Popular Trials/Criminal Fictions/Celebrity Feminism and the Bernardo/Homolka Case by Mehera Rose San Roque B.A., The University of Sydney, 1991 LL.B., The University of Sydney, 1995 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER' OF LAWS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Faculty of Law) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 1999 © Mehera Rose San Roque, 1999 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of *J The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date 2.6 lA/U^ DE-6 (2/88) Abstract This thesis examines representations of a Canadian criminal case, the Bernardo/Homolka case. I argue that the Bernardo/Homolka case constitutes what Robert Hariman has termed a "popular trial"; a trial or case that provides "the impetus and the forum for major public debates" and generates discussion extending beyond the immediate court proceedings, to broader issues concerning the law and the legal system. As a 'popular trial', or as what Nancy Fraser terms a moment of "hyperpublicity", the Bernardo/Homolka case provides a means of understanding mechanisms of public opinion making and broader relations of inequality. I argue that representations of the case can function ideologically to reinforce relations of inequality, through the ways in which they shape the cultural authority of feminism as a public discourse in Canada. I draw on the work of materialist feminists, such as Rosemary Hennessy and Nancy Fraser, to reveal the assumptions underlying different readings of the case that have problematic implications for the credibility of feminist analyses of systemic inequality, and for feminist interventions into the legal system. Karla Homolka was convicted of the manslaughter of two teenage girls, Kristen French and Leslie Mahaffy in Ontario in 1993. Her sentence was determined by a plea bargain and she was the principal witness in the case against her ex-husband, Paul Bernardo, who was convicted on charges relating to the abduction, assault and murder of the two girls in 1995. The case gave rise to intense public discussion, extensive media coverage and has been the subject of numerous books and reports. This thesis examines three of the texts that have been published in response to the case: Karla's Web: A Cultural Investigation of the Mahaffy French Murders (Toronto: Viking 1994) by Frank Davey, a professor of English; When She Was Bad: Violent Women and the Myth of Innocence (Toronto: Random House 1997) by journalist Patricia Pearson; and a fictional response, Paul's Case: the Kingston Letters (Toronto: Insomniac Press 1997) by Canadian poet and cultural critic, Lynn Crosbie. I examine what these three books can tell us about popular and legal perceptions of feminism, male and female criminality, and violence against women. In particular, I look at the ways in which Pearson and Crosbie have interpreted the case as being relevant to, and representative of wider feminist debates about equality, female sexuality, the nature of female criminality, and the place of feminism in public life and the legal system. While I conclude that Pearson's book is the most problematic account of the case, I point to ways in which all three of the texts function to disable or discredit feminism's cultural authority and feminist interventions into public institutions. ii Table of Contents Abstract ii Acknowledgments V Table of Contents i i i Chapter One Introduction: from chronology to case study 1 a chronology 1 a case (study) 6 An introduction to the three texts 12 A note on what follows 15 Chapter Two Reading discourse right: feminism, hyperpublicity, and the popular trial 19 Reading behind the lines 24 Discourse, ideology and materialist feminism 24 Reading discourse right 30 Feminine problems 33 Bringing it back to the popular trial 37 Introducing the (celebrity) trial 39 Chapter Three "Cross-border shopping": the protection of a national imagination and the place of culture 50 Reading against the grain: a Canadian culture of murder? 53 Ban breaking and border patrols 53 The murderer in the mirror 58 Defining the proper public sphere 63 Coda 73 Chapter Four Staging the crisis: women, violence and the 'backlash' against feminism 75 Doing Backlash 78 The dangerous individual 84 Hell Hath No Fury ... 