has been convicted of only two murders. There is a good reason to believe he committed more. There is an unsolved murder of a Co-ED from Western that was brutalized, had her teeth removed and finger tips cut off and then the body burned so that there would be no traces. Then there is Elizabeth Bain, whose body has not been found.
Why you would wrap this up in a potential lack of attention if these horrendous things happened in saskatchewan is beyond me. There are lots of things to be concerned about whether the “wests” agenda gets enough attention.
Goodness, to say your psychopathic serial killers are also victims of an Eastern media bias is a little much.
I support capitol punishent so any survivors can get on with their lives now we just live in fear.
I’d like to see a list of how many murderers are on the streets of each city in our country.
Bet Winnipeg has the most.
Carla did it in Ontario though so it’s more important! arg,
I support capitol punishent so any survivors can get on with their lives now we just live in fear.
I’d like to see a list of how many murderers are on the streets of each city in our country.
Bet Winnipeg has the most.
Carla did it in Ontario though so it’s more important! arg,
“just what about Karla Homolka’s release merits more concern for the public than any number of other cold-blooded, casual murderers who are released without fanfare on any other given day”?
The other cold-blooded, casual murderers didn’t get a 12 year sentence in a min/low security institution, with no conditions following release.
Most “casual, cold-blooded murderers” who get released from prison are not predators. Very few people in Canada are killed by strangers (only about 5% of women victims, in fact), let alone kidnapped, drugged, bound and gagged, raped, videotaped and then killed by strangers. Simply by asking the question, and certainly by implying that it’s some kind of Ontariocentric media thing, you diminish the horror of Homolka’s crimes.
I think Karla is unique and does deserve special attention simply because it was a unique crime–especially the way they kidnapped Kristen French (they pulled over with a map and Karla asked her for directions). The reason it resonated with the public is that you can’t protect your kids against that. You can tell them not to walk on the street at night alone. You can tell them to avoid certain men. But to avoid young, pretty women? That’s what made my blood run cold.
So that’s why she gets attention period. As to the attention that she’s getting over her release, that’s because the deal that gave her only twelve years was so obviously morally, ethically, criminally wrong. I even think she probably did at least one of the murders herself.
Other murders are just as horrid, of course, because a life is a life. But the reason this one sticks in our minds is not because it’s in Ontario, but because a pretty little twenty-something blonde woman was intimately involved.
As far as I’m concerned, everybody should get life and life should mean life, even this Norma Jean Mooswa person. But just because not everyone is punished as much as they should be doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t make a fuss about Karla. You have to start somewhere, and this looks like a good place to start. Maybe if we get people mad enough about this, we’ll start getting tougher penalties in general and that will take care of all future Mooswa’s, too.
I’ll invite my readers to scan this post for the appearance of the word “Ontario” and reconsider their comments.
Belleville Tory said “…everybody should get life and life should mean life…”
What is the cost in lives, if funds that could go to building safer highways or providing better health care go instead to keeping serial killers alive in prisons?
While I see very serious problems with capital punishment, there are also very serious problems with the alternatives.
Kate on Homolka
Though most of her commenters seem to disagree, I have to side with her on this one. For that matter, what if Bernardo had killed a few transients or immigrant girls or something of that ilk? Look at how many people Pickton killed and he’s still caus…
The anger sprang from a combination of events, notably the cruelty involved, the rape, and death, of her own sister,coupled with the bungling of the St Catherines police department, and lack of cooperation between their force and the Metro TO unit charged with investigating the heinous Scarborough rapist.Not only did the local cops fail in finding the videotaped evidence, stashed in a ceiling hideyhole,but then the lawyer withheld that information prior to securing her plea bargain.She is a remorseless psychopath who chronicled their perversions for posterity, and videotaping two very own snuff movies so Bernardo has masturbation material, was ample reason for a huge public revolt.
Ontarians rightly wished her sentenced for life, and every revelation of her jailbird lovelife, was a grotesque spectacle reminding the voters just how badly the system broke down on the way to finding and convicting this vicious bitch.
By the by, for our indignant friends in the East – were you aware that. based on the numbers of female prostitutes whose bodies have been discovered, there is suspicion that that a serial killer has been at work in Saskatoon for a number of years?
Yes Howie, and I agree with every word you wrote.
Now, ask yourself this: if they had been a couple of Jamaican immigrants who did precisely the same thing to members of their community, do you think we would have had the media circus that occured in the first place, let alone coverage of the release of one of them 12 years after the fact?
It’s not the outrage I’m arguing with. It’s the media whoring of one LOCAL case, at the expense of more important news to generate ratings that makes me sick.
