Trudeau should apologize to families of Paul Bernardo’s victims for $19K in legal costs, senator says
CTV
A Canadian senator is urging the federal government to apologize after asking the families of Paul Bernado’s victims to pay thousands of dollars in legal costs.
A Canadian senator is urging the federal government to apologize after asking the families of Paul Bernado’s victims to pay thousands of dollars in legal costs.
In 2021, the families of Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy—who were kidnapped, sexually assaulted and murdered by Bernardo in the early 1990s—requested documents about the convicted felon’s parole hearing application.
The government denied their Access to Information and Privacy Act request and the decision was later upheld in court.
As a result, a lawyer representing the families said they were asked to pay $19,000 in legal fees.
Lawyer Tim Danson called the decision “disappointing” when speaking witih CTV News Toronto on Thursday, and said they are currently appealing the ruling in federal court.
The fees, however, have since been waived.
“When the government lawyers understood that, to make a long story short, that we were going to shame them with respect to seeking costs against these particular families …they backed it off and they waived the requirement for the families to pay costs,” Danson said.