92 iii Chapter Five 'Hypocrite Lector': criminal fictions, textual strategies and (post)feminism 100 Making out Crosbie's case 107 Mixed genres and challenging divisions 107 Criminal Fictions: reading the critics 115 Chapter Six Concluding: celebrity feminism/post feminism 122 Playing outside/staying inside 123 Feminism and the celebrity zone 134 Bibliography 138 Books and Articles 138 Newspapers and Magazines 155 Other media 161 JV Acknowledgments First thanks are owed to my supervisor, Professor Susan Boyd, whose unfailing support for her students and careful criticism makes her the perfect supervisor, and next thanks to my the second reader, Professor Marlee Kline, whose every comment made a difference. I would like to thank my colleagues in the 1997-1998 LLM Program at UBC, for their companionship and sharing of ideas, in particular Lyndsay Campbell, Karen Pearlston, Sundhya Pahuja, and David Hannigan, and also Professor Wes Pue, Director of Graduate Studies 1997-1998, and the unflappable Lillian Ong, who makes it all happen. I was only able to undertake this LLM because of the financial support of the Canadian Commonwealth Scholarship Scheme, and I would also like to acknowledge the financial support of the Faculty of Law and the Faculty of Graduate studies, who funded research expenses and conference travel. Finally, I would like to thank my family for their support which enabled me to travel overseas to study, and most especially Timothy Edmond, who never asked when I would be finished. Chapter One Introduction: from chronology to case study The making of mainstream public opinion is mainly a routinized affair, the business of pundits as opposed to lay citizens. Occasionally, however, something happens that explodes the circuits of professional opinion-making-as-usual and calls forth widespread and intense public debate. In such moments, something approaching mass participation crystallizes, and for a brief instant, at least, we can sense the possibility of robust political public debate. Yet the experience is characteristically mixed. Intimations of democracy are laced with demagoguery and exclusion, which the bright lights of hyperpublicity casts into stark relief. These moments can accordingly have great diagnostic value. They make starkly visible the structures of inequality and practices of power that deform public- opinion-making in ordinary times, less obtrusively but more systematically.1 A popular trial is an ideological trial.2 a chronology3 First get your facts straight, then plunge at your peril into the shifting sands of interpretation.4 May 4, 1987 - April Paul Bernardo commits a series of sexual assaults against women in 6, 1991 and around Scarborough, Ontario. 1 Nancy Fraser, "Sex, Lies and the Public Sphere: Reflections on the Confirmation of Clarence Thomas" in Justice Interruptus: Critical Reflections on the 'Postsocialist' Condition (New York: Routledge 1997) at 99. 2 Barry Brummett, "Mediating the Laws: Popular Trials and the Mass Media", in Robert Hariman (ed), Popular Trials: Rhetoric, Mass Media and the Law (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press 1990) at 179. 3 This chronology is an edited version of a chronology from "The Galligan Report": Report to the Attorney General of Ontario on Certain Matters Relating to Karla Homolka (Toronto: Ministry of Justice 1996), though some dates of publications, and of events that occurred after this report was published, have been added. "The Galligan Report" presents this chronology as part of its description of the facts of the case. The selection of these facts is discussed briefly below at p 10. 4 Edward Hallet Carr, "The Historian and His Facts", What is History? (Harmondsworth: Penguin Books 1983) at 10. 1 October 17, 1987 Karla Homolka and Bernardo meet in the restaurant of a hotel in Scarborough. Summer, 1989 Homolka meets Jane Doe (13 years old) at the pet store where Homolka is employed and they become friends. December 5, 1989 Homolka starts working at the Martindale Animal Clinic where she becomes acquainted with Halothane and triazolam (powerful anaesthetics). December 24, 1989 Homolka and Bernardo become engaged to be married and later fix their wedding date for June 29, 1991. May 28, 1990 Composite likeness of the Scarborough rapist begins appearing in Toronto press; it bears a striking resemblance to Bernardo. Autumn, 1990 Bernardo tells Homolka that he wants to have sex with her younger sister, Tammy Homolka; discussions ensue about obtaining drugs to facilitate that act. November 20, 1990 At the request of the Metro Police, Bernardo comes to police headquarters where he is interviewed in respect to the Scarborough rapes; he voluntarily provides saliva, blood and hair to the police. That evening, Bernardo tells Homolka about his interview, but assures her that he is not the Scarborough rapist. December, 1990 Homolka obtains Halcion and Halothane. December 23 - 24, Bernardo and Homolka drug and sexually assault Tammy Homolka; 1990 she dies but her death is found by the coroner to have been accidental. No charges are laid against Bernardo or Homolka. December 27, 1990 Funeral services are conducted for Tammy Homolka.