That local area takes in a populace of over 6 million.Like it or not, a story that big, in the Toronto media market, is national news.It had everything that captured the public imagination….
Liberialism in action – or ‘Canadian values’ at work: Government assisted abortion and luxury spas for serial killers.
Liberialism in action – or ‘Canadian values’ at work: Government assisted abortion and luxury spas for serial killers.
By substituting “vehicular homicide” for “impaired driving causing death,” you may make a point, or you may just muddy the waters. Four of the six people killed were passengers in Mooswa’s own vehicle. Are you suggesting that the “criminal intent” of these two individuals was even remotely similar?
Witnesses to events leading up to the crash indicate that Mooswa was probably moving at speeds at up to 100 mph and nearly took out other cars in advance of the eventual crash.
She was driving intoxicated, while prohibited, after already serving time for the same.
That’s criminal intent.
Homolka’s unseemly short prison term isn’t the real story here Kate. The real story is in the parade of usual media suspects that promote the concept she has been some how victimized by the “system”. The “feelers” who can ignore her atrocities and be more concerned for her feelings of “isolation” from society are the story here.
The mind boggles at this level of abstract thought that has dribven this mush-headed nattering from MSM scribblers….more frightening yet is that people who will subscribe to this mush headed thinking may be showing up at the polls to support the unjustly accused/attacked Liberals.
Kate:
I want to apologize for my fellow inhabitants in Ontario here who can’t seem to get over themselves long enough to understand the point you were trying to make.
The Karla story sells newspapers in the competitive press arena here in Ontario so we are swamped with this story. One interesting sidebar however is that many of the people who bought into the story that Karla was a victim 12 years ago now appear to be the most upset about her short sentence.
“It’s not the outrage I’m arguing with. It’s the media whoring of one LOCAL case, at the expense of more important news to generate ratings that makes me sick.”
Well said. Give ’em hell Kate.
She served her sentence, so leave her in peace. She is the one that has to live with her deeds.
If the sentence was inappropriate, then take it up with the crown attorney that made the deal.
All this attention, in a perverse way, is just making her a celebrity. By all means keep an eye on her, but attention seems to be what she craves. It would be far better if we just ignored her.
This isn’t about Saskatchewan or west vs. east. The crimes she committed with her husband were bizarre and horrific, like others said. Their uniqueness and the fact that she should not have been allowed a plea bargain before it was known to what extent she was involved in the crimes accounts for the media attention it is receiving.
I for one agree with Kate in one respect though. If this event happened on a reserve in northern Saskatchewan (or Ontario if you easterners feel better), I think the media attention would be much less.
Also I think the degree of detail the general public has about the events leading up to this is contributing as well. The Robert Pickton murders out in Vancouver (I believe he has been charged with 28 murders so far) are not receiving much national coverage because little is known other than he killed the prostitutes on his farm and fed their remains to the pigs which is what is making it so hard to determine how many he killed and how he killed them.
I’m not so certain that ignoring a serial killer who may be living next door to you is the best option.
But if that’s your choice, well, then that’s you choice.
It’s not justthe papers out east – The Star Phoenix has a front-page story today on whether Homolka’s father is ready to re-establish a relationship with his eldest daughter, now that she’s out of prison. Who cares?
Kate wrote,
“I’ll invite my readers to scan this post for the appearance of the word “Ontario” and reconsider their comments.”
Ok I’ll bite….:->
Original Post said, “Would we even have heard her name had she been born at White Bear First Nation, and committed her crimes in an alley behind 20th Street in Saskatoon? How many reporters from the *Toronto Star* and CBC and CTV would be covering that story?”
The mention of the Toronto Star, which for all intents and purposes is a “local paper”. It makes no pretentsions to being national, let alone Ontario wide, let alone southern Ontario wide, is what twigged me on where you were going. Plus a past history of inidcating that CBC and CTV are Liberal dominated and that Ontario votes liberal etc etc etc…perhaps I made some extensions to the argument…;->
So perhaps I am incorrect. Regarding, your point about the fact that large media outlets covered Homolka versus an aboriginal who committed crimes in Saskatoon….are you trying to point out a difference between white and aboriginal, about the the fact that fewer people were allegedly killed by Bernardo?
Is this a class argumement? That because Homolka is “shiney blonde evil” (nice phrase BTW) she is getting attention versus “lower class” criminals and we expect crime to come from lower class, so the news is middle class killer?
Or is the argument that Homoloka should just be ignored period…..
