I also remember the publication ban in Karla Homolka's plea bargin, leading up to Paul Bernardo's trial. There is still so much anger across Canada, but especially in southern Ontario, about that plea bargain (AKA "The Deal with the Devil" for my US readers) that I think for a lot of us this is bringing up some very bad memories.
Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy were my age. In fact, Kristen French was born just over two weeks after me. Her abduction and murder was a source of terror for girls my age in 1992. I doubt that there is a girl my age who didn't feel anger, fear, sadness, and so many other emotions over that case. When Karla Homolka was released from prison in 2005 it brought back all of the anger that she had gotten such a "sweet deal" from the prosecution.
And so, seeing the woman in this couple, both charged with first-degree murder, and apparently being tried first, having a similar publication ban imposed on her court proceedings, it is hard not to see the parallels. We don't know why the ban is there. We don't know what's going on in those proceedings (although apparently it's fairly common knowledge in Woodstock, Ontario where the trial is going on). It could be that there's a perfectly logical reason for this ban. I don't really trust the newspapers in their outrage: they have obvious motivation for their righteous indignation. It's possible that they are right, but for most of the general public it's impossible to know, and it's unsettling, to say the least.
No one wants to see another Deal with the Devil. All we can do right now, though, is wait and see, and hope it's not too late by the time that the ban is lifted.
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