Convicted killer and serial rapist Paul Bernardo will seek parole next month, marking his fourth attempt to secure release in eight years.

Bernardo is serving an indeterminate life sentence for the kidnappings, sexual assaults and murders of 14-year-old Leslie Mahaffy and 15-year-old Kristen French in the early 1990s. He was also designated a dangerous offender.

He was denied parole in October 2018, June 2021 and November 2024. Despite those repeated rejections, Bernardo will return before the Parole Board of Canada in October.

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Tim Danson, the lawyer representing the Mahaffy and French families, is calling for longer intervals between parole hearings for dangerous offenders who have shown no meaningful change.

Danson has previously recommended hearings be held every five to seven years after an offender’s initial applications are rejected. An earlier hearing could still be requested if prison officials identified a significant change in the offender’s circumstances or rehabilitation.

“Every time we get ready for a parole hearing, it is gut-wrenching for the families,” Danson told a House of Commons committee in 2023.

Bernardo was controversially transferred from the maximum-security Millhaven Institution in Ontario to the medium-security La Macaza Institution in Quebec in 2023. A Correctional Service Canada review later defended the transfer as compliant with federal policy.

The families have repeatedly opposed Bernardo’s release and maintain he must remain behind bars and pay for his crimes.

Under the current process, they must continually prepare new victim statements and participate in hearings to oppose the release of a man repeatedly assessed as posing an unacceptable risk to the public.