The enormity of her crimes, her anomolous behaviour, (decent home allegedly stable childhood) yes the looks and veneer of normalcy hiding horrendous crimes, the fact that she is a “she” and conducts premeditated “hunting” of young women…all of them warrant attention. I think if she had been born where you described and committed the SAME crimes in Saskatoon you would have the same breathless coverage….look at Willy Picton, a pig farmer…his stuff warrants mentions on CNN.
So if I jumped to a conclusion about your hidden point being “Eastern”, I didnt say Ontario either, then I apologize. But I am clearly missing something then….I am sure there is a brilliant point to your post I just am not in sync today I guess.
Hi again:
First, I agree with Laura that capital punishment is probably a better idea. But I said “life should mean life” because I’m not sure capital punishment is possible in our politically correct society, whereas reforming prison terms may be. Let’s go with what’s possible.
Which is why I think it is appropriate that Karla does get such news coverage. In fact, let’s get some more. We need the public to get outraged about this, and there’s been little more outrageous in Canadian criminal history than Karla (there have been lots just as outrageous as Paul, but Karla is unique). If we want to change our criminal “justice” system, we need the public outraged. If this works, by all means let’s feed it.
As for your comment, Kate, that similar crimes by other races wouldn’t get the same media coverage, I’m not sure that’s true. Remember the media coverage in the murder trial for little Farah Khan, who was killed by her father and step-mother and then dismembered? That was nightly news for months. And prior to that was the murder of little Randal Dooley in the Jamaican community, again by father and step-mother. These got incredible coverage, in the GTA at least.
As for what captures the public’s attention, I think there are two major criteria:
1. Anything to do with children.
2. Anything where you think “oh my gosh, that could have been me” (or my kid, or my wife, etc.)
Pickton doesn’t fit either of these things, because his victims were prostitutes. It doesn’t make him any less evil, but most of us think “well, as long as I don’t go around turning tricks, I won’t be a victim”.
Paul and Karla picked up Kristen French in a totally innocuous way. Their story involved children, and those kids could have been anybody. There was no way to avoid it. They had good parents who loved them. It was just bad luck.
Should other things get more attention? Sure. But I don’t think this is just because it’s from Toronto. I really don’t. It’s because it turned every parent in Canada’s blood cold. And it made us furious. And it still should. So bring it on.
A year ago wasn’t it David Milgaard and Gail Miller all over the papers? They’re from Saskatchewan aren’t they?
These things sell papers. Living in Boston I can also state that Homolka is a well known case down there as well, and of course now the subject of a movie.
It’s a Ted Bundy thing. Normal person who likes to kill people for fun. She’s just worse.
“Just what about Karla Homolka’s release merits more concern for the public than any number of other cold-blooded, casual murderers who are released without fanfare on any other given day?”
She makes a good rallying point for getting laws changed so that we can feed Karla and the rest of her ilk feet first into a woodchipper.
Well, I am all for it. Firstly, given how badly our criminal system failed in this instance, the more publicity it receives the better. Just because the state has decided she can reintegrate doesn’t mean civil society has to let her do so.
Secondly, vehicular murder is pretty horrible, but I think there is something uniquely, well, evil, about the Homolka case.
In Saskatchewan during the past few years we have had a number of rapes and killings of elderly people, (in a couple of cases, involving couples) in their homes, by strangers. Brutal, vicious attacks.
A few years ago it was a university student, raped and murdered in her apartment.
A young man walking down the street a couple of years ago was killed by a single swing of a cricket bat. Another was stabbed to death in broad daylight in front of a downtown shopping mall.
Those offenders are probably already all out on mandatory supervision or parole by now. I challenge you to recall their names, much less find a story on “how they relate to Mommy”.
I could go on and fill the page with killings of innocent children, adults, elderly by strangers. (Call them “high quality” victims, for those people who seem to want to make a distinction between prostitutes and schoolgirls in matters of right to life.)
The point is this: The Bernardo-Homolka case made photogenic television. Nothing more.
There is little to differenciate the murders they committed from any number of other henious crimes committed in this country, chosen at random – outside the ability to “market” them to sell papers.
This is why we see stories of her relationship with her father in the pages of the Saskatoon papers, 12 years after her conviction – stories on colouring her hair, and losing weight.
Give your heads a shake. The reason you believe there is some special aspect to this particular crime, is that the media frenzy has led you to believe they are unique in some way. That’s a product of ommission of equally frenzied reporting on similar murders.
If I had my way, they’d both be strapped to a gurney with a needle in their arms. That’s not the point. The point is that when we complain about how media chooses stories to cover, we need to be aware of our own complicity in the relationship across the broader spectrum of news reporting.
I agree OttawaCon, although it’s much like comparing rotten apples with rotten oranges I still think we can distinguish degrees of rot. The sheer horror of Karla’s crimes trumps all and, I believe, substantiates the coverage.
