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It came as no surprise to see the John Howard and Elizabeth Fry societies going to bat for Karla Homolka. If there’s someone in jail, chances are good they’ll argue she shouldn’t be in there; and if she has served her sentence, it’s a sure thing that they’ll argue she should be left alone.

“She got a sentence, she did her time and there’s no reason to believe that she has not been rehabilitated,” Catherine Latimer, executive director at John Howard, told The Canadian Press (CP). “The question is whether or not she’ll get a chance to be reintegrated.”

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Kim Pate, her counterpart at Elizabeth Fry, told CP she understood why residents of Châteauguay, on Montreal’s South Shore, where Homolka was this week revealed to be living, were perplexed. But, she asked: “Is it based on myths and stereotypes or is it based on real risk?”

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She noted, as paraphrased by CP, that “sex crimes are most likely to be committed by a family member or acquaintance,” which is true. We could ask Tammy Homolka about that, had she not choked to death on vomit while suffering the effects of alcohol, sleeping pills and veterinary anaesthetic administered by her older sister, Karla, in order that Karla’s husband, Paul Bernardo, could savagely rape her.