Those commenting on the horrific nature of these crimes are close.
But the issue which raises this special attention is one of rehabilitation and recidivism. And you will recall that at a hearing a couple years back, there were reports of professionals working with her who were of the opinion that she had not been rehabilitated in the least, and was quite likely to reoffend. That she was mostly “going through the motions” as it were with the treatment being offered, but that she was not fully cooperating with them.
And that’s the essence of an ongoing threat to public safety, as I understand it. But I’m not a lawyer.
Individuals like these two and many many others in our prisons is why I am a supporter of summary Capital punishment.
Why should I be forced to pay for their food and lodging, it’s bad enough I have to pay for the food and lodging of the thieves in the house of parliament, god damn!
Daryl
What’s truly appalling is the movie made about this. I hope everyone in Canada boycotts it – someone cashing in on her crimes should be against the law IMHO (at least the prosecutors got that right on K & P, they & I believe their families can’t profit on their stories).
I think that if Pickton was moving into my neighborhood I’d want to know what colour his hair was dyed, especially if he was to be released with no conditions or probation and with reports of his having no remorse for his actions. I agree that the photogenic quality of all the participants in Homolka’s tale does add more drama then most other tragedies. But is that the sole reason that this story has legs? I don’t think so. Has the media under-reported other murder investigations? Perhaps they didn’t receive the national coverage that this story has received but I don’t think the media ever under-reports details of murder investigations.
But I think the legal term that applies here is “violating the community’s sense of fairplay” and perhaps that is what is happening in this instance. The justice disposed upon Karla Homolka was not in proportion to what the community felt was fair and we are still hearing the outcry.
I believe we will be hearing more impassioned argument from Blatchford over the next little while; she has an audio clip in lieu of a column today on this case.
“I could go on and fill the page with killings of innocent children, adults, elderly by strangers. (Call them ‘high quality’ victims, for those people who seem to want to make a distinction between prostitutes and schoolgirls in matters of right to life.)”
1. Kate, are you saying that you make no such distinction? Not so long ago you claimed to have little sympathy for David Milgaard because he was a drunk and a budding petty criminal when he was arrested. By analogy, shouldn’t a prostitute (or a gang member, etc.) deserve less sympathy for being murdered by a stranger because she or he chose an extremely dangerous line of work? I don’t think there’s anything unnatural about valuing innocent children more than prostitutes.
2. The hair colouring-type stories are offensive fluff, no question, but if you’re able to “fill the page” with Canadian stories as horrific as what Paul and Karla did to their victims � multiple “high-quality victims,” rape and torture and murder of perfect strangers and/or a family member, female perpetrator, etc. � then I think you’d better have at it. It’s news to everyone but you.
HEY!!! YOU TALK NICE ABOUT 20th!!! I GREW UP THERE AND THEY’RE ALL FINE UPSTANDING PEOPLE!!!
Sarc-Off/
It’s all about the press Kate… Nothing else…
Sad to say that murders happen every day in large cities….in larger cities like detroit, Chicago and New York some do not make front page.
The “News Value” is uniqueness of the crimes.
In Karla’s case the attention is the nature of the crime….and Paul rightly points out the controvesy over her rehab….I would add one more, that even if she was rehabilitated it is not clear that she paid the price she really SHOULD have paid.
That and the fact that she is from southern ontario were all news is made……..
(JOKING JOKING)
Uhh.. there is a difference here all the same.
Most people that get behind the wheel of a car, even if intoxicated, do not intend to kill annother human being. I know that MADD thinks otherwise but I simply don’t agree with them.
How do I know, well I am guilty of having done this a few times in the distant past. Yeah I know I’m a criminal and I was lucky. But I know I didn’t get behind the wheel to ‘take out’ some innocent pedestrians.
Karla is as serious a criminal as they come. Cool, calculated and detached from her crimes. She did what she did for pleasure and for gain. There was no insanity, jealousy, anger, revenge or any other motive that ‘lesser’ humans may have been controlled by.
But that is the problem with somebody like her.. she may go on to live a clean life in obscurity somewhere or we may hear of her again.. nobody knowing for sure what will happen.
I don’t get it. Ontarians are all aflutter because of Homolka’s release from prison next month even though she has served her full sentence.
In contrast, Ontarians can hardly stifle their yawns over the worst constitutional abuse and corruption in Canada’s political history.
What does that say about Ontarians and their values? Shouldn’t all criminals be off the street?
The outrage here is about the fact that she is even being released. The Deal with the Devil that was struck should have been struck down when the tapes surfaced. She literally got away with a slap on the wrist for being a willing and active participant in these horrific crimes. She should have been labled a dangerous offender and locked away for life and no one dared even try to break that ridiculous deal.
I do not know really how dangerous Homolka is, but I am reasonably sure that, at worst, she is no more dangerous than many cons the system lets out every year with no constraints whatsoever.
This is nothing more than the Ontario politicians responding in a demogogic fashion to a popular furor, whose roots trace to misjudgements made by a group of incompetent officials who participated in the original prosecution.
If she has the dough to hire a competent counsel, the correct response is to subpeona everyone alive who was part of the prosecution team and ask them what were their grounds for the prosecution’s original submissions to the court concerning Homolka’s character, actions and motives, whether they still stand by those submissions and, if not, what since the Bernardo case was submitted to the jury has caused them to change their mind.
There is really no answer to this because nothing of significance has happened after that point in time.
In fact, the submissions that were made should not have been made, but no lawyer or policeman is going to admit he was a party to an attempt to bamboozle the court, or that he failed to ensure that, to the extent he could, the “erroneus” submissions were withdrawn when he realized they were wrong before the case was not yet decided.
Had thess subpeonas been issued, or even threatened to be issued, the AG’s bureaucracy in Ontario would have found some way to call a halt to this policitcal BS.
I make this comment even though I would agree that Homolka did not receive the punishment due her for her actions. Nevertheless, a deal with the devil is still a deal and either the government abides by the deals it makes or no citizen is bound by any legal rule.
Stint: You ignore this sycopathic killer, I will keep an eye on her thank you. Especially when she is found Bernard the second, a convicted killer in another penitentary,that she claims to be “in love with”.
Lets not forget how this all came about. We can thank Comrad Trudeau, and Comrad Warren Almond first hypmotizing with the aid of Comrad Junea to believe that capital punishment should only apply to killers of Police, and Jail Guards, and even that was not good enough for them they abolished the whole thing over the 18 year tenure of Warren Almonds control of the Canadian Justice system. He late went of to be President of the World Human rights commission, and we know about all the good work they do?????
If Homolka had the alternative of the noose, or life imprisonment, which should have been the only card the justice dept could play with her, she would have chosen life, over the noose. But she was not allowed to make that decision, thanks to Allmand Trudeua and Juneau. Allmand and friends lowered the bar so far down that all murderors now get no more than a slap on the “10th” hole, when they lose their round of golf in the 9 hole golf coarse in the pen. Worse yet?? WE LET THEM GET AWAY WITH IT, SO LOOK IN THE MIRROR FOLKS, SORRY TO BE THE BEAROR OF BAD NEWS. We have sat on our asses too long.
It Is The Visuals
Yes, I am an Alberta blogger. I lived in the Land of Oztario for almost four decades. I worked there for much of that time. It has been my good fortune to have held a number of extremely interesting jobs
Good Gog-a-mighty, that last picture of her looks like an overgrown adult-infantilist version of the Bad Seed! Ugh.
It was a big deal when they were trying to solve this case. It kind of evolved from a serial rapist thing the Bain murder and then the St. Catharines murders. It was probably over publicised at the time but I guess the details made it all that more visibly disgusting in the public eye. I have to agree that murder is murder and I can�t for the life of me understand why there is not more public outrage and disgust over the Robert Pickton case in B.C., could it be because the guy is in custody and is going to be in jail until someone kills him, but not before they spend 70 million to try the bastard. Why the Homolka thing is getting more press, at least in Ontario than that case is beyond me.
>>She makes a good rallying point for getting laws changed so that we can feed Karla and the rest of her ilk feet first into a woodchipper.
Nice. You make the baby jesus cry.
Question: do you consider Donald Marshall Jr., David Milgaard and Guy Paul Morin to be ‘of her ilk’?
I mean they were convicted and all that.
I think I’m going to have to take issue with you re that crack about “college campus with nicer scenery.” Have a look at this link about the healing lodge, and you’ll see that it’s hardly a comfort.
Besides which, given a choice between Ms. Mooswa becoming a productive member of society or a jailbird for life, which is preferable?
Milgaard/Fisher/Miller made almost as many headlines. Latimer too. JJ Harper in Winnipeg. Saskatoon cops and their native victims. Nobody’s ignoring Pickton now, but just wait when the really horrifying stuff starts coming out. We’ll all be sick of that one too, soon enough. It’s not the inherent qualities of the killer or the killed. What really pumps up the volume is the unusual twist. A supposed mercy killing. The innocent going to jail, the guilty walking free. Privileged people turning serial killer. Cops murder. That’s news.